I'm a sucker for that late 60's/early's Norman Whitfield written, funky Motown productions. It seems as though there were a handful of bands that overlapped when recording Whitfield's tunes. As has been well-written, Whitfield's songs became more political in nature while nearing the end of the sixties, which came out in both the lyrics and the increasing funkiness of the music. Here are a few bands that successfully recorded "Smiling Faces Sometimes", one of my favorite Whitfield tunes.
Starting with The Undisputed Truth (the first of the Motown groups to record the track)
Next, with the funky-rock group Rare Earth:
Of course, The Temptations were one of Motown favs, and recorded many of Whitfields' songs (taken off of one of my favorite albums of theirs, Sky's The Limit:
Lastly, a little more obscure version by a band formed in the army in the early 70's, East of Underground. Highly recommended album--extremely funky and quite unlike anything I would ever except a group of military dudes to sound like:
I'd have to go with The Tempts version as my favorite, but it terms are sheer funkiness, East of Underground takes the cake.
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