Inside Tracks #28: "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love"-Melvin & Mervin Steals: Spinners, 1972 w/Covers by Donny Osmond, Worlds Apart, Boyz II Men, Vesta Williams, Paul Stanley
A hat-tip to the new 2023 Rock'n'Roll Hall of Famers with a song written by the Steals twins. With over 30 covers over the decades, "Could It Be" it's enjoyed a wide variety of arrangements?
βCould It Be Iβm Falling In Loveβ quickly followed the Fall 1972 release of βIβll Be Around,β which peaked at #3 on the U.S. pop chart, despite originally being a B-side! When DJs started flipping βHow Could I Let You Get Away,β Atlantic Records re-serviced radio with what turned out to be the groupβs first of seven career Gold records, covered in-depth here:
Their second, βCould It Be Iβm Falling in Loveβ (recorded on June 12, 1972), released 5 months later on the vinyl heels of βIβll Be Aroundβ in November β72, climbed its way to βjustβ #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, but hitting the top spot on the U.S. R&B chart (#11 on the UK pop chart)!
βCould It Be Iβm Falling in Loveβ was written by twins from Aliquippa, PA, Melvin Steals and Mervin Steals, also known (and credited on the label) as βMystro and Lyric,β according to Songfacts. Theyβve written over 300 songs; 90 have been recorded.
While working for Atlantic Records in 1972, the Stealsβ co-wrote βCould It Be Iβm Falling in Love,β pitching it to The Spinnersβ producer, the late Thom Bell, who thought it would be perfect for the group. It was inspired by childhood sweetheart, Adrena, whom Melvin (aka βLyricβ) dated as a teenager and married.
The song has sold well over a million copies, and logged well over 4 million radio spins! Other Steals compositions include βTrusting Heartβ by The Trammps and βHoney Beeβ by Gloria Gaynor.β
A Song is Born
Philadelphia-based songwriters/producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff conducted weekly auditions in their offices for aspiring songwriters in the early β70s. On one particular Saturday, two financially strapped 22-year-old Beaver County twins walked through the door, according to the January 19, 2013 Timesonline.
ββThey were lucky the meeting happened,β recalled Mervin, the musical βMystroβ of the duo. When we got off the subway in Philly, we looked like two derelicts,β Mervin said. βA policeman followed us all the way to Gamble and Huffβs office. I think he thought we were going to rob somebody!β
βGrungy or not, the Stealsβ impressed Gamble and Huff, who put them to work writing songs for [Houstonβs] Archie Bell & the Drells who had just topped the charts with βTighten Up.β Melvin was the wordsmith; Mervin crafted the melodies on piano.
βOn a scouting tour to a Pittsburgh studio, Gamble and Huff associate, Thom Bell, heard a batch of seven songs by the Stealsβ that he liked, and agreed to find artists to record them. One of those songs was βHoney Bee,β that became a successful single in 1974 for future disco star, Gloria Gaynor.
βAnother of those songs, βCould It Be Iβm Falling in Love,β would be pitched to Peaches & Herb, who rejected it. The Stealsβ then hoped to shop it to Marvin Gaye and his protegΓ©, Tammi Terrell, whom the brothers had befriended, but the Motown hierarchy made it tricky for two little-known songwriters to formally submit such a song.
βAtlantic Records had hired Bell as a producer, and gave him a list of artists he could work with, including The Spinners, who needed a follow-up hit to their 1970 Top-20, Stevie Wonder-penned [and produced] βItβs a Shame.β Meeting with The Spinners in their Detroit hometown, Bell offered βCould It Be Iβm Falling in Love,β which the band agreed to record.
βBut the song needed tweaking: Melvin originally penned the lyrics as a duet. The Spinners needed lyrics from a singular point of view. So Melvin went back to the drawing board, crafting lyrical lines inspired by his experiences years earlier courting Adrena. Bell also came up with the idea to slow down the melody, giving it more of an Al Green feel.β Masters at work.
βWhat if the article was staged like a show?β
A) The Overture (circa 2004)
B) The classic performance: The Midnight Special, 1973, singing and dancing to studio track. The good news? Open mics! Hear the handclaps and harmonies, LIVE!
C) November 2023, New Edition and their musical tribute to new RockβnβRoll Hall of Fame inductees, The Spinners:
Under the Covers
βCould It Be Iβm Falling in Loveβ has been recorded by just over 30 artists since The Spinners premiered it in late β72. Weβll feature just a few, here:
Grant & Graham, 1985
The first notable cover emerged in 1985, with a fairly faithful duet by David Grant and Jaki Graham (Capitol Records in Canada and U.S., Chrysalis worldwide; produced by Derek Bramble, who co-produced David Bowieβs 1984 Tonight album). This is the first time we get to hear the song as Melvin and his lyrics had originally intended. Youβll remember, he had to go βback to the drawing board,β as proposed pitches to Peaches & Herb and Marvin and Tammi didnβt pan out.
Grant and Graham recorded two versions, but add tasteful guitar, sax, and keyboard touches in both, with a less-smooth disco-oriented arrangement (and intrusive bongos) for the later one (sadly supplanting the tasteful strings and horns from their original with keyboard washes in the secondβ¦.below the video):
Worlds Apart, 1994
It had to happen: The inevitable boy band intrusion! Welcome, from the UK, Worlds Apart, a 5-piece assembled and signed in 1992 by a pre-American Idol/X Factor Simon Cowell (the group went through many line-up counts and changes over the years). However much of a hit (and they were) in their native country, they never obtained a recording deal in the U.S. (Arista Records in UK, EU, and Japan)! Generally, covers were their stock in trade.
Members: Steve Hart, Patric Osborne, Aaron Poole, Dan Bowyer and Schelim Hannan.
Good news/bad newsβ¦the bad news first: Their lead singer, Marcus Patrick (aka Patric Osborne), leaves a lot to be desired, vocally. His thin falsetto gets masked a bit, thankfully, in their studio recording, but live, his limitations are more noticeable (as Simonβwho took an Executive Producer credit on thisβis fond of saying, heβs a bit βpitchyβ).
Pitchiness, however, wasnβt the singerβs biggest problem when posing for Playgirl in 2007. As Patrick told Kam Williams in 2008, βI never did full-frontal nudity. We had a contract that stated no full-frontal. We were experimenting in the studio with silhouette shots, and they promised [my photo] would be blacked-out. Playgirl kind of breached [the contract] because they wanted to give the fans what they wanted. I just figured βWhat the heck? They probably did me a favor.ββ Those shots are discoverable online for the curious and those so inclinedβ¦β¦β¦Iβm told.
Top grades, however, for the ladsβ nimble choreography, harmonies, and their arrangement, which includes a creative break-down 3/4 through. Here they are, performing live on UKβs Top of the Pops:
The stellar studio recording (produced by Peter Schwier and Ricki Wilde, son of early-era UK hitmaker, Marty Wilde, and sister to β80s hitmaker, Kim Wilde), is more befitting a hit that got to #15 in the UK:
Donny Osmond, 2002
Straight-ahead arrangement by Donny (with stratospheric range on his falsetto) from his 2002 Somewhere in Time album, performed live in London the following year. The phrase βconsummate professionalβ applies: Donny, for this 2003 performance, was celebrating his 40th year as a stage performer! Not bad for a 46-year-old, here:
Vesta Williams, 2007
One of the more striking covers (and one of only four by solo females) was the one by the beautiful Vesta Williams, who died sadly early in 2011 at age 53, of hypertensive heart disease. Whereas the guys can sing βI donβt need all those things that used to bring me joy, βcause you make me such a happy boy,β as a gal, Vesta can address her beau with the line, βI donβt need all those thingsβ¦.βcause I make you such a happy boy.β A couple of the ladies simply change the βboyβ to βyouβve made me such a happy girl,β as the only alteration.
In 1995, Regina Belle dared to cleverly alter Melvin Stealsβ lyrics with her βI donβt need anything to fill up my world; you made me such a happy girlβ:
Boyz II Men, 2009
Performing what comes close to a public service with their 2009 recording, Boyz II Men give us what might happen if you time-travel The Spinners, and propel them the 37 years from β72 to β09! No doubt inspired by the Detroit quintet, the Philly BIIM stay respectfully true enough to the original, but fill in all the runs and vocal ad-libs youβd expect from many millennial artists. Imagine the new fans they turned on to The Spinners with this cover; album produced by Boyz II Men and Randy Jackson):
Paul Stanleyβs Soul Station, 2021
We probably come full-circle with this one: In 1970, Paul Stanley joined Gene Simmons in a band called Rainbow, which changed its name to Wicked Lester and recorded an unreleased album for Epic before breaking up. By this time, it was around 1972 (and Paul and Gene were busy answering a Rolling Stone ad placed by Peter Criss), about the time The Spinners released the song Paul recorded with his new 13-piece R&B outfit 50 years later!
A longtime fan of classic rockβnβroll and R&B, Paul steps out from behind his KISS greasepaint, and pays proper homage to his heroes. Here they are in February 2016 at The Rose in Pasadena, CA:
Donny Osmond?!?!?! Where do you FIND this stuff, Brad? π
This was great. I loved reading the story of the songwriters taking the subway in Philly and being followed by the police. I can see how/why they thought of Marvin Gaye, but it worked wonders with (and for!) the Spinners. Chuckled a bit with the Worlds Apart version π looked it up and saw the music video with a gorilla ππYouβve got to give it to the Brits for this uncanny ability to laugh at themselves. Kudos to you for packing all this info and so many details in such an accessible and entertaining format!