LOL! According to Katherine's comments in Marc Taylor's book about the later years with The Marvelettes, the answer would indeed seem to be "yes".....:rolleyes:
LOL! According to Katherine's comments in Marc Taylor's book about the later years with The Marvelettes, the answer would indeed seem to be "yes".....:rolleyes:
i've always thought the Andantes joined the girls on Too Many Fish In the Sea. obviously the four marvelettes share the lead lines. but i think there are session singers doing the 3 or 4 part harmony when they sing "too many fish in the sea, too many fish in the sea." the harmonies are perfect and really balanced. That's not typically how the marvelettes sounded.
Is that really true, that The Marvelettes had no soprano voices ? I canīt belive it because I never read anything about that fact in the Marvelettes book. I think in the marvelettes book must be documentary that fact !
Well I think in my opinion only The Supremes were a unique group with unique voices from 1962 - 1967. For example The Marvelettes or Martha Reeves and The Vandellas were defined over the lead singer. I have open a new thread after reading that The Marvelettes have no Live recordings in the faults from 1966 - 1969 ! Maybe it was impossible for the group to perform on stage, because of the missing voices or the sound was too bad ?
I don't have the Marvelettes book in front of me, but I thought there was a section that listed the different voices in the group, as to who was a soprano, alto, etc.
Re their onstage ability, maybe they couldn't duplicate the exact sound that the Andantes added to their recordings, but I doubt Motown would have kept the group on the road if they weren't able to perform well on stage.
Yes, Reese, it's noted on Page 9 of Mark Taylor's book.
Technically, Katherine was considered to have a mezzo-soprano singing voice [[sometimes known as second soprano), which meant she would have the ability to sing higher notes than many contr[[alto) singers.
The Marvelettes could sing in harmony, and certainly did so on their earlier recordings, and it has to be assumed that Katherine would have sung the top notes.
With the change in members over the years, and who were generally all alto singing voices, it certainly sounds as if the group's harmonies were brought down the scale a little, perhaps to make their sound more mellow?
In that event, Katherine would still sing the top notes, but just not as near the top of her range, and so singing more as if she were a natural alto.
Increasingly, The Marvelettes seemed to be recorded singing more in unison, with The Andantes brought in to harmonise, and singing higher notes, simply to enhance the recordings.
There is nothing unusual about a female group featuring all alto voices, and who can harmonise, but just not at the top end of the singing scale. ...
The Marvelettes were very talented, who not only could sing, but could put on a great, energetic show.
It just seems that, for whatever reasons there may be, their talents did not reach their full potential. And I think that is something we all regret....
A few years ago, there was at least one pic [[maybe several?) posted on SD of Wanda, Kat/herine and Ann, on-stage.
Different pic from the one on the back of the cover for 'Best Of The Marvelettes', released in January 1975, here in the UK. I don't think 'Anthology' had an official release here, but I picked up a copy...[[and remember being disappointed there was no booklet:[[).
Can anyone remember the pic[[s), know how to locate them, and post them here- ?
I've only seen one photo of Ann on stage with the group. They had on pink dresses, and Kat was in the middle. It looked like they were on stage at the Twenty Grand. It was in the book MOTOWN THE HISTORY by Sharon Davis.
I just saw it during a Google image search. It has a Getty Images stamp on it.
Yes, that's indeed the photo on the reverse of the UK 'Best Of' release.
It has [[Hamilton) Bohannon's band sign shown in the background.
The Marvelettes look so good there, really cool and elegant in those long pink gowns....but I guess they had toned down their act towards the end of the '60s.
There's definitely at least one more on-stage pic out there, somewhere......
complex harmonies require much more than simply being in the range of a singer. being a soprano, mezzo, alto, etc simply identifies where the center of your range is - where you're able to easily and comfortably hit notes outside of headvoice. being able to shift or jump from a unison line or melody and into harmony requires vocal skill, training and talent. As Gladys mentions in the Marvelettes book, she felt that the group simply didn't have that skill, as opposed to the Supremes. their ability to quickly and accurately record harmonies is probably much of the decision to have them simply sing in unison and then add the andantes.
When the girls were doing their earlier work, it was a more teen-age/girl group sound and approach. the phase has been used that they were "adolescently off key" which was fine for songs like Playboy and Please Mr postman. But as they matured and advanced into more sophisticated songs, that doesn't work as well. Maybe if they had more time to rehearse the material and prepare, they could have done it. but motown was wanting to move fast and it was just easier to have the andantes do it.
Can someone post the front of the Marvelettes Greatest Hits album? I've never seen this LP before. Beautiful photo on the back, have never seen that before either.
Here it is Kenneth :
https://img.discogs.com/tmoMBPLpxXT6...-9339.jpeg.jpg