The Marvelettes/NOW IS THE TIME FOR LOVE [1969]

[Methuselah2]

A great, romance-infused Marvelettes tune written by James Dean, Stephen Bowden, & William Weatherspoon.

Featuring Wanda Rogers on lead.

Originally appeared on the album IN FULL BLOOM.

With many thanks to Adrian Fisher for the YouTube posting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5qozMz_ELg

"Your waiting's over, darling. So come and walk with me."

[daviddesper]

I liked that song and for that matter the entire album. Never could quite figure out why it wasn't better received. My other favorite song from the album was Love Silent, Love Deep.

[kenneth]

I love "Now is the Time for Love" too. Of course Wanda could sing the phone book and I'd be happy.

I do think "In Full Bloom" has always been underrated as an album, but I think it suffers a bit from too many similar sounding tunes and arrangements. For example "Sunshine Days" is almost the same song as "Rainy Mourning" just sliced a little differently. And even "Now is the Time for Love" is very close thematically and musically to "At Last I See Love As It Really Is." I was surprised when the box set came out and so many of these songs had been written and recorded several years apart. They seemed so close in terms of style and mood.

Still, the album contains some truly outstanding tracks: their versions of "That's How Heartaches Are Made" and "Uptown," "Seeing is Believing," "Too Many Tears, Too Many Times," and even though "Rainy Mourning" and "Sunshine Days" are quite similar, they're both great songs.

[Methuselah2]

Kenneth - I think you truly pinpointed the issues with IN FULL BLOOM perfectly. I whole-heartedly concur with your studied assessment. As with David's response above, as well, it always means so much to me to hear that The Marvelettes also mean so much to others as I, too, have always felt about them. Recognition of them seems to be extremely meaningful to me. And I feel the same way about many other Motown artists.

[kenneth]

Thanks Methuselah! I really appreciate that. Wanda could do amazing things with her voice. It's really a shame she stopped recording when she did, except for those sporadic sessions with Ian Levine.