Velvelettes - Very Best of
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Music CD Cover
Artist: VelvelettesEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1999-03-23
Music Label: Motown
Soundtracks:
- He Was Really Sayin Somethin
- Lonely Lonely Girl Am I
- Since You've Been Loving Me
- There He Goes
- That's The Reason Why
- I Know His Name Only His Name
- Should I Tell Them
- Throw A Farewell Kiss
- These Things Will Keep Me Loving You
- I'm The Exception To The Rule
- Needle In A Haystack
- A Bird In The Hand (Is Worth Two In The Bush)
- Let Love Live (A Little Bit Longer)
- I'm So Glad It Is Twilight Time
- Think Of The Times
- Season's Greetings From Motown (Bonus Hidden Track)
Free Music Notes for Very Best of
Free Music Review: Much More Than A Motown Footnote
Hit: 5 Stars
In 1961 at Western Michigan State University sisters Millie and Carolyn Gill and their cousins Bertha and Norma Barbee, perhaps inspired by earlier black girl group pioneers like the Cookies, Teen Queens, Bobbettes, Shirley Gunter and "The Queens" and Chantels, and most certainly by The Marvelettes, grouped together to form The Velvelettes.
Their initial work involved performing at small clubs throughout the state which eventually brought them to the attention of IPG Records where they cut There He Goes, attracting just enough interest to bring them to the notice of a Motown agent, a label they joined in 1963.
The only problem was, The Marvelettes were already well established [seven hits to date] with the Tamla subsidiary, The Supremes, with one hit under their belts and another ready for release, had been ticketed for the main Motown label, while Martha [Reeves] & The Vandellas held down the fort on the Gordy subsidiary, registering one solid hit and with Heat Wave ready to begin chewing up the charts.
So, at the beginning of their Motown career, the girls had to be content with doing background vocals for other Motown stars, albeit not to the extent of yet another girl group, The Andantes. Initially consisting of Jackie Hicks, Louvain Demps, and Marlene Barrow, and eventually joined by Pat Lewis, The Andantes - who also performed as The Blackberries - reportedly worked on over 20,000 Motown songs and would never have their own single release!
That was not to be the fate of The Velvelletes, however, and in 1964 their very danceable single, Needle In A Haystack, was released on the V.I.P. subsidiary, reaching # 45 Billboard Hot 100 that November [the Billboard R&B charts had been temporarily suspended] b/w Should I Tell Them.
By the time of their second V.I.P release early in 1965 the R&B charts had been re-instated and this time He Was Really Sayin' Something made it to # 21 R&B and # 64 Hot 100 in March b/w Throw A Farewell Kiss. A V.I.P. LP titled The Velvelettes was then recorded that year but, sadly for their future, was never released. At least two of the tracks from that album are included here [2 and 12], and there are reports that the entire album has been bootlegged and is currently floating about on the black market.
Always given musical hand-me-downs in favour of the three big Motown girl groups, they began to despair of ever having another hit, to the point where all but Carolyn pulled out. Subsequently adding Betty Kelly, Sandra Tilley, and Annette McMullen, the group had a minor R&B hit for the Soul label in October 1966 when These Things Will Keep Me Loving You reached # 43 [and "bubbled under" on the Hot 100 at # 102] b/w Since You've Been Loving Me.
But this collection would also soon dissolve, with Kelly and Tilley becoming Vandellas in two of that group's many incarnations. Relegated to a footnote in the vast Motown history, these girls deserved much better.
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