"Your Old Standby" is a song written by Motown songwriters Smokey Robinson

Smokey Robinson

William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...

 and Janie Bradford

Janie Bradford

Janie Bradford is an American songwriter, most known for her tenure with Motown. With Berry Gordy, she co-wrote "Money ", originally recorded by Barrett Strong and used by The Beatles on their second album With The Beatles...

 and released as a single by Motown star Mary Wells

Mary Wells

Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...

 in 1963. The record marked her third top forty pop single to come out in 1963.

Song information

In the song, the narrator opens up about a man who is still in a troubling relationship with one woman while having a relationship with another woman. The other woman struggles to comprehend why her lover refuses to leave his past flame so she could "be with him permanently" as she puts it in the end.

Chart status

After the successful but modest response to "Laughing Boy

Laughing Boy (song)

"Laughing Boy" is a song written and produced by Smokey Robinson and recorded and released as a single by early Motown star Mary Wells in 1963. The single is notable for being the song to break a consecutive streak of top ten hits Wells had scored between mid-1962 and early-1963.-Song...

", this song was rushed trying to compete with that record's top 15 peak. However, this song got as high as number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. Wells' next Robinson-penned hit, "What's So Easy for Two is Hard for One" would fare better for Wells.

Personnel

• Lead vocal by Mary Wells
  Mary Wells
  Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...
  
  
• Background vocals by The Andantes
  The Andantes
  The Andantes were a prolific female sessions group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Stevie...
  
  
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
  The Funk Brothers
  The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown Records recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972...