Song:Too Many Fish In The Sea
Album:20th Century Masters: The Millenium Collection: The Best Of The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were Motown's very first girl group and had Motown's very first #1 pop hit with Please Mr. Postman in 1961. By 1964 they took a back seat to The Supremes but Too Many Fish In The Sea returned them to the charts. The Marvelettes were from the Detroit suburb of Inkster, MI and were led by Gladys Horton & Georgia Dobbins along with Georganna Tillman, Juanita Cowart & Katherine Anderson. In 1961 they entered a high school talent show and won a Motown audition. They arrived at the audition with pianist William Garrett and performed a song that Georgia had written with Garrett called Please Mr. Postman. The Marvelettes were signed and Eddie Holland reworked the song and it was #1 in 1961. Georgia Dobbins left The Marvelettes because her church going father didn't want her singing in nighclubs and she was replaced by Wanda Young. The group had more success with songs produced by Holland/Dozier/Holland & Mickey Stevenson but they had problems. Juanita Cowart left due to a nervous breakdown and Georganna Tillman battled lupus. They were now a trio. The Marvelettes were taking a back seat to The Supremes & Martha & The Vandellas but producer Norman Whitfield had done well with The Velvelettes hit Needle In A Haystack so he took a crack at The Marvelettes and wrote Too Many Fish In The Sea with Eddie Holland. The song reached #15 on the R & B charts and #25 on the pop charts in 1964. This budget comp is short so you may want to check out The Ultimate Collection instead. They continued to have some success but started to fall apart when Gladys Horton left to get married and was replaced by Anne Bogan. The Marvelettes split up in 1970 when Motown moved to Los Angeles. Motown owns the group name so The Marvelettes aren't part of the oldies revival. Gladys Horton did appear on the 2006 PBS special My Music Salute To Motown so she may try to revive the group. Here's The Marvelettes performing Too Many Fish In The Sea on the Windsor TV show Teen Town in 1964.
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