Mary Wells My Guy

Martha Reeves brings 'Heat Wave' to Alive at Five

She is now welcomed in cities around the world, but in the beginning Martha Reeves faced the white man's gun.

As lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas, she participated in the first Motown Review in 1962, when the legendary Berry Gordy sent his early signees in Detroit on a bus tour around the country. Although they now rank among the greats of pop and rhythm and blues, Reeves, Mary Wells , the Marvelettes, the Supremes and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were then young, talented and sometimes frightened musicians. They were received warmly in most of the country, but not in the Deep South.

"Everywhere they had signs saying, 'No coloreds,'" says Reeves, performing today with the Vandellas at Alive at Five. "Most of the time we slept on that bus. We showered and bathed in different bus stations.

"We stopped at a few gas stations where they said, 'No, don't come in here.' The first time I ever saw a shotgun face-to-face was at one of those places. The man said, 'Get back on that bus.' And he came to the bus with a shotgun and said, 'Don't another one of you step on this property.' I tell you, we learned how to go in the woods."

She laughs about it now, 49 years later.

"We served as, basically, Freedom Riders," she says, referring to civil rights activists who challenged segregation in the South. "That was not our intent, because when we sat at lunch counters we weren't trying to protest. We were hungry people, trying to get some nourishment.''

"It didn't happen. They'd say, 'No, go to the back door.' I remember being served cold hot chocolate and cold hot dogs. We ate them gladly. ... It was rough, but people received our music everywhere we went. When we got back to Detroit after three months, we knew that our records would be in the charts, and they were."

Reeves, who turns 70 next month, and the two female singers who made up the Vandellas produced two of the most enduring songs from the Motown era: "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" and "Dancing in the Street." They placed 10 songs in the top 10 of Billboard's R&B chart and 12 songs in the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100.

The Vandellas are now her sisters: Lois, who joined in 1968, and Delphine, who joined in the mid- 1980s. But the songs sound the same, Reeves says.

"It's the Motown sound, a show that's been a winner for years," she says. "It turns out to be a house party. People recall things in their lives the minute we start singing: 'Oh, that's right, I was with what's his name, or that's when my child was born.

Digging for Gold: The Time-Life "AM Gold" Series, Part 1 | Popdose

In 1995 and proceeded to pump out volume after additional volume, including one dedicated solely to classic TV themes. The timeline of the series was expanded through to 1979, even though by that time AM was on its way out as the radio band of choice for music fans.

And so we begin with 1962. The Cold War was in full swing, the Cuban Missile Crisis heightened America’s fears of nuclear annihilation, Marilyn Monroe died at age 36, and an obscure comic book character named Spider-Man made his debut. So yeah, it was an interesting year in America.

But before we start, let’s offer a laurel and hearty handshake for Dave Steed, whose Bottom Feeders series was a cherished Wednesday morning institution here at Popdose. Thanks Dave!

David Lifton – I have a weakness for the 1962 version because I’m a sucker for low harmony. Dare I say it, but you can almost hear shades of “If I Fell” in it, even if The Beatles used a more complex chord progression.

Will Harris – There’s a reason this remains Sedaka’s signature song: it’s one of the greatest pre-Beatles pop songs of the 1960s…and, heck, it ranks pretty high even once you factor in the Fab Four! For a song that has such depressing lyrics (which are spotlighted to a much greater degree in Sedaka’s 1975 ballad-ized take on the track), the music is non-stop finger-snapping goodness. It’s no wonder that Elton John and the guys from 10cc latched onto his songs the way they did.

Chris Holmes - I didn’t even know there was a different Sedaka version of “Breaking Up” until yesterday, so I sought it out on YouTube. Clearly he was ahead of his time in reinterpreting pop songs as slow lounge numbers. I’m so used to the original I don’t know if I can handle the ’70s schmaltz in the newer approach.  Sounds like the kind of thing Bread would release.

Lifton - The remake was one of the two songs from my musical past that I had wondered if I made it up because I hadn’t heard it for so long and nobody ever talked about it. The other one was “My Girl” by Chiliwack, which had morphed in my mind into ”Touch Me” by The Doors.

Jack Feerick - I liked this one a lot more than I thought I did, or ever would. What makes it work, I think, is the sparsity of the instrumental backing. Many crossover attempts leaned on the orchestral flourishes of the old guard, and ended up sounding heavy and lumpen. By keeping it heavy on the drums and light on everything else — I didn’t hear any bass at all, either upright or electric — Sedaka keeps the focus squarely on the voices, and the whole thing is brisk and tight.

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