I heard on the radio at the weekend of the death of Wanda Young, latterly lead singer of the Motown female vocal group The Marvelettes.

The Marvelettes were Motown’s first successful female group with a US no 1 in 1961 with Please Mr Postman (a song which was in the UK mainly associated with The Beatles – they covered it on their second album – until The Carpenters had a no 2 hit with it in 1974.)

Young became the group’s lead singer in 1965. This was th efisrt single she sang lead on

The Marvelettes: I’ll Keep Holding On

Wanda LaFaye Young (Wanda Rogers;) 9/8/1943 – 15/12/21. So it goes.

Songwriter (well, tune writer: he collaborated with lyricists to complete his songs) Les Reed died last week.

Writing for the likes of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, Reed was never the most credible with the rock crowd but he helped create a formidable catalogue of notable songs of the 1960s.

It’s Not Unusual, The Last Waltz, I’m Coming Home, Delilah and I Pretend all made No 1 or 2, not a bad achievement for anybody – even if these were mostly bought by Mums and Dads.

Then there’s this song from 1967 (lyric by Geoff Stephens,) and later recorded by The Carpenters.

Herman’s Hermits: There’s a Kind of Hush

Leslie David (Les) Reed: 24/7/1935 – 15/4/2019. So it goes.

Now it’s Leon Russell……

Never as commercially successful in his own right as he perhaps deserved his songs are better known in their cover versions.

For Joe Cocker’s take on Delta Lady see here.

This is a much less rocky track perhaps most famous in its performance by The Carpenters.

Leon Russell: A Song For You

Leon Russell: 2/4/1942 – 13/11/2016. So it goes.

Hal David’s death was reported last weekend.
For sure he was not at the cutting edge of rock and roll but Hal David was simply one of the best lyricists of the 60s and 70s. In collaboration with Burt Bacharach he wrote so many memorable songs for so many performers. Many 60s artists might not have had a career without their songs and well after it was written their (They Long to Be) Close to You provided The Carpenters with a first hit in 1970.
With Bobbie Gentry’s 1969 no. 1 I’ll Never Fall in Love Again David’s inventive rhyming of pneumonia with phone ya, certainly stuck in the ear. I Say A Little Prayer made Aretha Franklin in the UK.

Bobbie Gentry: I’ll Never Fall in Love Again

Aretha Franklin: I Say A Little Prayer

Harold Lane “Hal” David, 25/4/1921 – 1/9/2012. So it goes.

Why not? It’s SF tinged and Karen Carpenter’s voice was so clear and distinctive.

It’s a pity about the DJ gubbins at the beginning of it, though.

The Carpenters: Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft