The Marvelettes: Deliver: The Singles (1961-1971) : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A pair of Supremes -- Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson -- attended the May '61 session for Motown's first Number One hit but didn't sing a note. The stars of "Please Mr. Postman" were five teenage girls from the Detroit suburbs: the Marvelettes. Co-written by ex-member Georgia Dobbins, "Please Mr. Postman" was action-packed woe: Gladys Horton's heated pleading; the other girls' fierce choral chirp; an urgent rhythm spiced with Caribbean shimmy (the drummer was a young Marvin Gaye). At one point, Ballard and Wilson, three years away from their first Number One, told the Marvelettes, "Girls, you have a hit. We wish it was us."

Indeed, "Please Mr. Postman" kicked off a run of eclectic soulful singles by a group that was the creative and vocal equal of the Supremes. Unlike the Supremes, dominated by the kittenish alto of Diana Ross, the Marvelettes had two superb lead singers. Horton was an earthy belter with an edge of want in her delivery on upbeat A sides such as "Playboy" (1962) and "Too Many Fish in the Sea" (1966). Wanda Young also had a knack for stompers: "I'll Keep Holding On" (1965), "Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead" (1966). But she was at her best in the dark hollows of "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" (1967) and "My Baby Must Be a Magician" (1968), both written by Smokey Robinson as vehicles for Young's soft, curled purrs of surrender.

By 1970, the Marvelettes were just a brand name for the solo Young. But on this solid-gold two-CD set, you can hear why label boss Berry Gordy rechristened the girls after signing them. Their original name? The Casinyets - as in "can't sing yet."

DAVID FRICKE
(RS 944, March 18, 2004)