by Christopher Hessman
Author's note: To get yourself in the mood for this article, go to any search engine and find some of the tunes of Gladys Horton and her Marvelettes, particularly "Please Mr. Postman" or "Don't Mess with Bill." Kick off your shoes and remember Gladys Horton was all about a catchy rhythm and grooving at the soda shop with your main squeeze. Put on your head phones, close your eyes, and it's 1961. Gladys Horton, just 15 years old, is on top of her game...
To think of Gladys Horton, you must first of all remember her times. Dwight David Eisenhower still cast his mantle of security over the nation, although as Gladys' tunes hit the top of the Hot R & B/Hip-Hop Songs and the crucial Billboard Hot Singles, John F. Kennedy was getting himself nominated for President, spending daddy's money lavishly.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books and an avid art collector. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out The List Edge -> http://buy2412.tledge.hop.clickbank.net
It was a time when good girls were expected to fight for their virtue in a known ritual that left that virtue intact... and their boyfriends exhausted. Good girls did.... but only after securing a tangible token of the boyfriend's affection. And it all occurred against a background of music, including that all important dance music... loud, raucous, catchy, blaring in every teenager's life.
Denizens from those mellow years like to call them innocent, romantic, simpler... and perhaps they were. But if you were a poor black girl from Inkster, Michigan they were anything but uncomplicated. For you had your way to make in the world with just your slender talent... and your one shot was a new record company situated on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit.
This was Motown, and though America didn't quite know it yet, this was about to become the most important place in the world for teenagers everywhere. It was ground zero for that frustrating, elusive beat that Motown executives needed and which they became so very good at finding.
Gladys Horton, in 1961, was in the right place at the time right. And, right from the get-go, she was lucky. She came as part of a quintet... but though Motown eschewed groups of 5, ordaining that only groups of 3 were welcome.... this day they made an exception and allowed this larger-than-usual group to audition before Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson. Gordy was looking for his first Big Hit... and he had a feeling about these girls.
They passed this audition... and this break proved to be their launching pad. So far... so good. A second audition was scheduled.
The second audition got down to the business of finding a song for the group now called the Marvels. Pianist William Garrett had a few ideas for a blues tune he titled "Please Mr. Postman." It was unfinished, only a few words, no music. That didn't matter. Motown was about to prove it knew the secret of spinning dreams (and money) from next to nothing. It's what made them great. Gladys Horton (and Georgia Dobbins who wrote their first song, although Garrett got the credit) helped show them the way...
"Please Mr. Postman" was the result. It was sweet, it was snappy, it had the right "good girl" message... and most important of all, America's teens could dance to it and let themselves go.
Gladys Horton and the soon-to-be-called Marvelettes began the high flying ride of their lives and, for this exceptional moment, they were living their dreams... while they relied on the unflagging energy that comes with youth... to show themselves to a nation that just couldn't get enough of these peppy girls, their simple message, and that beat, that wonderful beat. "Please Mr. Postman" was their elevator to heaven and for a while, that wonderful while, it took Gladys and the Marvelettes where they all wanted to go: up!
That was the good news.
The bad news, although they wouldn't know it for some time, was that that sweet little tune, their first record, was destined to be their most popular and biggest seller. In other words, the moment when life was sweetest would prove be a flicker, a tease. They had peaked... and they weren't even 17.
Still, they didn't know this yet and Berry Gordy and Motown remained committed to these girls... for a while. After all, they had delivered when he needed a hit and needed it Now. And so, in due course, there were 21 Hot R & B/Hip-Hop Songs and 23 Billboard Hot 100 hit singles. Of these hits 3 were Top 10 Pop singles, 9 were Top 10 R & B singles; their debut was #1 on both charts.
It was good... but it wasn't quite good enough. And, besides, there were the usual cat fights, personnel problems, and mistakes, including an embarrassing gaffe on American Bandstand in 1962.
None of this would have mattered had the girls had Talent, that elusive je ne sais quoi that no one can quite define... but which we all know when we see it.
A girl named Diana Ross had it... Gladys Horton didn't, quite. But without Gladys Horton and the 6 other girls who, at one time or another, were members of the Marvelettes, there might not have been a Diana Ross. Berry Gordy, after all, cut his teeth on them... Katherine Anderson, Wanda Rogers, Anne Bogan, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, Georgia Dobbins.... and Gladys Horton. They helped build a great empire that transformed American culture at a time of American greatness. Moreover, when all is said and done, they had a longer and more fruitful run than most of these fragile, evanescent girl groups and their boy group counterparts.
Now Gladys Horton is dead too soon of a stroke, January 26, 2011, aged just 66. But (some of) her music will live on. My favorite is "Too many fish in the sea." (Released 1962). It has legs... look it up... and dance! You won't be able to help yourself; your toes will tap...the true legacy of the Marvelettes... and Gladys Horton.
For more information, see Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s. Routledge; New Edition February 2007 by Jacqueline Warwick.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books and an avid art collector. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out The List Edge -> http://buy2412.tledge.hop.clickbank.net
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