I Can’t Help Myself – Four Tops | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Pop (#1 for 2 weeks) & R&B (#1 for 9 weeks); 1965
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
Of Motown’s five #1 singles in 1965, all but one were written and produced by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland. For many music lovers one – I Can’t Help Myself – epitomized the “Motown Sound.”
For the group that recorded it, the Four Tops, I Can’t Help Myself represented the culmination of a decade of near misses. By 1963, the quartet from Detroit had already recorded for a number of labels with no success.
Finally, Berry Gordy Jr. paid the Tops their $400 asking price and sent them into the recording studio, where they initially backed up other label artists such as The Supremes on When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes (#23; 1964).
Lamont Dozier built the Tops’ breakthrough single on the same chords H-D-H had used for Where Did Our Love Go, which hit #1 in 1964. Lightening struck again with I Can’t Help Myself which bumped another H-D-H Supremes’ disc, Back In My Arms Again, from the top slot.
This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- Brian Holland
- Lamont Dozier
- Eddie Holland
Lyrics Written by:
- Holland–Dozier–Holland
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).