The Marvelettes deserve to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as of 35 years ago. I'm also glad that their label mate Mary Wilson fought to get the Truth In Rock bill passed and that bill prevents fake and imposter groups from performing and the bill states that in order for them to perform they have to at least one original member or they have to perform as a Revue or Tribute. If they don't they surviving original members can sue the group, the promoters and venues for booking fake and imposter groups to perform. In 2012 Katherine Adnerson-Schaffner and The estate of Gladys Horton which is run by her son Vaughn who published his mom's memoirs last year. Kat hired 3 talented singers from Detroit to perform with her and they bill themselves as The Marvelettes featuring Original Member Katherine Anderson-Schaffner.
RIP Katherine, It's such a shame how underrated The Marvelettes are. their story is so tragic and i feel for Georgia she wrote them their first hit and didn't even get to enjoy the fruits of her labor
I wasn’t born until the 70s but this is probably my fav Motown group besides the temps.. awesome music. Don’t mess with bill and magician grabbed my attention.
There is a bit of a fiction here. They said that African-American artists did not appear on record sleeves at the time Mr. Postman was released - but the Supremes were on their cover and they were released 5 months earlier. Besides there had been plenty of African-American artists on album covers long before that. These include Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Louis Armstrong, Della Reese, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole , Duke Ellington and even Little Richard. Plus many more. Why Motown chose not to feature The Marvelettes on their debut album is perhaps only known to Berry Gordy...but it's definitely not the reason given here.
I want to give a random shout out to Donald Austin (Crazy Legs). He played guitar on “that’s how heartaches are made” and was good friends with Gladys Horton up until she passed in 2011. God bless these folks and I’m thankful for their contribution to music history ❤💪🙏
The Marvelettes were electric and were the first group i loved. I was not a particular fan of the Supremes except for my girl Flo. I was hearing about problems for Flo with Berry and Diane. It was sad 😢
39:47 that hit home my mom passed away on the same month and year in Jan 2011 may she rip shame on the industry for not treating them like those other groups 😔💔.
Mary Wilson loved The Marvelettes. In fact she was the one who helped get the Truth In Rock Bill passed to stop fake groups from performing. The way she spoke was done in fun and love but when she spoke about the fakes and Gladys being angry was spoke in a tone of anger of what happened to her label mates.
Berry Gordy had a preference when it came to girl groups. The Marvelettes were a wonderful ladies, who should of been up there, like other well known girl groups.
I was a fan in the 60s. They had a lot of followers in the UK, particularly after The Beatles covered their hit 'Mr Postman'. They were cool and cute but just not quite as cute as some of the other girl groups at the time. Motown could have plugged them more though. Real talent.
A lot of male crooners from this time weren't considered handsome but sold records by the millions they were so hard on women not every woman was going to be beautiful like the ronettes type of looks.
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