Mary Wells was born in Detroit in 1943. She had a difficult childhood; she lived with her mother and two siblings, caught spinal meningitis at two years old and tuberculosis at ten. In her teens, she helped her mother as a domestic cleaner.
She found solace in singing, first in church and then in local nightclubs. On leaving school, aged seventeen, she set her sights on becoming a singer-songwriter, inspired no doubt by other local performers who were achieving considerable success. Her first step was to approach Berry Gordy with a song that she had written with Jackie Wilson in mind. When Gordy asked her to sing it to him, she took her chance. Gordy was impressed enough to invite her to record the song at United Sound Systems, after which she was signed to the new Motown Records label.
Her song, “Bye Bye Baby”, was duly released in September 1960. The song slowly gathered momentum, reaching number eight on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, and then number forty-five on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It is a bouncy dance tune with quite a raw, Bluesy vocal delivery from Wells. The arrangement is simple but easy to sing along with. The B-side, “Please Forgive Me” written by Berry Gordy, is taken at a slower pace, but Wells maintains that raw, Bluesy edge.
Mary Wells 1965
Photo: James Kriegsmann (Wikimedia Commons)
Wells had made a very good start and went on to even better things, thanks largely to first Mickey Stevenson and then Smokey Robinson, who were both playing increasingly important roles at Motown. Stevenson co-wrote her second hit single “I Don’t Want to Take a Chance”, which peaked at number nine on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and number thirty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. The follow-up release, another Stevenson ballad, failed to sell, but then Smokey Robinson provided a string of excellent songs that enabled Wells to reach the top of the charts.
1962 was the year that put Motown squarely on the map, and Wells led the way with three consecutive top-ten hits. First came “The One Who Really Loves You”, followed by “You Beat Me to the Punch” and then “Two Lovers”. All three songs were written and produced by Robinson, the second co-written by Miracles member Ronald White. The first song went to number two on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and the other two went to number one. All three entered the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. For the first time, Motown songs were consistently crossing over into the mainstream and a coherent Motown sound was emerging. Mary Wells was the Queen of Motown!
Mary Wells released three singles in 1963, plus two albums. “Laughing Boy”, written by Smokey Robinson, backed by “Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right”, a Robinson/Gordy composition, was issued in February. “Your Old Stand By”, a Robinson/Bradford song appeared in April, backed by “What Love Has Joined Together”, written by Robinson and Bobby Rogers of the Miracles. Finally came “What’s Easy For Two Is So Hard For One”, a Smokey Robinson song, in August. On the B-side is “You Lost The Sweetest Boy”, written and produced by Holland, Dozier, Holland. Smokey Robinson produced all the other tracks, establishing a strong link with Wells that was typical of Motown’s approach. Berry Gordy sought increasingly to link each artist or group with a particular producer/songwriter team.
The first album was “Two Lovers and Other Great Hits”, a compilation, and the second was “Recorded Live On Stage”, one of a series of live albums that Berry Gordy authorized in 1963. The compilation reached number forty-nine on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart.
Mary Wells released one solo single, one 7” EP, and two albums in 1964. She was also teamed with Marvin Gaye for a single and an album. The single, issued in April on the Motown label, was “My Guy”, written and produced by Smokey Robinson. The backing track was recorded in haste, towards the end of a session, with George Bohanon and Earl Van Dyke coming up with an intro that combined elements of two Jazz numbers. Wells completed the recording of the vocal track with a husky take-off of Mae West that was intended as a joke. The production team kept it in. That doesn’t sound too promising, but the bouncy shuffle beat and Robinson’s romantic lyrics made the song a serious hit, that lots of girlfriends bought to give to their boyfriends.
It was Mary Wells’ biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and the Cash Box Top 100. It stayed at number one on the Cash box R&B Singles Chart for seven weeks. The single achieved a chart entry in 1964 in Australia, New Zealand (number one), Canada, Ireland and the UK, where it peaked at number five on the UK Official Pop Singles Chart and later gained silver disc accreditation from the BPI. In 1999 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The studio band featured two keyboard-players (Earl Van Dyke and Johnny Griffith), two guitarists (Robert White and Eddie Willis), two trumpet-players (Herbert Williams and John Wilson) and two trombonists (Paul Riser and George Bohanon). The rhythm section consisted of James Jamerson and Benny Benjamin, with Dave Hamilton adding vibes to the mix. The backing vocals came from the Andantes (Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow and Louvain Demps).
To take advantage of this success, Motown released two albums and an EP. The first album was a compilation “Greatest Hits”, as was the EP, while the second album was a studio recording entitled “Mary Wells Sings My Guy”, on which Wells covers Etta James’ “At Last” and turns the smoldering Jazz ballad into a frothy dance tune.
Much better were the duets with Marvin Gaye. “Once Upon A Time” / “What’s The Matter With You Baby”, both tracks taken from their album “Together”, was released in April too. The pairing of Wells and Gaye is an interesting experiment, modelled maybe on earlier duets in Chicago between Etta James and Harvey Fuqua in 1960. The album gave Gaye his first appearance in the Billboard 200 Albums Chart at number forty-two. Both sides of the single also charted, with “Once Upon A Time” peaking at number nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and reaching number fifty on the UK Official Pop Singles Chart. The song was co-written by Barney Ales, Clarence Paul, Mickey Stevenson and Dave Hamilton, who also played vibraharp on the recording. Stevenson produced the single. The B-side did slightly better, reaching number seventeen on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.
It was an experiment that would almost certainly have been continued, had Wells not left Motown that summer. Wells had signed her first contract aged seventeen, which meant that the contract had an expiry date of 1964, when Wells turned twenty-one. That gave her the option of leaving or negotiating a new contract, and she chose the former, as she believed that her royalty payments were not being paid properly. Two further singles, “When I’m Gone” and “Whisper You Love Me Boy”, had already been recorded and were due for release later in the year, but they were both shelved. Wells moved on but never managed to find another “My Guy”.
