GAYE Old Motown May (Marvin Gaye) Top Ten: Little Darling (I Need You) (#2)

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May is almost over, and that means that my month-long salute to Motown is about to end, too. I’m thinking about doing some bonus songs along with the next countdown. Meanwhile, here’s another song that you may know..... #2: Little Darling (I Need You) ....By someone else. The Doobie Brothers covered this on their 1977 album Livin’ on the Fault Line, which is where I first heard it. I have nothing bad to say about their cover. Michael McDonald has a fine voice for covering R&B tunes. But this is a Marvin Gaye salute, so let’s focus on that great original. You gotta love this song. It starts off like you’re in the middle of the song, with the opening line, “It’s so hard loving you but I just can’t let you go,” that doesn’t fit the structure of the verses (just the bridge). It’s maybe a ploy to get you to go, “Hey, where’s the start of the song?” And a little note: you may remember a few years ago when I counted down my favorite songwriters. I did it in terms of country, rock, and songwriting teams. Holland/Dozier/Holland was on that list. If you’ve noticed how many of these great tunes they wrote, you understand why. Little Darling (I Need You) Written by Holland/Dozier/Holland From Moods of Marvin Gaye, 1966 If I could be your number one fool: