The Marvelous Marvelletes

Motown had three excellent girl groups. The Supremes had the sweetness and sophistication. The Vandellas had the amazing pipes of Martha Reeves, which could really clean the lint off of bricks at 50 yards. But pound for pound, I would have to say the Marvellettes had an amazing collective grit that really makes them my favorite Motown girl act.
People know their songs but they never really had a collective face in the way that the Supremes had Diana Ross and the Vandellas had Martha. They were somewhat faceless, but had an amazing record of 23 Top 100 hits. They can also be found as backing vocalists on numerous Motown sessions. They were also briefly known as the Darnells. I have long ago given up figuring out how vocal groups got their names, so let us just be thankful that they got known as the Marvellettes. Perhaps also leading to their lack of recognition is the fact that both Gladys Horton and Wanda Young alternated leads for their songs. They had a total of five members, in what was supposed to be a three-person, or four—person group, depending on the time of the recording. Juanita Cowart left early on. Georgeanna Gordon left about mid-stream, and lead vocalist Horton was replaced Anne Brogan late in the career of the group. So, they had somewhat of a rotating cast of characters.
Yet, their songs, though written by men, delivered a very believable female-centric view of the universe of love. My fave rave of theirs, Too Many Fish In The Sea, really tells women that they do not have to wait around for a particular man. Their uber-sexy, My Baby Must Be A Magician, has a great basso spoken-word introduction by Temptation Melvin Franklin. The otherwise sappy, Please Mr. Postman, really comes off like an urgent plea. And, who has not wanted to dial Beechwood4-5789 and ask for a date any old time.
Motown really was, at times, a family, and the Marvellettes showed that. Georgeanna Gordon was married to a Contour and Wanda Young married a Miracle.
They lasted eight years, which is really a lengthy run. When Motown shed its Detroit-roots and left for California, the Marvellettes were one of the groups left in the dust. Most of the Motown groups have Utlimate Collection CDs and the Marvellettes are no exception