By Bob Berry

I’m “..not too proud to shout it, tell the world about it..”, “This Old Heart of Mine” is one of the Motown copyrights I truly love.

Written by Holland-Dozier-Holland, with Sylvia Moy ( co-writer of Uptight, I Was Made To Love Her, It Takes Two and others), there’s just something about that song.

The original version, by The Isley Brothers, had me cranking up Keener while driving down 13 Mile Road. Two and a half decades later, driving around West Michigan, the car radio was just as loud for Rod Stewart’s “This Old Heart”!

But for the life of me, I can’t tell you which is my favorite. Thus a Keener Friday Song “Double Shot”.

Released in the January of 1966, “This Old Heart Of Mine” gave The Isleys their only major hit for Motown, going straight to the Top Ten. Give another listen to a stellar lead vocal by Ronnie Isley, backed by one of the classic tracks of The Funk Brothers (and the DSO strings!)

Some 23 years later, Rod Stewart released his second version (a previous single in ’75 got minor airplay) of “This Old Heart”, and this time he brought in the big gun, Ronnie Isley! The R&R duet, produced by Bernard Edwards of Chic and Trevor Horn (Yes, The Buggles), went Top Ten in the summer of 1989, and proved that Ronnie Isley had lost nothing ‘off his fastball”.