Marvelettes (Music Group)

Subterms

    Latest story

    75 Shares109 Views

    10 Songs that Explain My Year

    by

    A playlist of songs from artists including Liz Phair, Drake and John Cale that explain our critic’s year.An interview with John Cale was a pinch-me assignment for our critic, one which also informed her reading list.Chantal Anderson for The New York TimesDear listeners,In my very first installment of this newsletter, I introduced myself and my musical tastes by sharing 10 (or actually 11) songs that explain me. As we wrap up 2023, I thought it would be fun to revisit that format and compile a playlist of songs that explain my year.Some of these represent older songs, musicians or even artists in other disciplines I first connected with in 2023. Others coincide with some personal milestones in my year: weddings, concerts, vacations, assignments and that time when I got stuck in Toronto for three days in July. The only rule was that I could not include anything released this year — you’ve probably read your share of year-end lists at this point, and anyway, I’ve already made an exhaustive playlist of the year’s best songs. (Seriously. It’s over 8 hours long.)But, on a more personal level, not all of the music that will remind us of this year came out in 2023. Maybe the song that will always trigger the most potent memories of this year was an old one you fell back in love with, a new-to-you discovery or a tune forever linked with an important event.I’d love to hear about your year in music, too. Here is a submission form where you can tell me about an older song that explains your 2023. We may use your response in an upcoming edition of The Amplifier.In the meantime, consider today’s playlist — which features songs by Tia Blake, Jacques Dutronc, the Beatles and more — my own 2023 musical travelogue.Listen along on Spotify as you read.1. John Cale: “Graham Greene”I kicked off my year with a total pinch-me assignment: Traveling to Los Angeles to interview John Cale. That’s only part of the reason this track makes the playlist, though. While I was out there, admittedly under the influence of this song, I realized I’d never read any of Graham Greene’s novels. I stocked up on some used copies of his classics at the Last Bookstore and was almost done with “The End of the Affair” by the time I landed back in New York. Greene’s emotionally immersive novels have been a welcome distraction all year; I currently have about 50 pages left in “The Heart of the Matter” but I keep putting off reading them, because I don’t want the book to end. (Listen on YouTube)2. Jeanette: “¿Porqué Te Vas?”I watch a lot of old movies, and when I discover a director, writer or actor I particularly like, I tend to want to binge their entire filmography. I streamed a bunch of movies by the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura last year when the Criterion Channel featured an extensive series on him, and when he died this February at age 91, I resumed my binge in memoriam. This also meant revisiting my favorite Saura film, the 1976 drama “Cría Cuervos,” which just may be the best and most visceral movie I’ve ever seen about what it feels like to be a child. This haunting Spanish pop song by the English-born singer Jeanette echoes throughout the film, and I became particularly obsessed with it after my most recent “Cría Cuervos” rewatch. (Listen on YouTube)3. Tia Blake: “Wish I Was a Single Girl Again”I have my dear friend Jenn to thank for introducing me this year to the music of Tia Blake when we were browsing together in a record store, and she spotted a copy of the Georgia-born singer’s 1972 album, “Folksongs & Ballads.” I sought the record out at Jenn’s recommendation and was completely enchanted by Blake’s plaintive voice and the purity of her tone. (Listen on YouTube)4. Liz Phair: “Big Tall Man”Yes, he’s winning! Spinning! This one is in honor of my favorite basketball player and personal role model in good-natured trolling, Joel Embiid, who finally won the N.B.A.’s Most Valuable Player Award this year. I cried alarmingly hard when his little son Arthur trotted out as he accepted the award. Now all he needs to quiet the haters is a championship for the Philadelphia 76ers! (Listen on YouTube)5. The Beatles: “Here, There and Everywhere”With all due respect to the many (many) mixes I compiled for The Amplifier this year, the most important playlist I made in 2023 was the one my sister Chelsea and her now-husband Andrew asked me to make for their wedding party. I was beyond honored, and if I do say so myself, my most ingenious move was including my own parents’ wedding song, “Here, There and Everywhere.” That’s what you get when you call upon a professional playlister. (Listen on YouTube)6. Taylor Swift: “My Tears Ricochet”Ah, 2023: The Year of the Eras Tour. I went in May with my friend Lauren; not to brag, but we have been besties for even longer than Taylor and Abigail have. This is one of those songs I reached for this year when I was really going through it, emotionally speaking, and I needed a little therapeutic wallowing. When she played it live, I hollered along until I was hoarse. (Listen on YouTube)7. Drake: “Know Yourself”In July, I went to Toronto on assignment, pulled an all-nighter to file a story, and then arrived at the airport only to be told that all the flights from Toronto to New York had been canceled … for the next three days. If you flew anywhere at all this summer, you might also recognize this experience as being “very 2023.” So for about 72 strange, liminal hours, I found myself, quite literally, runnin’ through the Six with my woes. This became my personal theme song: I am now convinced it is about walking the length of Spadina Avenue while on hold with an airline. (Listen on YouTube)8. Jacques Dutronc: “Et Moi, et Moi, et Moi”The first rule of travel, at least for Amplifier readers: Always listen to the local radio stations. While on vacation in Belgium this fall, my boyfriend and I found a Brussels station that we played constantly in our hotel. It featured a mix of standard American “classic rock” and whatever the French-speaking version of that format is. Among our discoveries were Laurent Voulzy’s bonkers, bilingual “Rockollection” and this bouncy, absolutely infectious 1966 bop by the French singer Jacques Dutronc. Now every time I want to remember how much fun we had in Belgium, I listen to this song. (Listen on YouTube)9. Elvis Costello & The Attractions: “Every Day I Write the Book”Call the title of this song an … aspirational mantra for my year. I’m currently working on the manuscript of my first book, and man, is it difficult to carve out the time to write a book while working full-time. Or doing, like, anything else in your life. Hats off to any and all who have pulled it off — I look forward to being among your ranks soon. But this was a phrase I sometimes hummed to myself on the many days when I wasn’t able to sit down and work on the book in a more traditional sense. I know every day I’m subconsciously working on it, too: Mulling over research, collecting unexpected bits of inspiration, making connections that will someday emerge on the page. Oh yeah, and I caught one of Elvis Costello’s shows when he played a residency at the Gramercy Theater this February, too. That was awesome. (Listen on YouTube)10. The Marvelettes: “Please Mr. Postman”Deliver the (news)letter, the sooner the better! Hey, you know what else happened in 2023? I started writing The Amplifier. Thanks to each one of you for reading, listening and helping to create such a vibrant community of music lovers. Here’s to 2024. (Listen on YouTube)I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace,LindsayThe Amplifier PlaylistListen on Spotify. We update this playlist with each new newsletter.“10 Songs that Explain My Year” track listTrack 1: John Cale, “Graham Greene”Track 2: Jeanette, “¿Porqué Te Vas?”Track 3: Tia Blake, “Wish I Was a Single Girl Again”Track 4: Liz Phair, “Big Tall Man”Track 5: The Beatles, “Here, There and Everywhere”Track 6: Taylor Swift, “My Tears Ricochet”Track 7: Drake, “Know Yourself”Track 8: Jacques Dutronc, “Et Moi, et Moi, et Moi”Track 9: Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “Every Day I Write the Book”Track 10: The Marvelettes, “Please Mr. Postman”Bonus TracksBack for a moment to music released in 2023: Jon Pareles and I joined Jon Caramanica to get philosophical (and a little silly) about our songs of the year lists. It was the most fun I’ve had on Popcast in a long time. Listen to our conversation here. More

    More stories

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Music

      Wanda Young, Motown Hitmaker With the Marvelettes, Dies at 78

      by

      She was the lead voice on “Don’t Mess With Bill” and other songs written by Smokey Robinson, who said she “had this little voice that was sexy to me.”Wanda Young, one of the lead singers of the Marvelettes, the girl group whose 1961 song “Please Mr. Postman,” recorded when they were teenagers, was Motown’s first No. 1 hit, died on Dec. 15 in Garden City, Mich. She was 78.Her daughter Meta Ventress said the cause was complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.The Marvelettes began recording in 1961, two years after Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records. They signed the same year as the Supremes and a year before Martha and the Vandellas, all-female groups who eventually overshadowed them at Motown.Ms. Young (who was also known as Wanda Rogers) and Gladys Horton shared lead singer duties. “Don’t Mess With Bill,” which rose to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966, was one of several hits written by Smokey Robinson on which Ms. Young sang lead. (Ms. Horton was the lead singer on “Please Mr. Postman,” “Beechwood 4-5789” and other songs.)“Wanda had this little voice that was sexy to me, a little country kind of voice,” Mr. Robinson was quoted as saying in the music writer Fred Bronson’s liner notes to the 1993 Marvelettes compilation, “Deliver: The Singles (1961-1971).” “I knew if I could get a song to her, it would be a smash.”Among the other Robinson songs that featured Ms. Young’s voice were “I’ll Keep Holding On,” a 1965 release that peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard chart; “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game,” which rose to No. 13 in 1967; and “My Baby Must Be a Magician,” which hit No. 17 in 1968.The Marvelettes, who recorded for Motown’s Tamla label, released more than 20 singles that made the charts.The group, which started with five members and later became a quartet and eventually a trio, disbanded around 1970. That year, Ms. Young recorded an album, produced by Mr. Robinson with backing vocals by the Andantes, a female session group, that, although actually a solo project, was released as “The Return of the Marvelettes” and marketed as a Marvelettes album.Wanda LaFaye Young was born on Aug. 9, 1943, in Eloise, Mich., and grew up in Inkster, about 20 miles west of Detroit. Her father, James, worked for the Ford Motor Company, and her mother, Beatrice (Dawson) Young, was a homemaker.Ms. Young, whose early ambition was to be a pediatric nurse, joined the Marvelettes after one of the original members had to leave.Ms. Horton had formed a quintet in 1960 with three high school classmates, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman and Juanita Cowart, and a recent graduate, Georgia Dobbins. The group — then called the Casinyets, a contraction of “can’t sing yet” — competed in a talent show whose top three finishers were to receive an audition with Motown. The quintet didn’t win, but a teacher helped get them an audition anyway. Motown executives were impressed but told the young women that they needed to return with original material.They did: Ms. Dobbins’s friend William Garrett had composed a blues song, which Ms. Dobbins rewrote and recast as a pop song, about a girl pining for mail from her distant boyfriend. “Please Mr. Postman” was a hit, but Ms. Dobbins left the group before it was recorded because her mother was ill and her father had forbade her to be involved in the music business. Ms. Horton recruited Ms. Young.“She wanted to know if I could sing alto, and I said, ‘I think I can sing all of them — soprano, second soprano and alto,’” Ms. Young said in an interview with Blues & Soul magazine in 1990. “So that evening I went over to Georgeanna’s house and instantly became a member of the group.”Ms. Horton sang lead on the song. Three months after its release, it became a No. 1 hit.While Ms. Young fondly recalled the family atmosphere that Mr. Gordy fostered at Motown, she was disappointed when he moved the company to Los Angeles in 1972.“It was all done so quietly that we didn’t know if the gangsters had taken over or what was going on,” she told Blues & Soul. She added: “I felt like I’d been personally left behind. I’d grumble and complain within myself sometimes: Why would they move to California, knowing that this is Berry Gordy’s hometown?”Ms. Young’s 12-year marriage to Bobby Rogers of the Miracles ended in 1975. They had two children, Robert III and Bobbae Rogers, who survive her, along with Ms. Ventress, her daughter from another relationship; seven grandchildren; a great-grandson; four sisters, Adoria Williams, Cynthia Young, Regina Young and Beatrice Wilson; and four brothers, James Jr., Stephen, Paul and Reginald Young. Another daughter, Miracle Rogers, was killed in 2015. Ms. Young lived in Redford, Mich.Ms. Young reunited with Ms. Horton in 1990 for the album “The Marvelettes: Now!” on the producer Ian Levine’s Motorcity Records label. It featured some Marvelettes oldies, including “Don’t Mess With Bill.”Ms. Horton died in 2011.Ms. Ventress said that her mother — who lived off her royalties in the years after the Marvelettes broke up — was sometimes surprised at the longevity of her music.“I told her constantly, ‘All these people love you,’” Ms. Ventress said in an interview. “And she’d say, ‘Wow.’” She added, “She didn’t wake up every day thinking of the Marvelettes, but she never lost that glamour.” More