A few questions on the Vandellas...

[marv2]

Annette in recent interview said the story of her leaving on her own was BS-will find article. I dont know if Vandellas any different from other groups with a lead singer who wanted someone out--ever hear of the Supremes??!!

Yeah, I've heard of them. In another thread here about Blues & Soul's "Motown Story" issue. In the article it states that Florence Ballard left the group to go solo and to pursue business interests outside of show business. About a year and a half earlier they were saying that Florence "left" to settle down and have a family.

[radionixon]

I believe it's Gloria Jean Williamson, and not "Williams" as per Wikipedia, though I'm prepared to be corrected!

If the late Vandellas story is an acrimonious minefield, the early Vandellas story is just a complete mess - no two sources, even primary sources, from people who were there at the time, are completely reconcilable with each other. I tried to untangle the whole thing a few weeks ago and come up with a narrative that made sense - which necessarily meant choosing, in quite a few places, to go with one recorded version of events over another - while talking about the "Saundra Mallett and the Vandellas" single:

Camel Walk

...which I then added to when discussing the first releases by "Martha and the Vandellas":

I'll Have To Let Him Go
My Baby Won't Come Back

...and then "the Vells":

You'll Never Cherish A Love So True [[Until You Lose It)
There He Is [[At My Door)

...but even then, there's still a lot of confusion, and I'm sure that some of what I've said is almost certainly wrong. A lot of the stuff that's been said over the last 50 years [[be it here in this thread, elsewhere on the Internet, in people's books, in interviews back in the Sixties, you name it) simply isn't possible when you look at some of the data that's since become available, most notably the studio recording dates and facsimile record orders in the TCMS 2 liner notes - and since almost 50 years have passed, I doubt there'll ever be a definitive, approved, "canon" version of events that everyone involved can agree on.

[mellow_q]

Midnightman said: "As for the former Vandellas, it's strange how we never hear of their dealings with Motown besides from Martha but I guess the media doesn't cover them as much as they do the Supremes, or even the Temptations [[to a lesser degree)."


Unlike most of the other Motown artists, when the Vandellas left the limelight [[Rosalind, Annette, Betty Kelley), they went and got regular jobs, worked them for 25-30-plus years, get a decent pension, are content, and have better [[dare I say "more positive") things to do with their lives than bitch about what may have happened 40 - 45 years ago.

By the way, from what I rememeber, I think it was Harvey Fuqua who recommended Ann to the Marvelettes.

Marc Taylor

[marv2]

Marc, you are right about Harvey introducing Ann Bogan to the Marvelettes.