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"Women Of Motown" "The Marvelettes Little Girls Grow Up" "60s Old Skool"


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2:32: \"Yeah. Yeah. Ohhhh Yeah.\" - Gladys Horton.

\"The Marvelettes record another astonishingly brilliant track from the always-excellent writing/producing team Robert Staunton, Robert Walker and Charles Jones.

Gladys Horton takes the lead on the true-to-life relating of how indeed, daughters grow up, and all too soon. \"Fathers are so surprised. Refuse to realize. They just don't want to believe: Little Girls Grow Up.\" The words could also be taken as a musical metaphor concerning the Marvelettes themselves; the group built its career on a purely, unabashedly, unashamedly youthful joyousness that only happens during the teen years. At Motown, the Marvelettes truly embodied everything that fit the image and model of the Girl Group. Martha & The Vandellas always projected a rather soulful, adult image while The Supremes became the High End, adult version of a Girl Group. The Velvelettes and The Marvelttes both began with the more traditional Girl Group sound and blossomed into groups that reflected the real-life transition from teenage U.S.A. into adulthood.

Motown though, tended to operate much as all the other record companies in that once an artist hit with a sound, that artist or group was kept in that ballpark for all future releases. The Marvelettes hit with a raucous sound with \"Please Mr. Postman\" and it was a Big Hit Sound. Why mess with a good thing? The Marvelettes were REAL. What you heard is what they were; no histrionic vocalizing, no diva-esque wailing. No supper club polish. These were young girls singing for the fun and sheer joy of it and the joy came out on all their early records. Even when those records weren't big hits, they were a heck of a lot of fun to listen to. Gladys Horton was pure voice, nothing stylized in her delivery. She was just good and she could put a song across with the best of them.

Fans though, tend to miss the fact that Gladys's voice changed over the years and the raucous, gritty sounds of those early hits actually melted away to reveal a more nuanced voice capable of singing things of more depth than \"Twistin' Postman\". Some producers and Motown itself seemed reluctant to see that The Marvelttes were maturing into young ladies and that's why \"Little Girls Grow Up\" is so fascinating. Written by the almost invisible-as-a-ghost Motown songwriting/production team of Robert Staunton and Robert Walker, the song is a quantum leap from the material the group had been recording up to this point. Everything is glistening, grand, elegant here. The Marvelettes go from Girl Group to Sophisticated Ladies. Interesting that a low-ranking production team at Motown saw a potential in the group that even Smokey Robinson had trouble getting Motown to see (Smokey has said Motown had problems with \"Don't Mess With Bill\" and \"The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game\" because they sounded a little to \"jazzy\" for the group.)

Even with Gladys's much more mature sound on this song, the capper for me (and when a song is this good, it's hard to define one standout portion) is near the end, at 2:32 when Gladys just lets loose and sings \"Yeah/ Yeah/ Ohhh Yeeahhh\". Nobody could sing \"Oh Yeah\" like Gladys. The woman could say more in one \"Oh Yeah\" than anybody could in a million words. Just hearing that part gives me chills.

\"Little Girls Grow Up\" (Robert Staunton-Robert Walker-Charles Jones) published Jobete 01-Mar-65
The Marvelettes; recorded Hitsville, completed 08-Mar-65 ; produced by Robert Staunton, Robert Walker

recording info from the excellent site, Don't Forget The Motor City http://www.dftmc.info/\"


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