How old were The Marvelettes when they changed the world with ‘Please Mr Postman’?
Owing to an explosion of euphoric, youth-oriented rock and roll from the likes of young new singers like Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, as well as the seismic success of youthquake movies like Fred F Sears’ Rock Around the Clock and its follow-up Don’t Knock the Rock, the 1950s came to be known as the ‘Age of the Teenager’.
The early part of the century had been dominated by gruelling war, collective struggle, hardship and poverty, but owing to a moderate level of stability and routine and relative prosperity since, the Western youths of the mid-to-late 1950s became the first young people in generations who weren’t raised in the shadow of warplanes and bombs; who could think about making something of their own lives rather than worrying that they would be shipped off for the greater good at any given moment.
It’s no wonder, then, that the youth culture continued to dominate into the 1960s, the new world shaped by the young people and minds who inhabited it. Elvis was 19 when he released his first single and first connected with young audiences, while Little Richard was 18 when he released ‘Tutti Frutti’.
By the early 1960s, the newest wave of singers weren’t even being made to wait until they were as old as that to see if they could shake up the scene. Helen Shapiro was just 14 when she released her first single, ‘Don’t Treat Me Like a Child’, in 1961, her follow-up single, ‘You Don’t Know’, helping her become the youngest ever singer to hit the top of the charts (a record she would hold for 11 years until a nine-year old Donny Osmand took his ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’ to number one).
And there was a similar story across the pond; in the same year, a brand new group, The Marvelettes, were helping Motown to the label’s first ever number one, owing to the huge popularity and success of the smash-hit single ‘Please, Mr Postman’.
But while Helen Shapiro was hitting the road as the star attraction of a short UK tour (which is notable for having a young group called The Beatles further down the bill), The Marvelettes could at first only work on weekends to advance their singing careers because, wrote Jet Magazine at the time, “they’re all students at Inkster, Mich, High School”.
How old were The Marvelettes when they started?
Earlier in the year, the five young girls from Inkster High in Michigan had grouped together to enter their school talent contest, with the prize for the top contestants being the chance to record at the nearby Motown studios on West Grand Boulevard. Singing under the name The Casinyets, Gladys Horton, then just 15, and friends Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart and Wanda Young (each 17 years old) sang a rendition of The Chantels’ ‘Maybe’, ultimately finishing in fourth place in the contest.
While they thought they hadn’t qualified for the prize-winning recording sessions, one of their teachers saw their potential and pushed for their participation. Hearing the young girls, now calling themselves The Marvels, singing first ‘He’s Gone’ and then ‘I Met Him on a Sunday’, Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson were both impressed and wondered what they could do with some fresh material.
It wouldn’t be long until they would find out; since the talent show, the group brought another friend on board named Georgia Dobbins, who, although. wouldn’t stay too long, due to a combination of needing to care for her ailing mother and an overly strict father, undoubtedly had an enormous impact on the group.
It was Dobbins who adapted and updated the lyrics to an old blues tune she knew, ‘Please Mr Postman’, and turned it into an anthem for the new youth, and though they’d long been inspired by older singing girl groups, The Marvelettes knew how to make the music sound their own, as well as the lyrics.
“When we recorded ‘Please, Mr Postman’, we were young”, Katherine Anderson later said, “In comparison with groups such as The Chantels and The Shirelles, the difference with The Marvelettes was that we were more upbeat. The sister groups, like The Chantels and The Shirelles, did more slow, ballad-type music. We did more fast-paced, upbeat music.”
Their debut song must have been sent to the charts second class, though, as it took a while to deliver on its undeniable promise. Released in early July, it wasn’t until December 11th that the song eventually climbed to the top of the charts, ultimately spending a total of 23 weeks on there altogether. Though The Marvelettes would never climb to the pop summit again, Motown would enjoy over 50 further number ones over the next three decades.
