I saw this week that Katherine Anderson of The Marvelettes who recorded the first ever Motown release to reach the US no 1, (Please Mr Postman) has died.

The Marvelettes perhaps exemplified the Motown sound but only ever had the one hit in the UK, the untypical When You’re Young and in Love.

This is one of their US hits.

The Marvelettes: Too Many Fish in the Sea

Katherine Elaine Anderson Schaffner; 16/1/1944 – September 20/9/2023. So it goes.

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.

Another Motown song from one of the label’s lesser known artists.

I particularly like the Rachmaninov style piano introduction.

The Marvelettes: When You’re Young and in Love