Martha Reeves in office: The forgotten political career of a Motown icon
Whether in Woody Guthrie’s enduring folk criticism of the levers of power, or Grace Slick’s foiled plot to dose Richard Nixon with LSD, politics and music have always shared a rather special relationship throughout US history. Back in 2005, that relationship became all the closer when a former Motown icon entered public office.
It was during the early 1960s that a young Martha Reeves first turned up at the offices of Hitsville USA, hoping to build upon her prowess as a gospel vocalist at the most exciting new label Detroit had ever witnessed. As was so often the case with Berry Gordy’s label, though, things didn’t exactly go to plan. Instead of being signed up as a recording artist, Reeves began an impromptu position as a secretary for the A&R wing of Motown, answering phones and sorting out various bits of admin.
When Mary Wells couldn’t attend a recording session for the recently rebranded Del-Phis, though, it was Reeves who stepped in to record ‘I’ll Have to Let Him Go’, the 1962 single which ended up being the inaugural release of Motown’s latest group, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
Exploding beyond her secretary role, within a few short years Reeves was among the flagship vocalists at Motown, amassing a litany of hits including – but not limited to – the likes of ‘Heatwave’, ‘Nowhere To Run’, and the utterly iconic ‘Dancing In The Street’, which was later ruined by Mick Jagger and David Bowie during the 1980s.
Throughout the Motown golden age of the 1960s, Reeves remained one of the few constants within the label, lending her distinctive tones to a plethora of colossal hits that helped to reaffirm the strength of the ‘Motown sound’. Even after Reeves left the label in 1972, though, her career continued to snowball, making her a household name across the United States and one of the nation’s defining soul and R&B voices.
As seems to be inevitable in American popular culture, the fame that Reeves amassed during those glory years, the singer used that notoriety to spur on a fleeting political career during the early 2000s. If recent developments in US politics have taught us anything, it is that the American public has a bizarre willingness to elect into office anybody that they recognise from television, film, or music, and, as it turns out, Martha Reeves certainly fits into that category.
While, unlike some other musicians, Reeves was not running for president, she did end up being elected to the Detroit city council back in 2005. In fairness to the performer-cum-politician, Motown still remains an integral part of Detroit’s cultural fabric, but it was never quite clear how having one of the greatest vocalists of Berry Gordy’s 1960s roster on the council would aid in the day-to-day problems of the city, of which there were many back in the early 2000s.
Pretty quickly, in fact, a prevailing issue arose during Reeves’s time in office, which is that her extensive touring schedule meant that she was rarely in Detroit itself. Missing council meetings to play in front of thousands of fans might have given Reeves bragging rights around the offices, but it did little to endear her towards the electorate.
After a pretty disastrous re-election campaign, which included a bizarre flyer claiming that Reeves was a member of the Detroit Lions – the NFL team – and listing her as ‘Martha Rose-Reeves & The Vandellas’, despite the fact that none of the Vandellas were running for office at all, Reeves’ political career came to an end in 2009.
“It was an education that I didn’t think I would get anywhere else,” she said at the time, reflecting on her time in office. “I’m glad it’s over, but I don’t regret it at all.” If only more entertainers with their sights on political office would learn from the mistakes of that Motown star.
