Love this pic: Martha

[marybrewster]

Came across this great pic of Martha; something I've never seen before. Thought I would share.

[Roberta75]

Came across this great pic of Martha; something I've never seen before. Thought I would share.

Thank you for sharing Marybrewsters, thats a real pretty photo of Dr Reeves.

fondly,

Roberta

[RobertZ]

Just beautiful; a great find.

[Buttered Popcorn and so forth]

They should've used that picture for the covers of her 2fer CDs. j/k!

[arr&bee]

Very nice indeed.

[westgrandboulevard]

Absolutely. The candid shots of the Motown artists are often even more interesting than the studio or stage ones.

One thing strikes me, simply by viewing from a distance those album covers held by Martha.

It had never fully registered with me that the word 'Vandellas' on the 'Ridin' High' cover is larger than 'Martha Reeves'. Just in my opinion, if there were to be any difference at all, I feel it should have been the other way around. [[and it's the same with the 'Watchout!' album cover)

On their other album covers, the words 'Martha/Martha Reeves and The Vandellas' seem to be the same size.

I don't suppose it means anything at all, just an artistic interpretation for the cover, seemingly giving emphasis both to Martha, and to The Vandellas.

And the ladies did have some very good albums, both in content and for cover design.

Thank you Mary Brewster, for sharing. I'm very happy you did, as I've not seen it before.

[johnjeb]

One thing strikes me, simply by viewing from a distance those album covers held by Martha.

It had never fully registered with me that the word 'Vandellas' on the 'Ridin' High' cover is larger than 'Martha Reeves'. Just in my opinion, if there were to be any difference at all, I feel it should have been the other way around. [[and it's the same with the 'Watchout!' album cover)

On their other album covers, the words 'Martha/Martha Reeves and The Vandellas' seem to be the same size.

Ridin' High, 1968, was the first album to use Martha's last name. It may have been to introduce that new name for the group to the fans.

The same was done when The Miracles name changed to Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. Albums Going To A Go-Go, 1965, and Away We A Go-Go, 1966, have Smokey's full name in smaller letters than The Miracles name.

Same for The Supremes name change. Greatest Hits, 1967, and Reflections, 1968, show Diana Ross' name in smaller letters than the group name.

Appears maybe late 1968 Motown started using the same font and size for both lead singer and group names, and in my opinion, usually less graphically and artistically interesting, in most cases.

[westgrandboulevard]

By the later '60s, it is likely that different design people may have been working for Motown.

Agreed.....a different font, size and colour to distinguish the lead singer from the group name would seem to have much greater visual appeal for, say, the promotion of concert dates.

Although there were several great lead singers [[Martha, Smokey, Diana...) who emerged from '60s Motown groups to begin solo careers, Motown would have had to carefully plan the transformation in each case. While there was a much better chance of success, there was no guarantee of it for a former lead singer, simply because the group name was previously well known.

Around the mid 60s, Motown enjoyed strong recognition for its group names [[Miracles, Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops, Marvelettes.....

Even when the name of the lead singer was given prominence, it seems that the group name may often, if not always, have been used for the studio session logs - for example, 'Vandellas'.

[captainjames]

yes love it and have seen it before ...............may I please add this as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/1...9-6dcd245b6266