Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart

The Supremes had a "burning, yearning feelin'" inside them on their first hit, "Where Did Our Love Go." In this song, they've "been bit by the love bug," causing an itch in their hearts that drives them crazy in every way, shape and form because there's no way to scratch it. Both of these symptom-based songs were written by the Motown team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, the trio responsible for most of the group's output.

The lyrics border on parody, but Eddie Holland insisted they were grounded in real heartbreak, as both he and his brother Brian were going through some "heavy s--t" in their personal lives at the time. "The lyrics were coming from two broken hearts," he said. "Love isn't only yearning and burning in the heart, it's an itching that you can't make go away - it taunts you." He said the song is about "completely hopeless frustration."

This song was recorded in 1965 but was not released until a year later. Unlike most of the Supremes' hits which had light and airy feelings and were pop-styled, this song has a sound that had a more soulful and brassy feeling that was usually heard in the hits of Martha & the Vandellas and the Four Tops (interestingly, Martha & the Vandellas had a hit one year later that sounded more like a Supremes song: "Jimmy Mack").