Martha and the Vandellas were an American vocal girl group formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown.
Martha Rose Reeves is an American R&B and pop singer. She is the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas which scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Come and Get These Memories", "Nowhere to Run", "Heat Wave", "Jimmy Mack", and their signature "Dancing in the Street". From 2005 until 2009, Reeves served as an elected council woman for the city of Detroit, Michigan. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Syreeta Wright, who recorded professionally under the single name Syreeta, was an American singer-songwriter, best known for her music during the early 1970s through the early 1980s. Wright's career heights were songs in collaboration with her ex-husband Stevie Wonder and musical artist Billy Preston.
The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers, among others. It is estimated they appeared on 20,000 recordings.
"Dancing in the Street" is a song written by Marvin Gaye, William "Mickey" Stevenson and Ivy Jo Hunter. It first became popular in 1964 when recorded by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas whose version reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart. It is one of Motown's signature songs and is the group's premier signature song. A 1966 cover by the Mamas & the Papas was a minor hit on the Hot 100 reaching No. 73. In 1982, the rock group Van Halen took their cover of "Dancing in the Street" to No. 38 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 15 in Canada on the RPM chart. A 1985 duet cover by David Bowie and Mick Jagger charted at No. 1 in the UK and reached No. 7 in the US. The song has been covered by many other artists, including The Kinks, Tages, Grateful Dead, Little Richard, Myra, and The Struts.
"Pride and Joy" is a 1963 single by Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label. The single, co-written by William "Mickey" Stevenson, Gaye and Norman Whitfield, and produced by Stevenson, was considered to be a tribute to Gaye's then-girlfriend, Anna Gordy. The album version of the single featured on Gaye's second album, That Stubborn Kinda Fellow is different in parts to the single version presenting a more jazz effect than the gospel-emulated version that became a single. The song was also Gaye's first top ten pop single peaking at number ten on the chart and just missed the top spot of the R&B singles chart peaking at number two. The song also helped continue Gaye's successful hit streak as the singer would score another Top 40 pop hit at the end of that year with "Can I Get a Witness".
That Stubborn Kinda Fellow is the second studio album by Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label in 1963. The second LP Gaye released on the label, it also produced his first batch of successful singles for the label and established Gaye as one of the label's first hit-making acts in its early years.
"Heat Wave" is a 1963 song written by the Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting team. It was first made popular by the Motown vocal group Martha and the Vandellas. Released as a 45 rpm single on July 9, 1963, on the Motown subsidiary Gordy label, it hit number one on the Billboard Hot R&B chart—where it stayed for four weeks—and peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rosalind "Roz" Ashford-Holmes is an American soprano R&B and soul singer, known for her work as an original member of the Motown singing group Martha and the Vandellas.
"My Baby Loves Me" is a 1966 soul standard by Martha Reeves but released under Martha and The Vandellas. None of the Vandellas are featured in this song. Instead, the background is sung by Motown's session group, The Andantes, and another legendary Motown group, The Four Tops. Co-written and co-produced by William "Mickey" Stevenson & Ivy Jo Hunter, the song rose to #22 on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and #3 on Billboard's Hot R&B singles chart.
"I'm Ready for Love" is a 1966 single by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. The song, produced and written by Holland–Dozier–Holland, and was written in a similar style to The Supremes' smash hit, "You Can't Hurry Love".
"Jimmy Mack" is a pop/soul song that in 1967 became a hit single by Martha and the Vandellas for Motown's Gordy imprint. Written and produced by Motown's main creative team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, "Jimmy Mack" was the final Top 10 pop hit for the Vandellas in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 and at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. Billboard named the song #82 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.
"Forget Me Not" is a 1968 single by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. Though the song failed to ignite charts in America, barely hitting the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 93, and failing to chart on the US R&B charts, it became a hit on the UK Singles Chart singles chart peaking at No. 11 netting them their biggest UK hit in several years.
"(We've Got) Honey Love" is a 1967 song by Motown girl group The Velvelettes that later became a 1969 single released by another Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas from their album Ridin' High released in 1968. The song returned the Vandellas to the top forty of Billboard's R&B singles chart where it peaked at number twenty-seven while it hit the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at number fifty-seven. It was the group's sixth record where they were listed as Martha Reeves and the Vandellas following the successful "Honey Chile" single two years earlier. The song talked of how one woman's lover's charm was like "sugar and spice" adding names of candy and soda adding "a little bit of me, a little bit of you and we've got honey love." The Velvelettes, meanwhile, had recorded two versions of the song, both of which would go unreleased for almost 40 years. All three versions were written by Richard Morris and Sylvia Moy, and produced by Morris. Every version also used the same track with The Andantes as background vocals.
"Love " is a 1965 pop ballad by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. A rare ballad for the group, whose forte was reportedly uptempo soul dance numbers including "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run", the b-side to the group's single, "You've Been in Love Too Long", although the song only peaked at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and #22 on the Billboard Hot R&B singles chart, it was number one on many American urban radio playlists.The song, written and produced by Holland–Dozier–Holland, has the narrator explain why love makes her do things she later regrets. Cash Box described it as a "plaintive, slow-shufflin’ heart-throbber with a nostalgic years-back sound."
Watchout! is the fourth studio album and fifth album overall by Martha and the Vandellas, released on the Gordy (Motown) label in 1966. The album included the top 10 hit singles, "I'm Ready for Love" and "Jimmy Mack" and the ballad single, "What Am I Gonna Do Without Your Love?". This was one of the last albums by the group with songs by Holland–Dozier–Holland who, the following year, left Motown, and with William "Mickey" Stevenson, who helped put the group on the musical map. The title of the album was derived from a song on the B-side of their hit single "My Baby Loves Me" entitled "Never Leave Your Baby's Side". That song's chorus warned to "Watchout!" for "other girls" who could steal your man.
Sugar 'n' Spice is a 1969 soul album released by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas on the Gordy (Motown) label. The album was released during a troubling and downward time for the lead singer, Martha Reeves, who was now heavily addicted to painkillers. Like many Motown albums of the late sixties, the album was produced by several in-house producers including Ashford & Simpson, Frank Wilson and Deke Richards. Two tracks were in the can from Holland–Dozier–Holland. The modest R&B hit (#44), "Taking My Love " is featured on this album. Although new member and former Velvelettes member Sandra Tilley is featured on the album cover, her vocals do not appear on the album. Instead, tracks were used with Rosalind Ashford, Lois Reeves with additional vocals accompanied by The Andantes and Syreeta Wright.
Sandra Delores Reeves, better known as Lois Reeves, is an American singer, most notable for being the younger sister of Motown legend Martha Reeves, for having replaced popular Martha and the Vandellas member Betty Kelly as member of her sister's group in 1967, and for later singing background for records by Al Green in the 1970s as a member of the backing group Quiet Elegance. Lois' nickname was "Pee Wee" as she is only 5'1" tall.
"Mickey's Monkey" is a 1963 song recorded by the R&B group The Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla label. It was written and produced by Motown's main songwriting team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, who later went on to write two more Miracles hit singles, the Top 40 "I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying", and the Top 20 "(Come 'Round Here) I'm The One You Need". This was unusual, as most Miracles songs were composed by the group members themselves.
One to One is the third studio album released by American R&B singer and songwriter Syreeta Wright in February 1977 by Motown. It serves as her first album Wright released where former husband Stevie Wonder did not oversee most of its production, instead only being involved with the song "Harmour Love", which was released as a single.
