Fantasia - My Guy - Motown 60 A Grammy Celebration - 2019

"My Guy" is a 1964 hit single recorded by Mary Wells for the Motown label. Written and produced by Smokey Robinson of The Miracles, the song is a woman's rejection of a sexual advance and affirmation of her fidelity to her boyfriend, who is her ideal and with whom she is happy, despite his ordinary physique and looks. ("There's not a man today who could take me away from my guy"
"My Guy" has three times returned to the Billboard Hot 100; first as rendered by Petula Clark whose rendition featured on her 1971 album Now peaked at #70 crossing over from the Easy Listening chart where it reached #12. In 1980, Amii Stewart and Johnny Bristol recorded a medley of "My Guy" and another Motown classic, the Temptations' "My Girl": "My Guy - My Girl (Medley)" peaked at #63 in the U.S., #76 R&B, and #39 in the UK. The track was reissued in 1986 with Bristol's vocal being replaced by Deon Estus: this version reached #63 in the UK. Sister Sledge remade "My Guy" for their 1982 self-produced album The Sisters: Kathy Sledge, the group's usual lead singer, would recall - "I had very little input [into the album], but I did push for 'My Guy'."[16] Issued as the album's lead single, "My Guy" afforded Sister Sledge their third Top 40 hit although with a #23 peak its chart impact was well below that of the group's precedent hits "He's the Greatest Dancer" and "We Are Family" (both 1979), which had respective chart peaks of #9 and #2. "My Guy" also afforded Sister Sledge a fifth and final Top 20 R&B hit on the R&B chart, peaking at #14. The Sister Sledge version of "My Guy" had its strongest impact on the Easy Listening chart where it rose as high as #2. Sister Sledge performed "My Guy" on the episode of the CBS-TV sitcom The Jeffersons entitled "My Guy, George", taped 17 January 1984 and broadcast 4 March 1984. In the guise of struggling musical act the Satin Sisters, Sister Sledge wooed George Jefferson to act as their manager by singing him an a cappella rendition of "My Guy" with the lyrics modified to flatter Jefferson.

"My Guy" has twice reached the C&W chart in renderings by Lynda K Lance (#46 C&W, 1971) and by Margo Smith (#43 C&W, 1980).

The song has also been recorded by Lucia Altieri (it) (rendered in Italian as "Non ti scuso piu"), Aretha Franklin, Nancy Holloway (fr) (rendered in French as "Bye Bye"), Claudine Longet, Barbara McNair, Melba Moore, Dara Sedaka, and Helen Shapiro. Mary Wells herself re-recorded the song in a funk rendition for her 1984 album, I'm a Lady.

More than via any straightforward remake, "My Guy" has had its highest profile since the Mary Wells original through its appearance on the soundtrack of the Whoopi Goldberg film Sister Act (1992) in a rendition that substitutes "My Guy" with "My God", transforming the song into a faux-gospel number.

In 1999, "My Guy" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[citation needed]

In 2008, the Los Angeles-based rock group Warpaint performed a version of the song on their EP Exquisite Corpse