Growing up in the eighties, I loved the then-new movies but hated the music. The sixties are the other way around: I love the music but, but most of the movies from that era are just ridiculous.
They weren't all bad movies in the Sixties, though. The Hustler, Dr Strangelove, Dr Zhivago, The Graduate; Im sure there were some other good ones. Just this week, Turner Classic Movies has shown Lawrence of Arabia and a few others from the Sixties decade that the critics have praised; Cool Hand Luke was on TCM Friday night. I'm sure that there were many great movies from the Eighties, too, but by then my priorities were such that movie-going was on my back burner.
The opening 3 or 4 seconds, remind me of some song that MOR singers like Robert Goulet were doing...that I can't remember right now, but this was a solid, sing on the school bus song. She looks magnificent singing it on Shindig.
You had to be something else to rival The Beatles on the charts in '64. And Mary Wells was something else. Legend.
Mary Wells doesn't get the attention other Motown artists do despite charting records throughout the 60s. Maybe a casualty of the British Invasion, maybe a lack of promotion from the label. Whatever, she had some sweet R&B hits like this one, You Beat Me To The Punch and my favorite The One Who Really Loves You and they still sound great today.
My Guy is another track I like but not a big whole lot. It's rather iconic in my opinion though, and the intro in particular is highly distinguishable. I heard it a lot back in the day ... 52 years ago!
One of Motown's more tragic stories, but she sure gave us some terrific songs. My favorite is definitely "The One Who Really Loves You," but "My Guy" is up there. It's also proof that the British Invasion didn't really wipe American music off the charts; it just cleared the way for newer acts like her. I remember hearing when she was struggling with medical expenses and other troubles in the '80s, Bruce Springsteen did a lot of awareness raising about her plight. I wasn't a fan of The Boss yet back then, but I do remember admiring him for that.
"You Beat Me To The Punch" is my favourite song of hers, and one of my favourites of the 'early Motown' period. How different would her career and legacy have been if she'd tolerated Gordy's financial policies (which I believe were the main issue), and stayed at Motown?
The Beatles idolised her too. From the book Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life Of Motown's First Superstar by Peter Benjaminson: "Lennon and the other Beatles remained reverent toward Mary after meeting her," writes Mr. Benjaminson. "Mary said all four Beatles would visit her in her dressing room before every show," content merely "to talk to her and look at her." John told jokes, and Paul styled her one night while George, the notoriously "shy" Beatle, worshiped her silently. As a British journalist quipped, Mary Wells had "the highest-paid publicists in the world."
Amen... one of my favorite songs of '64 at the time. I remember being saddened by her death of cancer in the early Eighties, IIRC. This and "The One Who Really Loves You" are my two favorite Wells tunes.
Yeah, I'm with you. Is it a pretty good song? Sure. Is it among my Motown faves? Nope. Don't protest if I hear it, but don't get too excited when it plays either...
Protest? You mean there are top 40 songs that would provoke you to protest? Like People magazine readers, my inquiring mind would like to learn of such examples.
I like "My Guy" a lot, but don't love it. Mary Wells was indeed considered Motown's first superstar. The reason Mary Wells didn't get as much attention is because she demanded more money as she got some hit records, and left the label when Motown wouldn't yield to her demands. Depending on whom you talk to, Berry Gordy saw to it that she would be ruined if she left. But, I think that as early as 1964, Gordy already had big plans for Diana Ross.
It's telling that, after Mary Wells, Motown's next solo female superstar would be... Diana Ross, in 1970. After Wells, all the female acts on Motown in the 1960s were either attached to groups (like Martha Reeves and Gladys Knight) or low profile solo acts (like Kim Weston, Brenda Holloway and Chris Clark). Tammi Terrell would be their top female solo artist of the 60s besides Mary, and all of her well known hits were duets with Marvin Gaye. One interpretation of that could be that Gordy didn't want any competition for Diana Ross.
And you'd be right about that.... many have said that he would sign these solo women and then backburner them so they wouldn't compete with Diana (Except Chris Clark, who was his chick on the side). He was certainly pooping bricks when after he lifted Diana from the group, "Reach Out and Touch" sold half as many copies as "Up The Ladder To the Roof".
I've always found it difficult to comprehend that, after plotting Diana's eventual solo career for at least 2 or 3 years (first obvious sign: when it became 'Diana Ross & The Supremes' in 1967), when she did venture out solo, they didn't have stellar material ready for her. "Reach Out And Touch" is hardly vintage Motown (nice enough, but not a showstopper), and in fact her first knockout 45 was "Touch Me In The Morning"... in 1973. You'd think Gordy would have been stockpiling incredible songs in 1968/69 to establish her as a solo superstar, but really she was overshadowed by Jean Terrell's Supremes in 1970/71, which can't possibly have been the plan. Of course, her film career and Lady Sings The Blues seems very much like it was the priority, but even so.
I've always thought "Reach Out And Touch" was a classic Motown track. Surprised it wasn't a bigger hit than "Up The Ladder To The Roof", which I don't even know...
Maybe Gordy did know what he was doing then. (Fancy that, Berry Gordy having smarter instincts for a classic song than me).
It only got to #10 on the Billboard charts in the US. I'm surprised to see "Reach Out..." only made it to #20 - I recall hearing it quite a bit on the radio when I was a kid in the '70s. "Up The Ladder"? Not so much. But then radio was more regional when I was a kid - maybe "Reach Out..." had been a bigger hit in Arizona than elsewhere...
