by Kevin Burton
In my alternate Motown universe there is a lot more Martha Reeves and a lot less Diana Ross. There is also at least a little more Mary Wells.
It's Wells we focus on today. Sixty years ago, Wells' "My Guy" became the first Motown record to hit number one on the Hot 100. It was a bright shining moment for the artist and the label. For Motown it was the first of many such moments, but Wells would never again shine so brightly.
"Mary Wells established a number of firsts for Motown," reads the "My Guy" entry in the Billboard book of Number 1 Hits. "She was the first artist to record on the Motown label, the first to have Smokey Robinson for a writer/producer, the first to have a top 10 song on Motown ("The One That Really Loves You") and the first to give the label a number one song."
The Billboard book called My Guy an "instant classic" and said it was easy to predict it would go to number 1. It became Wells' signature song, but it was her last solo recording with Motown.
Wells had a typical star's ascent at the label, with seven top ten hits from 1962-64, culminating in the grammy-nominated smash My Guy.
But then after contentious contract negotiations with Motown, Wells' then husband Herman Griffin advised her to accept a $200,000 advance from 20th Century Fox rather than to re-sign for a lower royalty payment with Motown.
That gave Wells another, most unfortunate first, the first major artist to leave Motown. It proved a disastrous decision.
Motown head Berry Gordy allegedly coerced some radio stations to keep Wells' future records off the air, according to SongFacts. If that is true it shows Gordy, who is most often painted as larger than life, in one of his smaller moments.
Here is how the conflict played out, according to Wikipedia:
"Ironically during her most successful year, Wells was having problems with Motown over her original recording contract, which she had signed at the age of 17. She was also reportedly angry that the money made from "My Guy" was being used to promote the Supremes, who had found success with "Where Did Our Love Go", just as "My Guy" was promoted, using the profits from another, earlier hit Motown song."
"Though Gordy reportedly attempted to renegotiate with Wells, the singer still asked to be freed from her contract with Motown."
"A pending lawsuit kept Wells away from the studio for several months, as she and Gordy brokered the contract details, with Wells fighting to gain a larger share of royalties. Finally, Wells invoked a clause that allowed her to leave the label, advising the court that her original contract was invalid, as she had signed while she was still a minor," according to Wikipedia.
"Wells won her lawsuit and was awarded a settlement, leaving Motown officially in early 1965, whereupon she accepted a lucrative contract with 20th Century Fox Records."
When My Guy topped the chart for two weeks, holding off the Beatles "Love Me Do." Wells had just turned 21.
Without access to the Motown stable, writers Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland and others, backing artists the Funk Brothers and the Andantes, not to mention the label's considerable promotional machine, Wells as an artist, was adrift.
She didn't last long at 20th Century Fox, scoring just one Top 40 hit – her last –"Use Your Head" which reached number 34 in 1964. It's a very catchy track with forgettable lyrics.
After that Wells bounced from Alco to Jubilee to Reprise to Epic finally signing with something called Nightmare Records.
With that label she recorded a song "Don't Burn Your Bridges" which was about a relationship, but could be interpreted as Wells singing to her former self, circa 1964.
Sample lyrics: "Take a second thought before you walk away. Relationships like ours don't happen every day.." and then "So are you really sure you're not stepping out of line. Can you be certain that your life will work out fine."
In 2002 Artisan Entertainment released the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, about the contributions of the Funk Brothers. This is a must view for any music fan. The movie proves to anyone who might not have known already, that the Funk Brothers were the Motown Sound.
Here's a quote from the movie, which unfortunately speaks to the plummeting post-Motown career of Mary Wells.
"When these cats cut tracks, really, no offense to any of the great artists that sang on them, but anybody could have sung on them," said Motown producer and drummer Steve Gordon. "You could have had Deputy Dog sing on some of this stuff and it would have been a hit because the tracks were just so incredible."
If Gordy broke with Wells in 1964, Robinson did not. He spoke the eulogy at Wells funeral in 1992 after she died, age 49 of cancer, complicated by pneumonia.
Wells approached Gordy in 1960 with a song she had written for Jackie Wilson. Gordy told her to sing it herself, was impressed, and the rest is history.
Gordy is not a perfect man but he did have a nearly perfect formula for cranking out hits the way Ford cranked out cars. That system served Wells well until she stepped away.
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