Mary Wells Never Never Leave Me

[carole cucumber]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vRu8cqHB3M

[theboyfromxtown]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T95b68z3Sr8

[motony]

beautiful Mary singing LIVE to the track.Motown signed the writers of this song to a contract so Mary would not get anymore of their songs.

[motony]

I was talking about Never Never Leave Me.

[BigAl]

All of Mary's 20th Century–Fox efforts [[most of which are still fairly readily available, I think) are great, all things considered. Her debut album with them [[one of only two for that label) is a wonderful listen from start to finish. One reviewer at the time remarked that it was as if she had taken Detroit to New York. It's too bad she had so many things working against her.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

All of Mary's 20th Century–Fox efforts [[most of which are still fairly readily available, I think) are great, all things considered. Her debut album with them [[one of only two for that label) is a wonderful listen from start to finish. One reviewer at the time remarked that it was as if she had taken Detroit to New York. It's too bad she had so many things working against her.
I, too, love Mary Wells’ first 20th Century Fox album. I thought it sounded pretty darned Motown-ish. My favorite track would have to be "Use Your Head". I could swear that The Andantes are singing back-up on a number of those 20th Century recordings. It sure sounds like their blend. - Gary

[robb_k]

All of Mary's 20th Century–Fox efforts [[most of which are still fairly readily available, I think) are great, all things considered. Her debut album with them [[one of only two for that label) is a wonderful listen from start to finish. One reviewer at the time remarked that it was as if she had taken Detroit to New York. It's too bad she had so many things working against her.
9299
Not surprising, as her producers, Robert Bateman and Andre Williams were both ex-Motowners, and they recorded her in Detroit. "Me Without You" was written by J.J. Jackson and Sidney Barnes [[both of whom had worked as writers with Motown's New York office - or, at least, Jackon had worked closely on projects with most of Jobete New York's staff, at one time or another). And that song sounds like "pure Motown". It's right up there with her best Motown recordings. I agree that all her 2oth Century Fox recordings were quite good, as were here ATCO recordings [[also made partly by ex-Motowners Barrett Strong and Sonny Sanders). Unfortunately, Fox didn't know how to market Soul records, and Gordy's Motown had a lot of influence with distributors and even DJs.

Too bad Mary listened to her ex-husband, Herman Griffin's advice). She should have stayed with Motown for at least a couple more years, until getting a big enough name [[like Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and The Four Tops).

[BigAl]

In many ways, her 20th Century sides were a good deal more sophisticated than her Hitsville ones. Despite the use of Hitsville writers and producers, notably absent, of course, were the Funk Brothers and other Hitsville sidemen, which rendered something of a hybrid product which lacked the earthiness but added a veneer of brassy gloss, and it was actually a nice combination. She left Motown just as the company was on the cusp of hitting its stride and had yet to solidify its distinctive sound. "My Guy" was in a sense one of the first records to employ what later became the readily-identifiable Motown-sound. Had she stayed just a year longer and had one or two more hits of the magnitude of "My Guy," she might not have left the label, or certainly would not have left it in the way she did. I suspect she also saw the writing on the wall when Gordy shifted his "Queen of Motown" attentions to Diane. 20th Century, seeing how big "My Guy" was, just dangled an enticing carrot before her which she and Herman couldn't resist: a six-figure contract and the ultimately false promise of a motion picture deal. When her first sides for them failed to make the splash which they had assumed they would, the label quit promoting her efforts. Much has been opined about Gordy's possibly using heavy-handed tactics to see that she failed but I suspect that had little to do with it, even if he did in fact play a role in her failure. She then arrived at Atco at about the same time that Aretha got to Atlantic, its parent label, and she was not promoted there, either. Jerry Wexler said that, "We couldn't do nothing with her," and I imagine he was much busier working on Aretha's ascent, so Mary ended up getting a bunch of half-baked pop standards, Motown-copied numbers, and Carolina Beach-type songs which, while okay, couldn't offset the inattention from the label. When she and Cecil finally got to Jubilee with radically different material like "The Doctor" [[a wonderful song), nobody was listening anymore.

[luke]

People did listen to Dear Lover,one of my all time faves of Mary.

[motony]

thanks for posting "Me Without You" carole cucumber, I love the way Mary looks in that performance, she was so cool.

[RossHolloway]

In many ways, her 20th Century sides were a good deal more sophisticated than her Hitsville ones. Despite the use of Hitsville writers and producers, notably absent, of course, were the Funk Brothers and other Hitsville sidemen, which rendered something of a hybrid product which lacked the earthiness but added a veneer of brassy gloss, and it was actually a nice combination. She left Motown just as the company was on the cusp of hitting its stride and had yet to solidify its distinctive sound. "My Guy" was in a sense one of the first records to employ what later became the readily-identifiable Motown-sound. Had she stayed just a year longer and had one or two more hits of the magnitude of "My Guy," she might not have left the label, or certainly would not have left it in the way she did. I suspect she also saw the writing on the wall when Gordy shifted his "Queen of Motown" attentions to Diane. 20th Century, seeing how big "My Guy" was, just dangled an enticing carrot before her which she and Herman couldn't resist: a six-figure contract and the ultimately false promise of a motion picture deal. When her first sides for them failed to make the splash which they had assumed they would, the label quit promoting her efforts. Much has been opined about Gordy's possibly using heavy-handed tactics to see that she failed but I suspect that had little to do with it, even if he did in fact play a role in her failure. She then arrived at Atco at about the same time that Aretha got to Atlantic, its parent label, and she was not promoted there, either. Jerry Wexler said that, "We couldn't do nothing with her," and I imagine he was much busier working on Aretha's ascent, so Mary ended up getting a bunch of half-baked pop standards, Motown-copied numbers, and Carolina Beach-type songs which, while okay, couldn't offset the inattention from the label. When she and Cecil finally got to Jubilee with radically different material like "The Doctor" [[a wonderful song), nobody was listening anymore.
I think most folks will point to Come And Get These Memories by Martha & The Vandellas as the real turning point of the "Motown Sound" which came out over a year before My Guy. I also think that Berry Gordy's shift to pushing the Supreme's came about AFTER Mary Well left the label. I don't think Mary Wells based her decision to leave Motown on Berry's interest in Diana Ross or the Supremes.

[robb_k]

In many ways, her 20th Century sides were a good deal more sophisticated than her Hitsville ones. Despite the use of Hitsville writers and producers, notably absent, of course, were the Funk Brothers and other Hitsville sidemen, which rendered something of a hybrid product which lacked the earthiness but added a veneer of brassy gloss, and it was actually a nice combination.
9300
Thanks for your knowledgeable insight and informational post, Al. It's always nice to hear it straight from the mouth of someone who was there back when the music was made.

But, I believe it's only PARTLY true that The Funk Brothers and other Hitsville musicians were absent from Mary's 20th Century Fox recordings. Bateman surely used SOME Motown musicians on those recordings, as they were recorded in Detroit, and Bateman had already been commuting from New York and again been doing some of his recording there, using similar combinations of "moonlighting" Funk Brothers and other Motown session players as Ed Wingate and Don Davis were doing.

They must have been similar to the mixes of musicians used in projects like Bateman's joint venture with Popcorn Wylie on Luther Ingram's "If It's All The Same To You Babe" on HIB Records. On such projects, he used the regular particular Funk Brothers who moonlighted a lot, and augmented them with Mike Terry, Joe Hunter, Don Davis, Melvin Davis, George McGregor and other freelance Detroit musicians, most of whom played once in a while on Motown sessions [[or had in the past), but did not have exclusive contracts with Motown. The backgrounds produced in these sessions, sounded different from Motown, because they were not the same, regular group of Motown musicians, and mostly because they were recorded in different studios, and didn't use Motown's sound engineers.

[BigAl]

People did listen to Dear Lover,one of my all time faves of Mary.
Indeed, "Dear Lover" was a breakout hit, and a pretty big one, in a number of regional markets. It did exceptionally well [[and still does) on the Carolina Beach music scene — along with Mary's much-later "These Arms [Used to Rock You." Sadly, neither went national to any great extent. More's the pity.

"Dear Lover," took the "My Guy" formula of using a tin-pan alley standard as its intro. It used "Hello, Young Lovers," while "My Guy" used "Canadian Sunset." [[Jackie Ross' Chess chestnut, "Selfish One," did the same, using "Tenderly.") Some say that the latter was written on spec with Mary in mind, but that's unsubstantiated, to the best of my knowledge. In any case, all are great but overlooked songs.

[luke]

Would BG have continued to focus on Mary had she stayed with the Supremes exploding?

[soulwally]

A little on the cheesy side, but Mary sounds great on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hhqGTfk4hkthis.

[Methuselah2]

Carole & Tbfxt - How wonderful to see both of those great videos. Both just beautiful. Many thanks.

[motony]

Luke they only started promoting the Supremes when it was evident Mary was no longer going to be a Motown artist.They kept Mary tied up in court the whole summer of '64.Her first 20th Century release did not come out until October '64.

[luke]

Well it's often written Berry was not going to give up on the Supremes until they hit..Mary or not.