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Post by janebse on Apr 9, 2003 12:41:56 GMT -5
While the writing credit for this version of the tune has stuck with David, he was actually covering a #1 country hit by Jack Greene, originally released in the sixties. It was written by Jan Crutchfield. Whether Ruffin identified with the tune, changed a few words and took credit or this was a Jobete clerical error - which was mistakenly repeated in Ruffin collections - don't know.
this message was a post in another board.
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Post by Peach on Apr 9, 2003 12:47:54 GMT -5
If it was a clerical error, then David believed it. Didn't he say on the "Dancing in the Streets" video that he wrote this song "when he was 18." I wish this mystery could be solved.....I wish David was alive to explain.  Peach |
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Post by curet30 on Apr 9, 2003 14:18:46 GMT -5
Hi Janebse, I heard the country version by a group that opened up for us. The melody was similar but the lyrics didn't seem quite the same. That was the only time I heard that version. On David Ruffin, I remember hearing NYC DJ Felix Hernandez mention that David wrote the song back in the 1950's. Maybe Jonel can get the answer for us?  curet30 - mypages.netopia.com/channels |
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Post by MikeNYC on May 3, 2003 20:46:53 GMT -5
:sleepy: :bonk: :sleepy:
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Post by KEEKS on May 6, 2003 10:45:21 GMT -5
Shouts out to the truth man!!!!  |
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Post by Peach on May 6, 2003 10:55:02 GMT -5
Was Mike sleeping because he's sitting on the truth!?  Peach |
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Post by selfishreasons on May 7, 2003 11:16:32 GMT -5
Oh, my gosh. David didn't write that song? hmmm.
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Post by MikeNYC on May 9, 2003 12:43:06 GMT -5
Oh, my gosh. David didn't write that song? hmmm. Says who?  |
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Post by AKA THE FUF on May 10, 2003 14:35:24 GMT -5
That is a heart felt song that David put his soul into. I wish The Temptations with him at lead would have sung that song. I've always loved that record.
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Post by selfishreasons on May 10, 2003 16:14:30 GMT -5
You are right about that. David with the Tempts on that would have made that song sweeter than it already was. And the song is too sweet.
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Post by Davidfan on Oct 14, 2004 1:50:52 GMT -5
Sorry to reopen this thread, But if David wrote it ... It was in 1958 BEFORE the hit came out, And Cruthfeild wrote NAME IT AFTER ME, Not Statue of a fool  ... Me and some friends on another board came to a couple theories ... Like: A young David Ruffin JUST starting out in the music business is strapped for cash ... So he sells a song he wrote for a little money. The buyer Changes the title, Gives it to an artist and records a hit. David almost 15 years later has made his mark on the music world, and records the song HE wrote, And finally starts taking what was his. But Like I said ... Just a theory ;D;D;D |
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Post by kalisa2 on Oct 14, 2004 8:48:22 GMT -5
Sorry to reopen this thread, But if David wrote it ... It was in 1958 BEFORE the hit came out, And Cruthfeild wrote NAME IT AFTER ME, Not Statue of a fool ... Me and some friends on another board came to a couple theories ... Like: A young David Ruffin JUST starting out in the music business is strapped for cash ... So he sells a song he wrote for a little money. The buyer Changes the title, Gives it to an artist and records a hit. David almost 15 years later has made his mark on the music world, and records the song HE wrote, And finally starts taking what was his. But Like I said ... Just a theory ;D;D;D No problem about reopening the thread, DFan...the subject still fascinates me  . I think we recently had even another thread going about it. I think your theory is about as good as any going, and I've wondered myself if something like that happened. There are a couple things against it, for debate purposes only. 1) Jan Crutchfield was only about 3 years older than David, and at the time was making approx. $100 a week and starting a family. So when you say "a little money", you would have to mean exactly that (although $100 went further in 1958 than it does now by a LONG shot! ) . 2) To me this is the biggie..."Statue" has been taught on a college campus as "the perfect song"...Jan Crutchfield had a whole career as a successful songwriter with many songs to his credit, recorded by different artists. Do we believe that the real writer of a "perfect song" had only that one song in him? We have no evidence that David wrote anything else, ever. 3) Strapped for cash or not, why would David be selling his song in a Country venue like Nashville? To an also-strapped-for-cash country songwriter? We'll probably never know for sure the answers to these questions  , but (to me) it IS interesting to speculate . I've heard/seen the rumors that David recorded it on a 78 (I think Genna said she saw it)...which proves (if true) only that David recorded it. But keep the theories coming . Hey, before I knew that Jan was a "he", I had one possible theory that "she" might've stole it off the nightstand after an 'encounter' ;D ;D . I really want David to have written the song! |
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Post by Davidfan on Oct 15, 2004 14:38:27 GMT -5
No problem about reopening the thread, DFan...the subject still fascinates me . I think we recently had even another thread going about it. I think your theory is about as good as any going, and I've wondered myself if something like that happened. There are a couple things against it, for debate purposes only. 1) Jan Crutchfield was only about 3 years older than David, and at the time was making approx. $100 a week and starting a family. So when you say "a little money", you would have to mean exactly that (although $100 went further in 1958 than it does now by a LONG shot! ) . 2) To me this is the biggie..."Statue" has been taught on a college campus as "the perfect song"...Jan Crutchfield had a whole career as a successful songwriter with many songs to his credit, recorded by different artists. Do we believe that the real writer of a "perfect song" had only that one song in him? We have no evidence that David wrote anything else, ever. 3) Strapped for cash or not, why would David be selling his song in a Country venue like Nashville? To an also-strapped-for-cash country songwriter? We'll probably never know for sure the answers to these questions , but (to me) it IS interesting to speculate . I've heard/seen the rumors that David recorded it on a 78 (I think Genna said she saw it)...which proves (if true) only that David recorded it. But keep the theories coming . Hey, before I knew that Jan was a "he", I had one possible theory that "she" might've stole it off the nightstand after an 'encounter' ;D ;D . I really want David to have written the song! 2: Actually in the COPYRIGHT DATA BASE it has david as a Co-writter on some songs ... And any song that makes the top 100 is perfect 3: Whose to say he knew it was gonna be country? Like you said $100 went further back then ... What was a new house $4,000 if that? David woulda been good for awhile ... and maybe he didn't expect the song to be that big ;D I've heard it is on a 78 to ... or maybe I heard 45 ... But I know I heard it was recorded BEFORE the country one ;D ... (I didn't hear it from Geana though ... I heard from her: CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ... lol ;D |
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Post by kalisa2 on Oct 15, 2004 18:42:20 GMT -5
3: Whose to say he knew it was gonna be country? Like you said $100 went further back then ... What was a new house $4,000 if that? David woulda been good for awhile ... and maybe he didn't expect the song to be that big ;D The place where David MIGHT have encountered Jan Crutchfield to sell him the song would have been Nashville. That's where Crutchfield was during those years. That's Country with a Capital C. Crutchfield did spend some time in Memphis, but he was still mainly a Country song-writer, which is why he headed for Nashville to ply his trade. So I still wonder why David would be trying to pawn or sell his song to a white country song-writer, one who was just beginning. Why not go to a publishing company or recording executive or someone at the top who had some real money to spare? In the social climate of the south in those days, him happening across Jan Crutchfield to sell him the song just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me...though I suppose it could have happened. Crutchfield says he spent a lot of time hanging in bars in Nashville in his early days. As to the recording, be it 45 or 78 (I did hear 78, which is *possible* though not probable, 78's weren't being used much if at all at that time), still doesn't PROVE he wrote it. Crutchfield claims he wrote it several years before it became a hit, it could have been recorded more than once before the right singer/arranger/producer came along to carry it to the top. OK, maybe David was given some partial writing credit on some songs, I'll take your word about the copyright database. Now, David and all of them knew that the real money was in songwriting and publishing. Once he got beyond the clutches of Motown's restrictions, it just seems if he had the true gift of songwriting in him, he would have published and/or recorded something more that we would know about. |
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Post by Davidfan on Oct 15, 2004 19:15:03 GMT -5
LOL ... There are 34 David Ruffin songs in the data base ... But only 29 are his ... 5 are David Juniors ;D
But still david has 29 CO-writting credits ... And some of those he is only the ARTIST ... so about 15-20 songs are actually PART PENNED by David ;D
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. I think we recently had even another thread going about it.