(You Can't Let The Boy Overpower) The Man In You

Album

Single

Label

Tamla

Genre

Rhythm & Blues

Media Type

45

Duration

2:45

Composer(s)

William "Smokey" Robinson

Entered Chart

Mar 7, 1964

Peak Date

Apr 4, 1964

Released

January 13, 1964

Recorded

August 17, 1963

Catalog #

Tamla 54092

B-Side

Heartbreak Road

"(You Can't Let the Boy Overpower) The Man in You" is a 1964 R&B song by the Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla subsidiary label. It was written by Miracles lead singer Bill "Smokey" Robinson, and was produced by Robinson and Motown president/founder Berry Gordy Jr. One of several gospel-styled call and response tunes the group issued in 1964, this song reached number 59 [1] on the Billboard Pop chart, and the top 20 of the Cash Box R&B chart, peaking at number 12. (Billboard had temporarily suspended its R&B chart during this time.) The song was recorded on August 17, 1963, and was the group's first single release of 1964. After the million-selling success of their hit "Shop Around", Smokey and the other Miracles (Bobby Rogers, wife Claudette Robinson, Pete Moore, Ronnie White, and Marv Tarplin) recorded several tunes between 1961 and 1964, with the main theme centering on "parental advice". In this song, it is the father who is giving pearls of wisdom, advising Smokey, as the song's narrator, about the importance of "being a man", being loyal, and treating your wife or girlfriend right, despite the fact that every man has "a boy in his heart" that would lead him to do otherwise."(You Can't Let the Boy Overpower) The Man in You'. Cash Box described it as "an infectious shuffle-rock affair that could take off in no time flat."[2] This song was not one of the group's more successful singles, and did not appear on any original Miracles studio album, not even making the group's first greatest hits album, The Miracles' Greatest Hits from the Beginning, but, since then, has appeared on several Miracles "Greatest Hits" CD compilations, including the group's 4-CD 35th Anniversary Collection, and has spawned a cover version by Chuck Jackson. The song's "B" side was the popular "Heartbreak Road".

[Verse 1]
No don't you know my daddy told me
Told me right from the start
About youth
He said no matter how old a man is
He's partly a boy in his heart
Yeah, and that's the truth

[Chorus]
He said you'd be surprised by the things you do now
That you're still gonna do
Oh, but you will
Like when it comes to the way
You treat your woman
You can't let the boy overpower the man in you

[Verse 2]
Oh, let me tell you that
Every man, has to understand
That you can go out with the fellas
But if the boy in ya tells ya, stay late
Yeah, late at night
You know that if you stop to think about it
The man in you is gonna say when
'Cause it isn't right
[Chorus]
Oh, you'd be surprised by the things
That a man who loves his woman, won't do
Oh, but you will
'Cause when it comes to the way
You treat your woman
You can't let the boy overpower the man in you

[Verse 3]
Just one more thing now that
All guys gotta realize
That they are many pretty women
But if a boy ever looks their way, yeah
And winks an eye
You know that if you stop to think about it
The man in you is gonna feel bad
Come on and pass them by

[Chorus]
Oh, you'd be surprised by the girls
Who walk on over at you too
Oh, but you will
But when it comes to the way
That you treat your woman
You can't let the boy overpower the man in you
You know, you know, you know you can't
No no, the man in you