Your Heart Belongs to Me

Infobox Single
Name = Your Heart Belongs to Me
Artist = The Supremes


from Album = Meet the Supremes
B-side = "(He's) Seventeen"
Format = 7" single
Released = May 8, 1962
Recorded = Hitsville USA (Studio A); 1962
Genre = Soul
Length = 2:37
Label = Motown
M 1027
Writer = Smokey Robinson
Producer = Smokey Robinson
Last single = "Buttered Popcorn"
(1961)
This single = "Your Heart Belongs to Me"
(1962)
Next single = "Let Me Go the Right Way"
(1962)

"Your Heart Belongs to Me" is a 1962 song written and composed by The Miracles' William "Smokey" Robinson and released as a single by Motown singing group The Supremes during their early years with the label. The song is about a woman whose lover is in the armed forces and has "Gone to a far-away land"; its narration has her tell him to always remember their love for each other if he ever gets lonely. Recorded at a time when Mary Wells and The Marvelettes were the dominant female recording acts of the label, the Supremes had struggled to release singles with Supremes members Florence Ballard, Diana Ross and Mary Wilson switching lead vocal spots. After the failure of their first single, "I Want a Guy" with Ross in the lead, their second single, the Ballard-led "Buttered Popcorn", also failed to chart. Wilson's leads, meanwhile, had not been released on any Motown singles. For this record, Smokey Robinson decided to use Ross for lead vocals for the song. It would prove to be a modest success as the song became the Supremes' first charted hit at number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart on the Hot R&B Sides chart. After this record, fourth member Barbara Martin left the group to start a family leaving Ross, Ballard and Wilson as a trio from then on. Inspired by its modest charting, Berry Gordy would eventually make Ross the sole lead vocalist for the group.

tyle

For this song, Smokey Robinson, who was the sole songwriter and producer for Mary Wells during her Motown tenure, used the exact same music style that he used with Mary Wells in a few of the several hits he wrote for her, including, The One Who Really Loves You, You Beat Me to the Punch, Two Lovers and "Laughing Boy".

Credits

*Lead vocals by Diana Ross
*Background vocals by Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Barbara Martin
*Produced and written by Smokey Robinson
*Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers

References