Encyclopedia Britannica Entry - The Marvelettes

[copley]

Well what's good for the goose etc .........

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...he-Marvelettes

the Marvelettes, American girl group formed in 1961 whose principal members were Gladys Horton [[b. 1944, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—d. Jan. 26, 2011, Sherman Oaks, Calif.), Wanda Young [[b. 1944, Detroit, Mich.), Georgeanna Tillman [[b. Feb. 6, 1943, Detroit, Mich.—d. Jan. 6, 1980, Detroit), Katherine Anderson [[b. Jan. 16, 1944, Ann Arbor, Mich.), and Wyanetta Cowart [[b. 1944, Detroit, Mich.).

Originally billed as the Casinyets [[a name derived from the phrase “can’t sing yet”) and later called the Marvels, the Marvelettes were a collection of high school friends from the Detroit suburb of Inkster. The quintet was organized by Horton to perform at a talent show that offered as its top prize an audition with a scout from Motown Records. Although the group failed to win, they were allowed to attend the audition. The Motown representative advised the group to work on some original material, and the result was the song “"Please Mr. Postman."” Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr., signed the singers, and a reworked “"Please Mr. Postman,"” featuring a young Marvin Gaye on drums, was released as their debut single. The song went to the top of the pop charts, and it provided Motown with its first number one single. Other successful singles by the Marvelettes followed, including “"Playboy"” [[1962), “"Beechwood 4-5789"” [[1962), and “"Too Many Fish in the Sea"” [[1964). Perhaps most notable during the group’s later career was the song that they chose not to record—the Holland-Dozier-Holland-written track “"Where Did Our Love Go?"” [[1964), which proved to be a huge hit for the then-struggling Supremes. As Motown’s business objectives changed, support for the Marvelettes waned, and the group drifted apart in the late 1960s.

[jobeterob]

Good Man Copley.

I wonder what's up with Britannica; I guess they are moving into everything.

Now I'm wondering if we'll see an entry for Mary Wilson pop up here. If there is one, they we know they've got "everything" covered.

[midnightman]

Either that has always been included on Britannica or the Marvelettes are finally getting some more recognition.

[jobeterob]

They must be on a publicity kick and pushing the online, perhaps revised version.

I put in the name Mary Wilson and it refers you to the Supremes. And I tried to read that and then it wanted me to register and pay.

[marybrewster]

Here's the Supremes 101 entry:

The Supremes, American pop-soul vocal group whose tremendous popularity with a broad audience made its members among the most successful performers of the 1960s and the flagship act of Motown Records. The principal members of the group were Diana Ross [[byname of Diane Earle; b. March 26, 1944, Detroit, Mich., U.S.), Florence Ballard [[b. June 30, 1943, Detroit —d. Feb. 22, 1976, Detroit), Mary Wilson [[b. March 6, 1944, Greenville, Miss.), and Cindy Birdsong [[b. Dec. 15, 1939, Camden, N.J.).

Not only were the Supremes the Motown label’s primary crossover act, they also helped change the public image of African Americans during the civil rights era. With their sequined evening gowns and the sophisticated pop-soul swing given them by the songwriting-production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland from 1964 to 1967, the Supremes were the idealized look and sound of the “integrated Negro.” Indeed, the youth of America learned many of its first lessons about racial equality from teen magazines that documented every hyperglamourized move the Supremes made as they went from topping the pop chart to appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to sold-out Las Vegas, Nevada, bookings.

Their story began humbly enough when a group of working-class girls from Detroit’s Brewster public housing project formed a singing group called the Primettes, their name derived from their sister-act association with the Primes, a forerunner of the Temptations. The details of the group’s formation [[namely, who came first) have been disputed, but, from a series of permutations of five principals [[including, initially, Betty McGlown), a quartet emerged that comprised Ballard, Barbara Martin, Ross, and Wilson. After recording briefly with Lupine Records, the quartet signed with Berry Gordy’s Motown Records in 1960. They changed their name to the Supremes before releasing their first Motown single in 1961, and upon the subsequent departure of Martin the remaining trio went on to score five U.S. number one hits in a row between 1964 and 1965.

But the Supremes didn’t catch on right away. It took a while to create the distinctive look and sound that ultimately made them famous. Gordy unsuccessfully paired the group with different musicians and songs for three years until he finally stumbled upon the right formula. In 1964 Holland-Dozier-Holland gave the Supremes their first number one single with “Where Did Our Love Go.” Embellishing Ross’s precise, breathy phrasing with chiming bells and a subdued rhythm section gave the Supremes an intentional lack of identifiable ethnicity. Not really sounding “white” or stereotypically “black,” hit singles like “Baby Love” and “Come See About Me” [[both 1964) sounded modern, upwardly mobile, and stylishly sensual in a way that appealed equally to adults and teens of all persuasions.

The group continued to rack up chart-topping hits but was ultimately pulled apart by conflicting individual and corporate ambitions. By the end of 1967, the Supremes had lost both Ballard [[who was replaced by Birdsong) and producers Holland-Dozier-Holland. The group continued recording for two more years as Diana Ross and the Supremes, largely to prepare the public for Ross’s solo career. Jean Terrell became the first of many new group members who helped Wilson keep the Supremes alive and recording for seven years after Ross departed in 1970.

[copley]

This is a Marvelettes thread so why post an unreleased story? No wonder some people get tired and don't post

[copley]

The good old days with the Marvelettes up where they belong

[marybrewster]

This is a Marvelettes thread so why post an unreleased story? No wonder some people get tired and don't post[[

I assume this is directed at me; I can clearly see this is a Marvelettes thread, but if you'll look at the reply directly above mine, you'll find:

I put in the name Mary Wilson and it refers you to the Supremes. And I tried to read that and then it wanted me to register and pay.

I thought I was being polite by assisting another board member by posting what they weren't able to see. I'm so, so sorry if I offended anyone here. However I don't think it's posting like these that tire people out and keep them from posting.

[marybrewster]

And for the record, Brittanica is wrong:

Perhaps most notable during the group’s later career was the song that they chose not to record—the Holland-Dozier-Holland-written track “"Where Did Our Love Go?"” [[1964), which proved to be a huge hit for the then-struggling Supremes.

That is simply a Motown myth.

[copley]

Mary, no it's not a myth. The Marvelettes, Gladys Horton in particular, turned down the opportunity to record 'Where Did Our Love Go'

[marybrewster]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o-4_1CAY-c

Starts at 13:29

Eddie Holland on "Where Did Our Love Go": "There was never a consideration of anybody but the Supremes.....it was never meant for them [[the Marvelettes). Never created for them".

[jobeterob]

Interesting. HDH were there and did it. But the Where Did Our Love Go story has been spread far and wide and the myth is accepted as fact, as you saw Mary Wilson repeating in the video.

[marybrewster]

Interesting. HDH were there and did it. But the Where Did Our Love Go story has been spread far and wide and the myth is accepted as fact, as you saw Mary Wilson repeating in the video.

Even Otis mentions the story. But how can you dispute the writer/producer? Eddie says that the story may have been a "razz" between the groups, but clearly states it was meant for the Supremes.

Perhaps this is one of those instances when if you repeat a story or you hear a story long enough, it becomes true? Ot perhaps this was just the "Motown Machine" at work; itsn;t it a twist of fate that the Marvelettes paved the way for the Supremes.....who knows.

I'll have to check my Marvelettes book to see what Kat says about this. If memory serves me well, I thought she said she had no recollection of "WDOLG" being groomed for her group.....

[radionixon]

Gladys Horton, in the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 4: “When they played us the band track of Where Did Our Love Go, they also played us the band track of Too Many Fish In The Sea. We picked “Too Many Fish” becuase it had all of the music and the bongos. If you listen to it without the lyrics, you hear all of the music. When you listen to Where Did Our Love Go without the lyrics, you hear nothing.”

Katherine Anderson Schaffner, talking to Goldmine: “That was a very good song, but it really wasn’t a song for us… The tempo of it was rather slow. And the voicing and stuff like that was rather slow. I can’t imagine us, the Marvelettes, which was a high-spirited kind of group, doing something like Where Did Our Love Go?. Even though we did ballads, I couldn’t imagine that we would have done that one. I don’t know that [[Wanda and Gladys) had that much clout to say what they would take or what they wouldn’t take. And I think Too Many Fish In The Sea did us very well.”

You pays your money, you takes your choice.

[[Though I wonder how "don't dispute the writer/producer" is a killer argument here, but not when it comes to Valerie Simpson and Tammi Terrell...?)

[jobeterob]

Overall, it is a story that much more is made of than is actually true.

That is one of my objections to the book, Call Her Miss Ross. Randy obviously loved and lived Diana Ross, the Supremes and Motown. But much of the book is hearsay gleaned from people who had no close connection to the parties and had been told something by someone else. Because it was one of the early books, much of it was taken as accurate and repeated and now when some of the actual parties speak about the events, it is turning out some of the hearsay and gossip isn't accurate.

[copley]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o-4_1CAY-c

Starts at 13:29

Eddie Holland on "Where Did Our Love Go": "There was never a consideration of anybody but the Supremes.....it was never meant for them [[the Marvelettes). Never created for them".

Page 97 of The Original Marvelettes: Motown's Mystery Girl Group by Marc Taylor.

Gladys recalls "When they played 'Where Did Our Love Go' they played 'Too Many Fish In The Sea' . We picked 'Too Many Fish In The Sea' because it had all the music and all the bongos. We were all together and said at the same time we didn't want 'Where Did Our Love Go'."

[jobeterob]

Where Did Our Love Go is a really simple song; with the hand claps, backgrounds and Diana's vocal, it could have easily sucked.

[midnightman]

The good old days with the Marvelettes up where they belong

Their names in BIG letters haha perfect.

[midnightman]

And for the record, Brittanica is wrong:

Perhaps most notable during the group’s later career was the song that they chose not to record—the Holland-Dozier-Holland-written track “"Where Did Our Love Go?"” [[1964), which proved to be a huge hit for the then-struggling Supremes.

That is simply a Motown myth.

I hate when some Motown myths keep on being passed around. They weren't even the first choice. No other group but...THAT group that shouldn't be mentioned.

[midnightman]

Page 97 of The Original Marvelettes: Motown's Mystery Girl Group by Marc Taylor.

Gladys recalls "When they played 'Where Did Our Love Go' they played 'Too Many Fish In The Sea' . We picked 'Too Many Fish In The Sea' because it had all the music and all the bongos. We were all together and said at the same time we didn't want 'Where Did Our Love Go'."

So someone misquoted Gladys?! Disrespectful. I'm looking at you SUPREMES! J. Randy Taraborelli sucks as a writer by the way.