The Satintones were an R&B vocal group that joined a select group of Motown pioneers. The group had four members: Charles Leverett, Sonny Sanders, James Ellis and Robert Bateman. Bateman and Sanders had started working at Tamla Records as backing singers from the company’s inception in 1959. They set the group up. Their first recording was done in summer 1959, resulting in the release of a single “Going To The Hop” / “Motor City”, giving the Satintones the honour of being the first vocal group to release a single for Berry Gordy’s labels. They beat the Miracles by three months. “Motor City” may well have helped to inspire Berry Gordy when he chose the name Motown for his second label.
The follow-up single, “My Beloved”, was issued in October 1959, the first release on the new Motown label; another honour for the Satintones! Four more singles were released during 1961, including “Tomorrow and Always”, which was conceived as a response to the Shirelles’ hit “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”. Strangely the Motown track uses the same tune as the original. Even more strangely, the song was credited to Motown songwriters Janie Bradford and Robert Bateman on the first pressing.
Goffin and King, who wrote the original, were unimpressed by this abuse of copyright. Their names were later added to the Satintones’ single. However, with the legal threat still active, Motown withdrew the single and re-issued it with a new song “Angel” paired with “A Love That Can Never Be”, the original B-side.
The Satintones
Album Cover Image courtesy of Ace Records UK
1961 also brought a change of personnel, with Leverett leaving and Vernon Williams and Sammy Mack joining. The change didn’t bring success and The Satintones disbanded at the end of 1961. Bateman had already begun producing records at Motown with Brian Holland and that partnership continued. Sonny Sanders moved to Chicago, where he became an important arranger and producer for several Soul and R&B labels. By a strange coincidence, Sanders and Bateman died on the same day, 12th October 2016.
