Motoring: In Celebration Of Motown Torchbearer Martha Reeves

Martha Rose Reeves, born on July 18, 1941,  tirelessly carries the Motown torch forward as one of the relatively few representatives of its classic era still performing live on a regular basis. Not bad for someone who started out as a secretary at the label and was then a backing vocalist, singing with her group mates alongside an up-and-coming Tamla notable called Marvin Gaye.

In 1997, the Motown and Motor City Fanclub, a group of hardcore devotees of the company’s history not given to favouring big Tamla hits just because they were famous, conducted a poll of its members. They were asked to name their favorite Motown singles of all time, and it’s a huge testament to Martha and the Vandellas that they had two of the Top 6 titles, three of the Top 11 and four of the Top 20.

The Temptations’ “My Girl” was at No.1 and the Contours’ great, lesser-known “Just A Little Misunderstanding” at No.2 in that list. Then Reeves and the group landed at No.3 with “Nowhere To Run,” No.6 with “Heatwave,” No.11 with “Dancing In The Street” and No.20 with “Jimmy Mack.”

Four more great Martha and the Vandellas that are less talked about these days also placed inside that prestigious and carefully-chosen Top 100 poll. They were “I’m Ready For Love,” “Quicksand,” “Lovebug Leave My Heart Alone,” and “My Baby Loves Me.” The group also have the distinction that their single “I’ll Have To Let Him Go” (their first release under the group name in the US, on Gordy in 1962) is one of the rarest and most collectable of all Motown single releases in the UK.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famers

Only the second all-female group to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Martha and the Vandellas remained on Motown into the early 1970s, after which Reeves pursued her solo career for some years and hit the US R&B Top 30 in 1974 with the MCA single “Power Of Love.”

Later reunions and line-ups of the Vandellas help to keep those towering original hits alive to this day, and let’s not forget how Martha has stayed true to her Detroit roots throughout her life, serving as a city councillor for four years from 2005.

Amid her continued touring, it was announced in June 2021 that she was to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a project whose funding was secured in 2023 for a ceremony the following March. In late 2021, she was pictured hanging backstage at the Detroit concert by one of the groups for whom she, and Motown, were an early inspiration, the Rolling Stones.

Listen to uDiscover Music’s Martha & the Vandellas Best Of playlist.

“A song’s got to click with me before I like it, no matter what the audience thinks,” she told Ebony magazine back in 1968. All these years later, the songs are still clicking.

Buy or stream the music of Martha & the Vandellas.