Marvelettes; who is.....?

[marybrewster]

Are Georgia Dobbins and Georgeanna Tillman the same person?

[johnny_raven]

No, Georgia Dobbins was an original member who was replaced by Wanda Rogers

[randy_russi]

No! They are two different people, both were Marvelettes. However, Georgia Dobbins left the group before they
recorded, but had written partly Please Mr. Postman. Her father would not allow her to sign a contract so she
was replaced by Wanda Young.
Georgeanna Tillman stayed in the group until the mid-60s when her health forced her off the road. She
married Billy Gordon of the Contours and worked as a secretary at Motown after leaving the group.

[luke]

Has there ever been a pic of Ms Dobbins with the group? Does she/her family receive royalties?

[randy_russi]

No photos known! However, she does have a writers' credit on Please Mr. Postman, so, yes, she would receive a
royalty.

[carlo]

Yes, I believe Georgia says that she wrote "Please Mr. Postman" completely on her own. But with the way things were at Motown, it was typical for other big name writers and producers to get involved and try to put their name on it as well. So she says that the other writers basically only changed a word here or there and were also granted a co-writing credit. To this day, they still receive royalties. Smokey Robinson also accused Berry Gordy of doing the same thing. Changing a few words or phrases and then receiving a writing credit and royalties.

MaryBrewster: I highly recommend you read the book on the Marvelettes that was written by our very own Marc Taylor. I don't know if it's still available, but I really enjoyed it. It answered a lot of questions and was very informative. It finally shed some light on Motown's "mystery group".

Apparently Gladys Horton is also working on doing her own book? Whether this will ever see the light of day...who knows. Hopefully it does, as I would be very interested to read her side of the story.

[luke]

I think Gladys is done with everything and fully retired.

[iconicpuff]

I think Gladys is done with everything and fully retired.
I don't think she ever fully recovered from her near-being-mowed-down by a miffed Miss Ross.

[smark21]

I might be mistaken, but wasn't Georgia Dobbins present at Inkster High a few years ago when the Marvelettes were finally awarded a Gold Record for Please Mr. Postman? If she was there, there might be a picture of her. I believe Katherine was present at the event.

[daviddesper]

I thought I had seen some very early photos of the group showing five members. If so, wouldn't one of those HAD to have been Georgia?

[carlo]

No, the group photo with five members does not have Georgia in it. It's Katherine, Wanda, Gladys, Georgeanna and Juanita.

[copley]

Good boy Carlo :)

[randy_russi]

Georgia was interviewed by Marc Taylor for the book he wrote. She did write Please Mr. Postman with William Garrett
and then Motown writers added and changed and then several other names were on it. I do believe she did attend
an event in Inkster a few years ago.

[carlo]

Thank you, Copley. :cool:

Randy: Thanks for clarifying. I figured she had written Please Mr. Postman with someone else, but I couldn't remember.

[luke]

Earlier books said someone else wrote a version of it and Georgia "fixed it up" but I guess that was inaccurate. Ms Horton apparently felt with Fakelettes out there, whats the point--sad; and I thinks she has had her own issues.

[randy_russi]

Well, luke, William Garrett had written a song called Please Mr. Postman, but it was a blues song. Georgia liked the title
and totally revamped the song. William Garrett supposedly said she could have the title if she gave him a credit as
a writer. So, basically, Georgia did write the song when presented to Motown, who told them they needed original
material. Wanda's brother, James Young, wrote the B side, So Long Baby.

[mellow_q]

Hi everyone,

I'm just getting to this thread. Most of the info here is correct, particularly about Georgia & William's involvement with "Please Mr. Postman." It was pretty much their baby. Once the song got to Motown, somehow Robert Bateman's name got on it, along with Freddie Gorman, who was a postman at the time. I had left a phone message with Mr. Gorman re. an interview for the book. He was gracious enough to call me back and admit that he really didn't have anything to do with the group / song. [[Mr. Bateman declined an interview).

Also, a "recent" photo of Georgia Dobbins with Katherine and Juanita/Wyanetta appears in a 2005 issue of Jet magazine with Fantasia on the cover. For those who are interested, you should have no problem getting it on Ebay. That's where I got mine.

I haven't spoken to Georgia in some time, but she does get royalties for "PMP."

Happy Holidays,
Marc T.

[luke]

Great info Marc--thx; would you say considering the popularity of the song and the Beatles and Carpenters remakes, the royalties are significant as in making all the writers wealthy-just trying to figure out all this royalty stuff. Considering Beatles sales alone Id think so.

[keith_hughes]

When I interviewed Mr Bateman [[for the Satintones CD essay), I asked him if co-writing "Please Mr Postman" hadn't made him a millionaire. He chuckled, and said "Not quite!". He chuckled a lot in the interview, he seemed like a nice man. His memory is spot on, he even sang me snatches from a few of the then-unreleased tunes from the CD down the phone ...

[jobeterob]

Several years ago when R. Dean Taylor was on here briefly, he said that the royalties from a song like Love Child, after being divided a few ways, amounted to not very much.

I've heard a story that record companies can put a song on a compilation for amounts like $500 in royalties; don't know what that one came from; it might have been Dean himself.

[motownjohnny]

If anyone has a copy of Marc Taylor's book "The Marvelettes Motown's Mystery Girl Group" there is a small black and white photo of Georgia Dobbins taken at Inkster High School in 1959 to be found on page 12. As she was never signed to Motown as a Marvelette there are no photos of her performing in the group that I know of.