Velvelettes' question for BoyfromCrosstown

[Kamasu_Jr]

John why did Cal Street perform with different sets of Velvelettes? There are pictures of different ladies with Cal, but then they would appear on TV and the members were different again. Did the originals just record but not want to tour? And I know you have the Velvelettes on Dick Clark's Where the Action Is performing Needle In A Haystack....Who were those two Velvelettes? The performance is good although there are too many dancers in the way.

[marv2]

I know this one is for Boyfromcrosstown, but I'd like to offer that the original Velvelettes had all gotten married and were raising families as the sixties progressed. Cal recruited Annette McMillan [[I heard from her daughter last year online) and Sandy Tillie[[ who's cousin in Cleveland I heard from several years ago). The majority of the orginal members regrouped in the late 80's [[partially due to the Ian Levine Motorcity activity) and have been performing every since.

[theboyfromxtown]

Kamasu
When they were auditioned in 1962, there were 5. Come 1963 when Millie became pregnant, they had to perform as four. Later Millie returned but then it was Norma's turn! So during this time, there were mostly four consisting of Cal, Bertha and Kelli plus one more being either Millie or Norma. Kelli left the group officially when she was 20 in September 1964 because that was when she was able to sign a contract herself. However, she had been recording as a Vandella as far back as June 1964.
From then on it was reduced to a basic 3 with Norma and Millie interchanging. So that is why you see Millie in the Apollo shots and Norma at the Regal in Chicago. Millie’s decision to reduce her input was down to the negativity from folks who didn’t agree with her leaving her children at home to go on tour. So Millie only helped out in exceptional circumstances.
Bertha and Norma [[who gave birth yet again) carried on with Cal but both of them wanted to leave permanently by 1965. When I reviewed the studio logs with them in about 2003/4, they concluded that they stopped recording in about June 1965. However, Cal only had to recruit new members for tours, not for recording purposes. All Velvelettes recordings at this time consisted of Cal on lead with Cal plus the Andantes [[or whoever else was there) on background.
Annette was taken on first as a dancer. Cal would interchange the third girl with Bertha, Norma or even a cousin.
The Velvelettes then had an engagement in about January 1966 for Where The Action Is which I gather is based on the West Coast. She couldn't use her cousin or any of the other former Velvelettes for that engagement because it was not local. Cal had to recruit a new girl and she was called Gail and hailed from Baltimore. [[Cal doesn't even recall her surname). However Gail wasn’t there all that long before she started to take steps to take over the group! So she was gone soon after that engagement. In that TV appearance of Needle...Gail is furthest from Cal! LOLOL
Sandy [[from Cleveland) was introduced to Cal by Abdul Fakir of the 4 Tops who had met Sandy in Philadelphia [[I didn’t ask any more!!!) Sandy was also a great dancer, looked good and fitted in well with the group. Sandy also harboured a secret wish to sing lead but Cal only found out about that much later. In fact Cal hadn’t heard Sandy’s lead vocal on Honey Love until I played it to her in about 2004.
There's 4 performances on Where The Action Is. Needle in a Haystack [[in long dresses), He Was Really Saying Something [[in short dresses), followed by [[a one verse edited out of ) Lonely Lonely Girl Am I where the girls sit on stools and finally Should I Tell Them sung in a liquor bar.

[Kamasu_Jr]

THANKS for the answers. It was something my dad didn't know because the only Velvelettes he remembered were Cal and Sandy. He says he never paid much attention to who was in the midd So le. Needle in Haystack is on his Motown Top 10 list. It gets played all of the time. It's nice to have it on video. For a long time, there was no video of the original Velvelettes. Maybe TJL will strike a deal for more archive footage of the Velvelettes and produce a Girl Grooves II.

[theboyfromxtown]

TJ did promise the ladies that he would try to get them back on a future show. So we can only hope that he finds a spot for them.

The Velvelettes did perform Needle at the time of release...in Canada so watch out for TV shows locally to Detroit..would that be Windsor..is that a place nearby

[marv2]

TJ did promise the ladies that he would try to get them back on a future show. So we can only hope that he finds a spot for them.

The Velvelettes did perform Needle at the time of release...in Canada so watch out for TV shows locally to Detroit..would that be Windsor..is that a place nearby

Yeah they did perform a couple of times on Channel 9 CKLW Windsor on "Swingin Time" aka "Teen Town". One performance was for Halloween one year and they were dressed up as witches..........very hip witches, hehehehehehehehe.........

[marv2]

TJ did promise the ladies that he would try to get them back on a future show. So we can only hope that he finds a spot for them.

The Velvelettes did perform Needle at the time of release...in Canada so watch out for TV shows locally to Detroit..would that be Windsor..is that a place nearby

Yes Windsor is very close, it is just across the Detroit River from Detroit.