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MOTOWN AND MORE
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MOTOWN MEMORIES - THE MARVELETTES
Gladys Horton, Georgeanna Tilman,
Wanda Rogers, and Katherine Anderson
Despite twenty-one R&B chart hits, twenty-three Pop hits, and Motown's first number one single, the Marvelettes were never the darlings of Motown that they aspired to be.
"They never really respected us. Berry Gordy lost the Marvelette name in a gambling game once, that's how much they cared about us. We were just nothing to them.".....Gladys Horton
Starting out 1961 as a quintet in rural Inkster, Michigan, the Marvelettes were leads Gladys Horton and Georgia Dobbins with Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, and Katherine Anderson.
While attending Inkster High, the five seventeen year olds entered the school's talent show where the first three prizes were auditions at Detroit's Motown Records. The girls then called the Marvels finished fourth ( though in a 1980 interview Horton said they came in first), but their teacher, Mrs. Sharpley, convinced the principal to let them go on the audition.
The Marvelettes' early influences were the Chantels and the Shirelles, so it was no surprise when they auditioned with "He's Gone" and "I Met Him On A Sunday."
Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson were impressed, but sent them home to come up with an original song. Having never written anything, Dobbins asked William Garnett, a songwriting friend, if he had anything. He showed here a blues song entitled "Please Mr. Postman." She then rewrote it keeping only the title. She then gave it to Horton to learn and then dropped out of the group to take care of her sick mother. The group then added Wanda Young, an Inkster graduate, and went back to Motown.
"Anyway we won first prize, but until we got to Motown, it still hadn't reached my mind how important it was. We met Berry Gordy and the Miracles, and it was then I realized the potential of this meeting. We began to picture ourselves like the Supremes, who were the company's girl group"
Gladys Horton
Gordy renamed them the Marvelettes and "Please Mr. Postman" on the Tamla label was released in the summer of 1961, around four months after the first single by Motown's other girl group, The Supremes.
On September fourth the song entered the Billboard charts and the R&B charts one week later. Slowly moving up the charts "Please Mr. Postman" it took fourteen weeks for it to finally reach the top spot.
The first number one came to easy for us. We weren't pretty city girls from the projects like Motown's other girl group, the Supremes. We had no experience of life at all. We were naive little country girls, and we didn't know how to handle the situation. We had no idea how to behave, we didn't know what to wear. we didn't even know how to put make up. We learnt as we went along, of course, but it was very hard at first." Gladys Horton
An immediate rivalry arose between the Supremes and the country girls from Inkster.
Record sleeves courtesy Third Sibling Enterprises
The Marvelettes' next song "Twistin' Mr. Postman had an heavily accented blues beat. It would ultimately reach number thirty-four Pop and number thirteen R&B. The group was becoming popular on tour, but underlying tensions and internal competition was taking their toll. The Marvelettes' next record "Playboy" was a hit reaching number seven Pop and number three R&B on June 23. The Supremes were still three weeks away with their first Pop charter "Your Heart Belongs To Me."
Next what was to become their most phone number in the country, Beachwood 4-5789 in the summer of 1962 (#17 Pop, #7 R&B). Then "Strange I know" reached number forty-one Pop and number ten R&B in early 1963., but the rest of the year was a disappointment with "Locking Up My Heart" doing the best (#44 Pop, #25 R&B).
By 1965 the group was having hits again with "Too Many Fish In the Sea (#25 Pop, #15 R&B), "I'll Keep Holding On" (#34 Pop, #11 R&B), and "Don't Mess With Bill" (#7 Pop, #3 R&B), written by Smokey Robinson and with Wanda on lead.
The Marvelettes than made what turned out to be a major mistake by passing on a song brought to them in 1964 by Holland-Dozier-Holland. The writers then took "Baby Love" to the Supremes, giving them their second number one record in a row.
In 1965 Juanita left the group reportedly following a nervous breakdown. When Georgeanna fell ill soon after and had to leave the touring, group continued as a trio.
"There was pressure on the group. Juanita had a nervous breakdown and had to leave. She had made a silly remark on Dick Clark's show and everyone in the company was constantly teasing her about it. She really took it to heart and became very depressed. she was only 16. Georgeanna had to leave due to ill health. She was always very tired; there was something wrong with her and the doctor advised her to get off the road."
Gladys Horton
In 1967 The Marvelettes had three hits in a row with "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" (#13 pop, #2 R&B), "When Your Young and in Love" (#23 Pop, #9 R&B), and "My Baby Must Be a Magician" (#17 Pop, #8 R&B).
Horton then left the group to get married and Anne Bogan joined.
Their last chart record came in late 1968 with "Destination: Anywhere (#63 Pop, # 28 R&B).
In 1969 Young decided to stay in Detroit when Motown moved to Los Angeles. That was the end of the group, but four more singles were issued through 1971, the last being "Breathtaking Guy."
Georgeanna Tillman married Billy Gordon of the Contours and died of sickle cell anemia in 1980. Wanda Young married Bobby Rogers of the Miracles, Katherine Anderson married Joe Schaffner, road manager for the Temptations. Gladys Horton is single and lives in Los Angeles where she cares for her handicapped son.
The Marvelettes had shot to fame with their first record and were a good live act; so why hadn't Berry Gordy promoted them? In retrospect it, it seems that Gordy had found the Marvelettes alittle to rough and ready, a little to ordinary, toreally push their beyond that of a touring group with the occassional hit. The Marvelettes had an earthy, mature way of singing, which mixed with their youthful romanticism, gave the group an unique appeal. Yet though the group's appeal has proved to be more durable than many of their contemporaries, one can see why for the upwardly mobile Berry Gordy of the '60s, the Marvelettes weren't quite "uptown enough. The mixture was was not quite right; there was too much Detroit R&B in there, and not enough New York pop.
"On top of that, we weren't getting support from the company. In fact they hated us, made fun of us, we were some kind of joke to them. They really looked down on country people lick us because we didn't have there slick city ways. Also, we couldn't sing as good as the Supremes; they had been practicing their harmonies for three or four years we had only started. But the real reason they were mad at us, I guess, was that we got a hit before the Supremes. We got Motown their first straight hit with a girl group and it was with a song we had written ourselves. Can you imagine? Motown had been grooming the Supremes for years and the Supremes had done nothing. They had writers like Smokey Robinson and each one had been trying to get a hit on the Supremes. But all of a sudden here were these little nobodies, with their own song that they wrote at number one on the charts." Gladys Horton
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THE MOTOR CITY - MUSICAL HERITAGE
DID YOU KNOW . . .
that Richard 'Popcorn' Wylie Motown's conductor/writer/pianoist wrote a hit
song for the Platters? Wylie co-wrote "With This Ring" with Dixon Luther, and
Hester Anthony. You can even here Motown Bassist James Jamerson playing on
the recording!
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DID YOU KNOW . . .
That Motown Bassist James Jamerson played on over 82 Motown hits, and over 42
#1 hit songs. Here's a list of some of those songs:
'My Girl', 'My Guy', 'Ain't That Peculiar', 'Ooh Baby Baby', 'Uptight', 'Heat
Wave', 'Baby Love', 'Shotgun', 'I heard It Through The Grapevine', 'Ain't
Nothing Like The Real Thing', 'Where Did Our Love Go', 'Since I Lost My
Baby', 'For Once In My Life', 'You've Really Got A Hold On Me', 'Love Child',
'Dancing In The Street', 'Don't Mess With Bill', 'What's Going On', 'Cloud
Nine', 'The Way You Do The Things You Do', 'My Baby Loves Me', 'You Beat Me
To The Punch', 'I'm Ready For Love', 'I Can't Help Myself', 'Roadrunner',
'You're All I Need To Get By', 'You Can't Hurry Love', 'Shop Around', 'Ain't
To Proud To Beg', 'My Cherie Amour', 'It's The Same Old Song', 'How Sweet It
Is', 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', 'My Baby Must By A Musician', 'Beauty
Is Only Skin Deep', 'Going To A Go-Go', 'I Was Made To Love Her', 'I Second
That Emotion', 'Please Mr. Postman', 'Jimmy Mack', 'I Hear A Symphony', 'I'm
Gonna Make You Love Me', 'Get Ready', 'Stop! In The Name Of Love', 'No Where
To Run', 'Pride And Joy', 'Two Lovers', 'Come See About Me', 'Stubborn Kind
Of Fellow', 'If I Were Your Woman', 'My World Is Empty Without You', 'The
Tracks Of My Tears', 'Can I Get A Witness', The Girls Alright With Me', 'What
Becomes Of A Broken Hearted', 'Baby I Need Your Loving', and 'Quicksand'.
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DID YOU KNOW . . .
that the Originals ('Baby I'm For Real') back Jimmy Ruffin on most of his
recordings at Motown? The following songs are on the Jimmy Ruffin's 20 Golden
Classics album:
1. What Becomes of the Broken
2. Don't You Miss Me a Little Bit
3. As Long as There Is Love
4. I'll Say Forever My Love
5. Baby I've Got It
6. I've Passed This Way Before
7. Sad and Lonesome Feeling
8. Don't Let Him Take Your Love from Me (Strong/Whitfield)
9. World So Wide, Nowhere to Hide
10. This Guy's in Love With You
11. Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got (Strong/Whitfield)
12. Let's Say Goodbye Tomorrow
13. It's Wonderful
14. Gonna Keep Tryin' Till I Win
15. Farewell Is a Lonely Sound
16. Living in a World I Created
17. On the Way Out
18. Maria
19. Stand by Me
20. Halfway to Paradise
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DID YOU KNOW . . .
that Dennis Edwards was discovered and started singing with the Contours
first? His debut song was 'It's So Hard Being Alone'. Later in 1968 Edwards
took the place of lead singer David Ruffin, and lead the Temptations to their
first Grammy 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone'.
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DID YOU KNOW . . .
that on the Smokey Robinson 1987 hit 'One Heartbeat' there were some
Motownians performing for him? Artist such as:
Otis Williams - Vocals (bckgr)
Melvin Franklin - Vocals (bckgr)
Richard Street - Vocals (bckgr)
Ron Tyson - Vocals (bckgr)
Ali "Ollie" Woodson - Vocals (bckgr)
(Members of the Temptations at the time)
Robinson also had on the song Kenny G.-Saxophone, Sax (Soprano), Sonny Burkes-
Organ, Piano, Keyboards, Syreeta Wright-Vocals, and as executive producer
Berry Gordy, Jr..
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MOTOWN LYRICS
THE VELVELETTES
Think Of The Times
(Johnny Bristol/Norman Whitfield)
Gonna walk right up to him
Tell him just how I feel within
Though he may not like the things I say
When I'm through, I'm sure he'll see things my way
I've been blue for oh so long
Ever since he did me wrong
Wo wo wo
(Think of the times) when you said you'd call
But if you remembered, you never called at all
You always had the perfect alibi
When you all the time you were telling a lie
But I loved you so much I just didn't care
All I wanted was your love to share
Wo wo wo
(x4):
(Shoo-wop-bop)
As I think of the times in the past
I can clearly see why our love didn't last
You never did what you wanted to receive
So for your selfishness my heart still grieves
But there's one thing I'm sure you know
Before the end, you're gonna reap what you sow
Wo wo wo
Little boy now, (think of the times) when you made me cry
(Think of the times) when you told me those lies
(Think of the times) when you made me so blue
Just want you to know it's gonna happen to you
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