Saw Manfred Mann on my 14th birthday in 1964. Did over 2 hours in the days when most groups did about 20 minutes. Paul Jones was an excellent singer of blues numbers and still is. If Brian Jones had got his way Paul Jones would have been the Stones singer.
You should have heard him live singing blues songs like Watermelon Man. Funny to think when Brian Jones asked him to form a band with him he was at Oxford and replied, "Come on, Brian. No one will ever make a living out of performing blues songs" Later, after the Stones had an audition and he heard that the record executives weren't keen on the ugly singer Brian Jones tried to engineer Jagger's departure hoping to replace him with Paul Jones.
The Miracles recorded it first. Berry Gordy vetoed its release as a single and it was later put on an album. Margin Gaye recorded the second version of it and again Gordy vetoed its release. He did approve of the Gladys Knight version and that became the first single of the song released. It was put on a Marvin Gaye album and proved so popular when played on the radio was released as a single and became the biggest selling version of it. Once made the mistake of getting into a bet with Curtis Woodhouse's uncle on this. Should have known better as he was a DJ. Was unaware that the Miracles had done the first recording until he showed me the evidence as he held his hand out for his winnings.
