The Marvelettes were an American girl group formed in Inkster, Michigan in 1960, consisting of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart (now Cowart Motley), and Georgia Dobbins, who was replaced by Wanda Young prior to the group signing their first record deal. Achieving popularity in the early to mid-1960s, they were the first successful act of Motown Records after the Miracles and its first significantly successful female group after the release of the 1961 number-one single, "Please Mr. Postman", one of the first number-one singles recorded by an all-female vocal group and the first by a Motown recording act.
The group struggled with problems of poor promotion from Motown, health issues and substance abuse, with Cowart the first to leave in 1963, followed by Tillman in 1965, and Horton in 1967. Nevertheless, they managed a comeback in 1966 with "Don't Mess with Bill". In 1969, the group ceased performing and disbanded the next year, following the release of The Return of the Marvelettes featuring only Young (under her married name, Wanda Rogers). That year, both Rogers and Katherine Anderson retired from the music business.
History Origins and initial success The group that would become the Marvelettes formed at Inkster High School in Inkster, Michigan, a suburb located west of Detroit, Michigan by fifteen-year-old glee club member Gladys Horton in the fall of 1960. Horton enlisted older glee club members Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, and a high school graduate Georgia Dobbins (May 5, 1942 – September 18, 2020) to join her.Warner, Jay (2006). American Singing Groups: A History from 1940 to Today (Hal Leonard) p. 421. . The members struggled to come up with a name for their new act until one of the members jokingly took a stab at their own singing abilities, saying "we can't sing yet." Horton altered the saying to "the Casinyets".
In 1961, the quintet, now called the Marvels, entered a talent show contest on the behest of their teacher and ended up finishing in fourth place. Though only the first three winners were offered a trip to audition for the fledgling Motown label, two of the girls' schoolteachers advised that they be allowed to audition too. Upon auditioning for Motown executives including Brian Holland and Robert Bateman, they had a second audition with bigger staff including Smokey Robinson and the label president and founder, Berry Gordy, who while impressed with their vocal styles advised them to come back with their own composition. Returning to Inkster, Georgia Dobbins contacted a local musician named William Garrett, who had an unfinished blues composition titled "Please Mr. Postman"; Garrett allowed Dobbins to use it as long as he received songwriting credit if the song became a hit. Despite having no previous songwriting experience, Dobbins took the song home and reshaped it overnight to reflect the teenage sound of doo-wop.Warner (2006), p. 421.
Prior to returning to Motown, Dobbins left the group due to her growing family and her father, who advised her not to continue her career in show business. Dobbins' departure left Horton in full charge of the group. To replace her, Horton asked another Inkster graduate, Wanda Young, to replace Dobbins. When the group returned and performed their composition, Gordy agreed to work with the group but under the advice that they change their name. Gordy renamed them the Marvelettes and signed the act to Motown's Tamla division in July 1961. The following month, the group recorded "Please Mr. Postman", which was polished by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman and Freddie Gorman, another songwriting partner of Holland (before Holland became part of the Holland–Dozier–Holland team), who moonlighted as a mailman, as well as the song "So Long Baby", sung by Wanda. Tamla issued "Please Mr. Postman" on August 21, 1961. The song then climbed to the top of the singles chart, reaching number one that December, making them the first Motown act to have a chart-topper on the Hot 100.
To follow up on this success, Motown had the group record "Twistin' Postman" to take advantage of the twist dance craze and the re-release of Chubby Checker's "The Twist". The song eventually peaked at number 34 on the pop chart in early 1962. Before the end of 1961, Tamla issued the first Marvelettes album, also named Please Mr. Postman, but it failed to chart. The group's next single, "Playboy", marked the second time one of their singles was written by a band member, this time by Gladys Horton. Like "Postman", the song was retooled by other writers and upon its release in early 1962, reached number 7. A fourth hit, "Beechwood 4-5789", co-written by Marvin Gaye, reached number 17. During 1962, two more albums would be issued by the band including Smash Hits of '62 (later issued as The Marvelettes Sing) and Playboy. Following the success of "Beechwood", R&B radio stations also frequently played the single's flip side, "Someday, Someway", which paid off sending the song to number 8 on the R&B chart; their first double-sided hit.
Due to their success, the group had to leave school in order to perform and despite the promise of tutors to help with their schooling, they were never granted any. Due to their young ages and Horton being an orphaned ward of the courts, they eventually were taken in by Esther Gordy Edwards, who bused them to Motortown Revue shows. After several successful top 40 recordings, the group released the modest success, "Strange I Know", which peaked at number 49. In early 1963, the group was shortened to a quartet when Juanita Cowart opted to leave, citing a mental breakdown caused by stress from performing on the road, and her embarrassment at getting flustered during an interview appearance on American Bandstand (wherein she identified Detroit as a suburb of Inkster, rather than the other way around). Carrying on as a quartet, the group issued one of Holland–Dozier–Holland's early compositions, "Locking Up My Heart", which peaked at number 44. It was one of the first singles to feature Horton and Young in co-leads. The success of "Locking" was probably tested due to strong airplay by the song's B-side, the Young-led ballad "Forever", which also received a pop charting, peaking at number 78. Then Berry Gordy composed and produced the single, "My Daddy Knows Best", but it was their lowest charting at the time, number 67.
Departure of Georgeanna Tillman and renewed success By 1964, the majority of American vocal groups—especially all female bands such as the Shirelles and the Ronettes—started struggling with finding a hit, after the arrival of British pop and rock acts. In the meantime, other Motown girl groups such as Martha and the Vandellas and the Supremes were starting to get promoted by Motown staff, with the Vandellas becoming the top girl group of 1963. The following year, the Supremes took their place as the label's top female vocalist group after a succession of hit recordings that year, culminating in the release of their second album, Where Did Our Love Go, which Motown was able to promote successfully. Some sources claim "Where Did Our Love Go" was turned down by the Marvelettes.Taylor, Marc (2004), The Original Marvelettes: Motown's Mystery Girl Group (Aloiv Publishing), p. 97. . 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'."
That year, the Marvelettes hit the top forty with the Norman Whitfield production, "Too Many Fish in the Sea", reaching number 25 on the Hot 100 with the recording. By now Motown had begun its charm school, hiring choreographer Cholly Atkins and etiquette expert Maxine Powell to refine the label's acts. Atkins began polishing the Marvelettes' dance moves, while Powell taught the group to be more graceful, telling them and every other Motown act that they would "perform in front of kings and queens". Meanwhile, two of the Marvelettes got married: Georgeanna Tillman to longtime boyfriend Billy Gordon of the Contours, and Wanda Young to longtime boyfriend Bobby Rogers of the Miracles, changing her name to Wanda Rogers. By the end of 1964, Georgeanna Tillman, a longtime sufferer of sickle cell anemia, was diagnosed with lupus. By early 1965, struggling to keep up with their stringent recording sessions and touring schedules and her illnesses, a doctor of Tillman's advised her to leave performing for good. The remaining Marvelettes carried on as a trio from then on.
In mid-1965, Wanda Rogers took over as lead vocalist, as Motown producers felt Rogers' voice was more suitable for this role than Horton's. With Rogers as lead, the group had a hit with "I'll Keep Holding On", which reached number 34 while "Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead" settled for a number 61 showing but was number 11 on the R&B chart. Later in 1965, the group released the Smokey Robinson composition, "Don't Mess with Bill", which brought the group back to the top ten, reaching number 7 and becoming their second single to sell over a million copies. From then on, with Robinson mainly in charge, most of the Marvelettes singles would feature Rogers on lead. In 1966, they had a modest success with "You're the One" and by the end of that year, they reached the top 20 with "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game", also composed by Robinson. In 1967, the group recorded the Van McCoy composition, "When You're Young and in Love", which had been originally recorded by Ruby & the Romantics. The song reached number 23 in the U.S. and peaked at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming their only British hit.
Decline By 1967, Gladys Horton had reconsidered her involvement with the Marvelettes. After her first child, Sammie, was born with cerebral palsy, Horton decided to leave the group entirely, doing so before the release of the hit "My Baby Must Be a Magician". The song peaked at number 17 and was noted for featuring the Temptations' Melvin Franklin providing the opening line. With Horton out, Harvey Fuqua introduced the group to Ann Bogan who became Horton's replacement. However, by the time Bogan joined the group in 1968, most of the musicians of Motown's early years had left, mainly due to financial disputes with the label. The group struggled with recordings after the release of "Magician", with Motown offering little to no promotion. The 1968 singles "Here I Am Baby" and "Destination: Anywhere" were only modestly successful, peaking at number 44 and number 63 respectively. The release of their 1969 album, In Full Bloom, failed as did its only single, the remake of Justine Washington's "That's How Heartaches Are Made".
Wanda Rogers, who had suffered from a number of personal problems for some time, became unreliable and difficult to work with, as she was taking charge of the group. Concert scheduling was difficult as she sometimes failed to show up for performances. In August 1969 at the University of Detroit, Elizabeth Woods stood in for Wanda, with Katherine and Ann. This was likely one of the last live performances of the Marvelettes.