Martha & The Vandellas ~ Dancing In The Street 1964 Extended Soul Purrfection Version

Martha Reeves was working for Motown as a secretary when she joined Rosalind Ashford, Annette Beard and Gloria Jean Williamson to form the Del-Phis and used her job help her friends get gigs as backing vocalists. They were paired with Marvin Gaye and did the backgrounds on "Stubborn Kind Of Fellow" which became Marvin's first chart hit in 1962. Gordy wanted to sign the Del-Phis, but Gloria Jean decided to leave the band. Berry felt that a name change would benefit the group and left Martha tasked with the responsibility. Martha used "Della" as in Della Reese to bring her luck, and then added the "Van" from a major Detroit avenue called Van Dyke very close to her parents home. That way the association with Detroit would always remain. Martha & The Vandellas were the first beneficiaries of the soon to be legendary trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland that made Motown. Their first chart single was "Come & Get These Memories" a #29 single in 1963, followed by a second single, "Heat Wave" that powered itself all the way to #4 more than a year before The Supremes hit with "Where Did Our Love Go". "Quicksand" was the follow up peaking at #8. Their monster moment on the charts was their fourth single, "Dancing In The Streets". When Marvin brought her "Dancing In The Street", she was not enamoured of the song since it was not in her key. Marvin wrote the song with Mickey Stevenson, who was married to Kim Weston another Motown artist. Martha teases Kim about the song since it was written in Weston's home and that "she let a good song get away". Martha came up with the melody and put her personal stamp on the tune during the recording session. The result was their biggest hit ever peaking at #2 held out of the top spot by Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" for two weeks. The timelessness of the song is underlined by the raft of covers that followed starting with The Mama's & The Papas and Ramsey Lewis in 1967. KC's duet with Teri DeSario went to #66 in 1980, then Van Halen's version peaked at #38 in 1982. The most famous (infamous?) cover was David Bowie and Mick Jagger's version recorded for Live Aid in 1985 that got all the way to #7. Their last great single was "Jimmy Mack" a #1 R&B hit in 1967. After the rush of hits, HDH and Gordy turned their attention to the Supremes, who hit big in 1964 with "Where Did Our Love Go", and Martha also wondered where the love went. She complained to Berry about the lack of support, so Gordy conducted a search of the Motown vaults and found "Jimmy Mack", a song that was recorded at the same time as "Dancing In The Street" but shelved by Billie Jean King, the queen of quality control at Motown. Berry pronounced the song a hit and it was readied for single release after there was much airplay of the tune in Cleveland and Boston. Put out on February 3, 1967 it peaked at #10 on the Hot100 and that is how a four year old song made it on to the charts.

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