Four Tops ( The ) - I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)

First performance: 17/01/1990


Coverinfo

Bruce performed the song only once:
 
 
1990-01-17 Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, NY 
  
Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame all-star jam. Bruce shares lead vocals on "Long Tall Sally" with John Fogerty, and plays guitar and sings backing vocals on the rest of the songs. Inducted into the Hall Of Fame are Hank Ballard, Bobby Darin, The Four Seasons, Four Tops, The Kinks, The Platters, Simon & Garfunkel, and The Who. 
 
Pro-shot video available. Audio of "Substitute", "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Pinball Wizard", and "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite" was officially released in 2011 on the compilation album Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Vol. 1: 1986-1991 (Live), and video of "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)", Substitute", "Won't Get Fooled Again", and "Pinball Wizard" is available on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Live DVD. 
 
 
 

Songinfo

"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" is a 1965 hit song recorded by the Four Tops for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song is one of the most well-known Motown tunes of the 1960s. The song finds lead singer Levi Stubbs, assisted by the other three Tops and The Andantes, pleadingly professing his love to a woman: "Sugar pie, honey bunch/I'm weaker than a man should be!/Can't help myself/I'm a fool in love, you see." The melodic and chordal progressions are very similar to the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go". The Four Tops themselves recorded a special Italian language version, entitled Piangono gli uomini (The men cry).
 
 
  

Bruce on the artist

2023-10-09 SiriusXM Studio, New York City, NY
Bruce played the song during The 'From My Home to Yours' series, returning for the first time since 2021, with Episode 30, featuring Bruce and high school friends and surviving members of the early Freehold rock and roll scene Craig Caprioni, Mike Domanski, Donnie Powell, and Mike Wilson discussing the music they listened to in those mid-'60s days. 
 
 
In the BBC serie "desert Island discs " Bruce mentions "The Four Tops" as one of the songs he would bring to a desert Island : Baby I Need Your Loving (1964):
   
Bruce on the four tops : 
"I had to have some Motown because Motown was an incredible part of my youth. Also, if you wanted to know how to write, how to structure successful pop records, you could learn it all from Motown. The sound of the band, the importance of a great singer. Motown was the school where you wanted to go to learn your craft."
 

Lyrics

Sugar pie, honey bunch
You know that I love you
I can't help myself
I love you and nobody else
In and out my life
You come and you go
Leaving just your picture behind
And I kissed it a thousand times
When you snap your finger or wink your eye
I come a-running to you
I'm tied to your apron strings
And there's nothing that I can do
Can't help myself
No, I can't help myself
Sugar pie, honey bunch (Sugar pie, honey bunch)
I'm weaker than a man should be
I can't help myself
I'm a fool in love you see
Wanna tell you I don't love you
Tell you that we're through
And I've tried but every time I see your face
I get all choked up inside
When I call your name
Girl, it starts the flame
Burning in my heart, tearing it all apart
No matter how I try, my love I cannot hide
'Cause sugar pie, honey bunch (Sugar pie, honey bunch)
You know that I'm weak for you
Can't help myself
I love you and nobody else
Sugar pie, honey bunch (Sugar pie, honey bunch)
Do anything you ask me to
Can't help myself
I want you and nobody else
Sugar pie, honey bunch (Sugar pie, honey bunch)
You know that I love you
I can't help myself
No, I can't help myself
Sugar pie, honey bunch