"I've Passed This Way Before" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Cover of the single released in the Netherlands | ||||
Single by Jimmy Ruffin | ||||
from the album Jimmy Ruffin Sings Top Ten | ||||
B-side | "Tomorrow's Tears" | |||
Released | November 15, 1966 | |||
Recorded | September–October 1966 | |||
Studio | Hitsville U.S.A., Detroit, Michigan | |||
Genre | Soul | |||
Length | 2:46 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) |
| |||
Jimmy Ruffin singles chronology | ||||
|
"I've Passed This Way Before" is a song by American soul singer Jimmy Ruffin, released as a single in November 1966 from his album Jimmy Ruffin Sings Top Ten. It peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 29 on the UK Singles Chart. [1] [2]
"I've Passed This Way Before" was recorded in September and October 1966 at Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. studio. [3] It was released in the US on November 15, 1966, and in the UK on February 3, 1967, on the back of the top-ten hit "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted". It was not as successful as Ruffin's previous single, but was a top-twenty hit in the US and top-thirty in the UK. [1] [2] The single was re-released in the UK on 4 July 1969 as an edited version, removing the spoken intro. This led Ruffin to have a revival in popularity in the UK, and went on to have three top-ten singles in 1970, "Farewell Is a Lonely Sound", "I'll Say Forever My Love" and "It's Wonderful (To Be Loved by You)". [2]
When the single was re-released, Ruffin went on a three-week British tour. Motown was having a revival in the UK and Ruffin hadn't had much success in the previous few years. In an interview in Melody Maker , he said that in the US the label "keep putting me in the R&B thing and the public don't like it. The material is good, it's just that the public don't dig me doing it. R&B isn't the hot thing anymore, there's been such a lot of it in the past two years". [4]
Billboard wrote that "Ruffin has even more potential in this rocking blues belter" than "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted". [5] Reviewed in Cash Box , it was described as a "dynamite effort" and that "the throbbing, infectious soul grabbing sound backs Ruffin’s lovely chanting". [6] However, reviewing for Record Mirror , Peter Jones wrote that it "wasn't as good as "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted", but it builds into a sturdy Tamla typified number". [7]
Chart (1966–67) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report) | 30 |
Canada Top Singles ( RPM ) [8] | 8 |
Canada (CHUM) [9] | 7 |
UK Singles (OCC) [2] | 29 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [1] | 17 |
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ( Billboard ) [10] | 10 |
US Cash Box Top 100 [11] | 17 |
US Cash Box Top R&B 50 [12] | 7 |
Chart (1969) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Singles (OCC) [2] | 33 |