Today's album comes from the over-stuffed wine boxes of Deja Vu Records in Natick, a used vinyl record lover's dream. More on this place another time. For $2, I picked up "Mary Wells' Greatest Hits," a collection of songs I've mostly heard before but can never hear enough of. Wells (for those who might not know) was an early and leading Motown gal, one of the first big hits for Barry Gordy on his way to discovering the Motown sound that produced so many hits. You might not know Wells' but you certainly know her biggest hit, "My Guy."
What interests me about Wells, though, is that while in some ways her lyrics touch upon many of the themes commonly found in early 60s pop, some present scenarios that transcend this genre, if only just a little bit. Wells' voice is not simple: it's not not light and poppy and all ready for Bandstand. There's a soulfulness, even a sadness that suggests that while she might have been willing to accept the formula that Gordy et. al. insisted upon for her to appear on his label, there's more here.
Listen to her on "Two Lovers," the third cut on side one:
Even the song titles suggest heartache: "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard For One"; "Oh, Little Boy, What Did You Do To Me"; "You Lost The Sweetest Boy"; "Bye Bye Baby."
Here are some of the lyrics to "Bye Bye Baby," the only song Wells wrote herself for this album:
Your love was sweet as wine, any I know so
Don't come back runnin' or knockin' on my front door
Well you said that I was your only girl
& there was no other, yeah, in this whole wide world
You know you took my love, threw it away
Now you're gonna want my love today
Well, bye bye baby
OK, I admit it: the pangs of lost teenage love is certainly as much a convention of this era as are songs about first kisses, will-he-love-me, and fast cars. But Wells does it well. The lilt in her voice makes it sound like she means it. Her bio tells us that she was in an extremely unhappy marriage at the time she performed these songs, but this explanation seems too simple. Gordy had signed Wells when she was only 17, and many of these songs were released at the height of her career. The release of "My Girl" in 1964 being the apex as it was after this release that the Beetles invited her to join them on a world tour. It was also, in many ways, the end of her career. After "My Girl," Wells had a falling out with Gordy, left Motown, and struggled ever after (possibly due to threats Gordy made to radio stations that might have wanted to play Wells' new material).
It's the raspiness at the edge of her voice, the break into soul, that stands out most for me in these songs.
My favorite track? "You Beat Me To The Punch":
Listen to her on "Two Lovers," the third cut on side one:
Even the song titles suggest heartache: "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard For One"; "Oh, Little Boy, What Did You Do To Me"; "You Lost The Sweetest Boy"; "Bye Bye Baby."
Here are some of the lyrics to "Bye Bye Baby," the only song Wells wrote herself for this album:
Your love was sweet as wine, any I know so
Don't come back runnin' or knockin' on my front door
Well you said that I was your only girl
& there was no other, yeah, in this whole wide world
You know you took my love, threw it away
Now you're gonna want my love today
Well, bye bye baby
OK, I admit it: the pangs of lost teenage love is certainly as much a convention of this era as are songs about first kisses, will-he-love-me, and fast cars. But Wells does it well. The lilt in her voice makes it sound like she means it. Her bio tells us that she was in an extremely unhappy marriage at the time she performed these songs, but this explanation seems too simple. Gordy had signed Wells when she was only 17, and many of these songs were released at the height of her career. The release of "My Girl" in 1964 being the apex as it was after this release that the Beetles invited her to join them on a world tour. It was also, in many ways, the end of her career. After "My Girl," Wells had a falling out with Gordy, left Motown, and struggled ever after (possibly due to threats Gordy made to radio stations that might have wanted to play Wells' new material).
It's the raspiness at the edge of her voice, the break into soul, that stands out most for me in these songs.
My favorite track? "You Beat Me To The Punch":
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