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Home , Al Nevins, Betty Kelly, Be My Baby, Dancing in the Street, Dimension Records, Gerry Goffin

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Martha and THE VANDELLAS

f YOU HAD A p u l s e in the summer of 1964 and heard Martha and Gloria Jean Williamson, with whom she’d sung as the Del-Phis. Reeves’ piercing cry — "Calling out, around the world, are you ready Reeves and her friends became the frisky female chorus you heard behind for a brand-new beat?” — you might have recognized it as the siren on many of his early recordings. Backup singers aren’t sup­ sound of Berry GordyJr.’s Records. When you are inside posed to jump out at you, but once you know it’s Reeves, it’s impossihfe that , Motown’s Sound of Young America is happening, and to miss her "Hitchhike, baby!” behind Gaye’s lead on "Hitch Hike.” all is well in the world. As Reeves sings, "Summer’s here, and the Inevitably, Reeves and her colleagues were ushered into Gordy’s sec­ time is right for ,” to one of the most irresistible rifeond-floor office and offered a contract The boss gave them 15 minutes IMotown’s Funk Brothers ever concocted, for that moment you are young to pick a new name, and so Reeves, Ashford and Sterling (Williamson and wild and utterly without a care. opted out) became . Their first record, "Til Such is the enchantment that and the Vandellas were Have to Let Him Go,” went nowhere, but they soon scored with Hol- able to summon up out of a three-minute pop song - with the help of land-Dozier-Holland’s "Come and Get These Memories,” which Gordy and a fleet of Motown support reached No. 29 on Billboard's pop chart and No. 6 on the R&B listing Like so many Motown , "Dancing in the Street” sounded decep­ But it was Martha and the Vandellas’ follow-up, "Heat Wave,” that ele­ tively light on the surface, but in Reeves’ voice there were deeper inflec­ vated them into the Motown firmament. The song is a jolt of pure tions, echoes of the sharp righteousness of gospel and the sultry aban­ excitement, with the brassy Funk Brothers in full throttle and Reeves don of R&B. More so than most of her sister Motown singers, Reeves adding her youthful sass to a hip lyric It became the No. 4 pop song in had an earthy and direct quality to her delivery. While the country. were adored for their kittenish, airbrushed glamour, Martha and the The hits continued: "Nowhere to Run,” "Quicksand,” ’,” Vandellas were the tough, hip girls down the street There were intima­ "” and perhaps Reeves’ best vocal work, "My Baby Loves tions of a slight danger in their music, thanks to that interesting, harsh Me,” a torchy song in the tradition of the singers she’d grown up edge of Reeves’ alto, a quality that made it slice like a scimitar through with. And cover versions were plentiful, with artists like , the layers of background instrumental and vocal accompaniment-, Manias and the Papas, the ^Vho, and rein­ There was an intriguing, raw quality to Reeves when, just out of her venting Martha and the Vandellas’ greatest hits over the years. teens, she was spotted by Motown’s street-sawy A&R director Mickey Vandellas came and wait: was an early addition, and then Stevenson at ’s fabled Twenty Grand nightclub one fall evening there were and Reeves’ sisters Lois and Delphine. in 196L Reeves had won a talent contest, and the prize was a brief gig Today, Martha Reeves is the most visible reminder of Motown in the singing at the dub. After Stevenson saw the slim 20-year-old with the city of Detroit She is there, resplendent in her diva furs, for the festive exotically uptilted eyes sing "Fly Me to the Moon” and "The Gin House events at the Hitsville house (now the Motown Historical Museum). Blues,” he presented himself backstage and placed his Motown business And she is there for the sad ones as well, particularly when her Motown card in Reeves’ hand, and a career was bom. peers are in trouble. Musing about what went into the Motown sound, “W hen I knew I could sing, I knew I had something,” says Reeves. Martha Reeves is eager to credit the metropolis from which it came "I There was no turning back for her after Stevenson glided into her life, think it was Detroit,” she says, "and the musicians who lived here. W e a finger-snapping, daddy-cool hero who would whisk her away from her had jazz musicians, so our sound was hard to duplicate. And it was the life of drudgery behind the counter of Detroit’s City W ide Cleaners. building the fact that Hitsville was a house, not an office building But But it wasn’t an overnight rescue. Reeves had to fight for her shot as a you’d have to have , because they created it” singer at Motown. While Stevenson saw promise in the singer, there was Now, Martha and the Vandellas join their Motown siblings in the no instant contract for Reeves at the Hitsville U .SA house on West Hall of Fame. It hasn’t been easy for Reeves and her Grand Boulevard when she turned up the next morning People were group, which was not given the potent Motown star treatment bestowed too busy arranging sessions, writing songs, recording trying to impress on their daintier rivals, and the Supremes. And once M o­ the boss with their three-minute pop melodramas and just generally rein­ town moved to L A , Martha and the Vandellas were on their own. venting the wheel, so Reeves rolled up her sleeves and became part of In their heyday, Martha and the Vandellas were peerless. N o other - answering phones and organizing the A&R department in could pack the excitement into a single that they could or what turned out to be a full-time job as Stevenson’s secretary. electrify a live audience with the amount of wattage that Reeves and her Then came Marvin and the Vandellas. From demo vocals, Martha singers delivered. Generations later, Reeves’ plea to go danring in the Reeves was tapped to sing backup behind established Motown artists, street still lifts the spirit and evokes an eternal summer and a wild night and for those gigs she would call in Rosalind Ashford, Annette Sterling

ofthesoul — SUSAN WHITALL GRAPH R SgjjU TEPHjjjpjO fY OF N RECORDS

Martha Reeves, Rosalind Ashford and Betty Kelly (from left) in a 1966 Motown publicity still

A distinctive sound and style and a new space for GROUPS

HE FIVE-YEAR period between 1958 and 1963 is often depicted as a long dry

spell in the history of rock & roll. According to the traditional refrain, Elvis Tgot drafted, got religion, Jerry Lee Lewis got married, got killed, and a horde of talentless teen idols took over the charts until the

Beatles brought back the Real Thing, This theory ignores one of the most signifi­ cant and influential musical genres of the post-’58 era. The genre represented a dis­

tinctive new musical style and the creative efforts of a diverse young group,

both black and white, of upstart singers, , producers and the Billboard Top 40, including all-time girl-group rlassirs by the business people, and it was accompanied by striking new fashions Ronettes ("Baby I Love You,” "Walking in the Rain,” the No. 2 and hairdos, the charms of which seem more and more dead-on as smash "”), ("Uptown,” "Da Doo Ron the years go by. Ron,” "Then H e Kissed Me,” the N o. 1 "H es a Rebel”) and Darlene This was the sound and style of the girl groups. Love ("[Today I Met] The Boy Fm Gonna Marry”). In his definitive study G rl Groups: The Story o f a Sound (Delilah O f course, each Spector smash started with a great song. The Communications), Alan Betrock marked 1958 and ’ producer collaborated with many writers during the course of his landmark hit, "Maybe,” as the genesis of the girl-group era; 10 years career, from to Doc Pomus. But his Philles output later, it was all over but the shouting (or the reissuing, as it were). relied on the work of three gifted songwriting teams: F.lhV Green­ The style reached its artistic and commercial height between 1963 wich and ; and ; and Barry and 1966. These few years saw the release of hundreds of girl-group Mann and Cynthia Weill. As Alan Betrock explained: "From the records made memorable by the high quality of their songs, pro­ time Spector first used a song by ("[Today I Met] duction and performances. The Boy Fm Gonna Marry,” released in early ’63) until the spurt Foremost among these was the unsurpassed string of hits pro­ ended, two years had elapsed, and all 11 of Spector s single releases duced by and released on his Philles label. Amazingly during this period were written by Ellie with either Tony Powers or just 36 Philles singles were issued commercially. O f these, 17 made Jeff Barry.... The result was one of the most fertile and significant

The Supremes, , , the Chantels (clockwise from top§

Girl Groups

collaborative efforts that has ever produced.” cesses were hits by , the Marvelettes and Martha and Mann and Weill stuck to writing, and to this day they’re turning the Vandellas. Records like Wells’ "Two Lovers,” the Marvelettes’ out hit songs for artists like Celine Dion. But the Barry-Greenwich "As Long As I Know H e’s Mine” and the Vandellas’ "Heat Wave” and Goffin-King teams quickly blossomed into writers, arrangers put their own immediately identifiable spin (sometimes sweet and and producers of their own string of girl-group hits. sophisticated, sometimes bold and brassy) on the qualities embod­ Goffin and King became the sonic auteurs of , ied in the East Coast girl-group hits. Indeed, Girl Groups contribu­ giving this / label a No. 1 smash with its very tor Aaron Fuchs describes Motown’s legendary Holland-Dozier- first release, "Loco-Motion,” as recorded by Goffin and King’s Holland team as having "melded equal parts of Phil Spector’s Wall 17-year-old baby sitter, "” Boyd. Though the company never of Sound with -shaking gospel fervor.” scored another No. 1 record, Goffin and King followed up with In 1964, with the first of 12 No. 1 pop singles, Motown brought Dimension girl-group winners forth the most successful girl by ("Chains,” group of all time, the Su- "Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad premes. N ot just hitmakers, [About M y Baby]”), Earl-Jean Diana Ross, Mary Wilson (Tm Into Something Good”) and became and the Honeybees ("One an international show-busi­ W onderful N ig h t”). Goffin ness institution and the prin­ and King wrote ’ ciple role model for every No. 1 "Will You Love M e To­ black female vocal group at­ morrow,” which was recorded tempting the R&B-to-pop by 15 other artists within 18 crossover — From Sister months of its initial release. The Sledge to En Vogue to SWV. songwriting team took the By 1968 the naively roman­ Chiffons to No. 5 with "One tic spirit and Fine Day”; King’s pounding production values of girl- piano was the cornerstone of group music had been her brilliant arrangement. In eclipsed by the rise o f the self- 1962,1 7 Goffin-King songs contained rock band (from reached the Top 40. and the Stones to The creative output of El­ the Airplane and the Dead); be Greenwich and Jeff Barry by a new breed of female during their tenure with Jerry singer/songwriters such as Leiber and Mike Stoller’s Red , Bird Records actually surpasses, and Carole King (who would in innovation and quality, find solo success far beyond Goffin and King’s Dimension her teen-age dreams with work. Greenwich and Barry, Tapestry); and by a host of too, gave their label a No. 1 changes in the music business hit with its very first release, and society at large. Every ’ immortal now and then, though, a vivid ",” and backed girl-group memory would up this stunning success with emerge in the new music superb records by the Jelly There were Beans ("I Wanna Love Him singing "Sally Go ’Round the So Bad,” "Baby Be Mine”) Roses” with the Great Soci­ and the Butterflys ("Good ety and pleading N ight Baby,” "I W onder”). "Maybe.” There were the M ost wondrous o f all, per­ Dolls, romping haps, were Barry and Green­ through the Shangri-Las’ wich’s collaborations with co­ "Give H im a Great Big Kiss.” writer and There were the female-led those immortal queens of Queens, the Shangri-Las, whose Red Bird bands of the punk era like Blondie, the Go-Go’s, and the hits like ",” "Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” Blackhearts, Bananarama and Blue Angel (featuring Cyndi and "” rank with the most imaginative and emo­ Lauper), all of which lovingly acknowledged the influence of their tionally daring records of their time. (The Shangs’ "Past Present girl-group predecessors. and Future,” produced by Morton, was a haunting recitation that The charm and innocence of girl-group music may not be readi­ seemed to suggest its narrator was a victim of. rape: "Don’t try to ly apparent in the raw, metal-edged rock of Seven Year Bitch or in touch me ... for that will never ... happen ... again.”) the seductive sway of SWV. But whether they know it, these con­ Meanwhile, in Detroit, another creative partnership was listening temporary artists are walking in the artistic shadow of the girl attentively to the work of Spector and his New York protégés cum groups -jpjho, once upon a time, cleared a new space for women’s competitors. Among Motown Records’ most significant early suc­ expression in popular culture. - andy Schwartz

The Ronettes (above). Right: The Crystals, Martha and the Vandellas, the Shangri-Las, the Shirelles (clockwise from top left).