Oma Heard

**psychedelic jacques** · 03-19-2015, 05:24 AM

Does anyone know if there are any confirmed photos of Oma Heard from around her time at Motown? A google image search produced just one photo [[below) which links to a you tube video of 'your kiss kiss'. Can anyone confirm if this is Oma Heard, or if there are any other photos around? [[there are none in TCMS 1964 or the 'Cellarfuls' that she appears on.

**carole cucumber** · 03-19-2015, 06:19 AM

When 'The Marvin Gaye collection' [[1990 box set) was issued, I was surprised by the revelation that Marvin had recorded with a duet partner after Mary Wells but before Kim Weston. That photo of Oma was included in the accompanying box set book. It is also found here:

http://oldwax.blogspot.com/2013/12/i-need-you.html

**carole cucumber** · 03-19-2015, 06:25 AM

The cover of Oma's Gospel album, using her married name:

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**reese** · 03-19-2015, 07:28 AM

There was another photo of Oma included in the sleeve for the DUETS cassette of THE MARVIN GAYE COLLECTION, but I haven't seen it online.

**psychedelic jacques** · 03-19-2015, 08:33 AM

thanks for the confirmation.

**woodward** · 03-19-2015, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by psychedelic jacques

Does anyone know if there are any confirmed photos of Oma Heard from around her time at Motown? A google image search produced just one photo [[below) which links to a you tube video of 'your kiss kiss'. Can anyone confirm if this is Oma Heard, or if there are any other photos around? [[there are none in TCMS 1964 or the 'Cellarfuls' that she appears on.

I just looked at the Duets CD of the Marvin Gaye Collection and there is a picture of Oma "PAGE." This person is the splitting image of the one you have shown here. Without a doubt.

**carole cucumber** · 03-19-2015, 09:04 AM

Originally Posted by woodward

I just looked at the Duets CD of the Marvin Gaye Collection and there is a picture of Oma "PAGE." This person is the splitting image of the one you have shown here. Without a doubt.

Thanks for reminding me.
It is George Solomon who identified Marvin's then-previously-unknown duet artist as Oma Page. I'm wondering if her name was listed that way [[on the tape box/reel, session info) when George came upon it.
It certainly blindsided him, for in an interview given at the time he stated that "They brought Oma to Motown when Mary Wells left; she was going to be the new Mary Wells. So Marvin recorded five duets with her, four of which we use on the box set. Then Berry Gordy decided not to sign her, so she never had a release on Motown. In fact, she's never had a release anywhere! And here it is , twenty-five years later, her records are coming out."
Had she been identified via whatever source George quoted as Oma Heard, George would likely never have made such a mistake.

Andy or George,
Can you explain? Am I assuming correctly or is there another reason to explain why she was identified as Oma Page for the box set, leading to confusion on the internet for several years?

**keith_hughes** · 03-19-2015, 09:11 AM

Woodward, there was an explanation story in The Complete Motown SIngles Volume 4 about this mistake. Briefly, there was a Motown artist recording in Detroit in 1964 called Oma Page. Only one song by her has survived, a version of "When Someone's Good To Me", which has never been released. When tapes of Oma Heard started arriving from LA, they were mistakenly attributed to Oma Page, and that mistake was carried through to the Duets Collection.

**carole cucumber** · 03-19-2015, 09:15 AM

Not the cassette in question, but interesting nonetheless for the shot of ?Kim Weston?

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Marvin-Ga...770772&sr=1-15

**keith_hughes** · 03-19-2015, 09:19 AM

I think that was the shot of Kim they used on the UK R&B Chartmakers Volume 2 EP, and was the first I ever saw of her ... can any [maybe elderly] UK fans confirm?

**carole cucumber** · 03-19-2015, 09:25 AM

Keith,

http://www.raresoulman.co.uk/d/111138/VARIOUS_ARTISTS

**reese** · 03-19-2015, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by carole cucumber

Not the cassette in question, but interesting nonetheless for the shot of ?Kim Weston?

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Marvin-Ga...770772&sr=1-15

Too bad they used a shot of Brenda Holloway in Kim's slot.

This is as bad as when Mary Wells' MILLENIUM COLLECTION mistakenly had a photo of Kim on the inner sleeve.

**carole cucumber** · 03-19-2015, 09:31 AM

Thanks Keith for the reminder of the explanation of the Oma Page/Oma Heard confusion.

**carole cucumber** · 03-19-2015, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by reese

There was another photo of Oma included in the sleeve for the DUETS cassette of THE MARVIN GAYE COLLECTION, but I haven't seen it online.

Here it is:

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**motony** · 03-19-2015, 12:00 PM

they had that girl trying to sing like Mary Wells too, LOL

**mysterysinger** · 03-19-2015, 12:03 PM

OK Google, so now I'm confused. Are we talking about Oma Heard, Oma Page, Oma Wells, Oma Weston, Oma Terrell, Oma Randolph, Oma Ross or is it really OMA SIMPSON in disguise as usual?

**motownjohnny** · 03-19-2015, 03:44 PM

mysterysinger, if it helps just bear in mind the threat title is about Oma Heard and see post no. 8 above for the clarification/explanation from Keith Hughes. Hopefully all should then be clear.

**keith_hughes** · 03-19-2015, 06:41 PM

Carole, I stand corrected on that R&B Chartmakers cover! Thank you. My, it's been a long, long time ....

Another contribution to the fun and the mystery: Oma HEARD, the subject of this thread, the singer of "Lifetime Man" on VIP and the duettist with Marvin, turned up on another Motown-related label, Chisa, in 1969, as one-third of Dorothy, Oma and Zelpha, with a 45 titled "Gonna Put It On Your Mind", included in The Complete Motown SIngles Volume 9. Oma sang lead on the B-side, "Henry Blake". By that time, she was Oma DRAKE, as shown on that 1982 Laverne Ware SIngers LP sleeve you posted [[which I'd never seen before and is unknown to Wikipedia! - thanks again). Laverne Ware is perhaps better known to soul music fans under her real name, Gloria Jones, though most of the songs she wrote for Motown were credited to L.Ware.

**no_place_like_motown** · 03-20-2015, 05:04 AM

Great thread.

Keith, I'd love to hear Oma Page's version of WSGTY! hint, hint

Carole, thanks for the reminder that Oma was part of Dorothy, Oma & Zelpha on Chisa. I think I'll pull out TCMS, Vol. 9 and have another listen to "Henry Blake".

Here's a cool song I found on YT with Oma Drake doing b/g vocals along with Merry Clayton, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, et al. "Handbags and Gladrags" by Kate Taylor, recorded in 1971, has a nice pop-country feel to it. Kate is a new discovery for me, gotta check out some more of her tunes...

**bradsupremes** · 03-20-2015, 08:26 AM

What's with this story about Oma Heard getting in trouble/fired at Motown because they wanted her to lose weight, but someone caught her eating candy bars?

**reese** · 03-20-2015, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by bradsupremes

What's with this story about Oma Heard getting in trouble/fired at Motown because they wanted her to lose weight, but someone caught her eating candy bars?

I was getting ready to ask if this was the same person, because a book I read attributed this story to an Oda Barr?

**carole cucumber** · 03-20-2015, 10:19 AM

https://books.google.com/books?id=U6...EwCw#v=onepage

This author has been known to gather information from several other books and to attempt to synthesize it, not always successfully.

**carole cucumber** · 03-20-2015, 10:23 AM

http://soulfuldetroit.com/archives/6...tml?1096003983

See posts 6 & 11.

**sansradio** · 03-20-2015, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by keith_hughes

Carole, I stand corrected on that R&B Chartmakers cover! Thank you. My, it's been a long, long time ....

Another contribution to the fun and the mystery: Oma HEARD, the subject of this thread, the singer of "Lifetime Man" on VIP and the duettist with Marvin, turned up on another Motown-related label, Chisa, in 1969, as one-third of Dorothy, Oma and Zelpha, with a 45 titled "Gonna Put It On Your Mind", included in The Complete Motown SIngles Volume 9. Oma sang lead on the B-side, "Henry Blake". By that time, she was Oma DRAKE, as shown on that 1982 Laverne Ware SIngers LP sleeve you posted [[which I'd never seen before and is unknown to Wikipedia! - thanks again). Laverne Ware is perhaps better known to soul music fans under her real name, Gloria Jones, though most of the songs she wrote for Motown were credited to L.Ware.

Keith, you're a Godsend. And here I was, thinking the "L. Ware" in all the Motown credits I've seen was Leon. LOL.

**keith_hughes** · 03-20-2015, 07:12 PM

It seems that some of the folk who allocate writing royalties thought the same thing as you did for many years, sansradio. A while back, we pen-pushers who write the credits for CDs were asked to ensure that all Laverne's songs were credited to "Gloria Jones" in future.

My understanding is that this was a cock-up pure and simple: there was no suggestion by anyone that Leon had been trying to steal Laverne's credits, or that Leon himself did not write many fine songs.

See http://www.discogs.com/artist/728556-LaVerne-Ware for a partial list of Laverne's - excuse me, Gloria's - writing credits.

**sansradio** · 03-20-2015, 08:54 PM

Many thanks for the link, Keith. Do you know if Mr. Ware ever made amends to Ms. Jones?

**mysterysinger** · 03-20-2015, 09:43 PM

But strange coincidence isn't it that "Rilleh" and "Steadies" were written by Billy Page.

**keith_hughes** · 03-21-2015, 10:50 AM

And so we finally complete our Circular Walk around the Oma Page / Oma Heard question.

Oma Page was Billy Page's sister.

As Harry Weinger summed it up in the piece on Oma Heard in TCMS4 after revealing this discovery [[I think it was Bill Dahl's): "Are we finally clear on that one?"