The Elgins: How Motown’s most underrated group captured the attention of northern soul
For a label headquartered in a converted residential house, it was surprisingly easy to get lost within the offices of Motown Records. With boss Berry Gordy amassing an unparalleled wealth of soul and R&B talent during the 1960s heyday of Hitsville USA, certain acts were bound to get lost in the chaos, and that is the fate that befell The Elgins, one of Motown’s most underrated outfits.
Throughout their heyday, with the pop charts of the 1960s dominated by Motown’s offerings on a weekly basis, Gordy’s label wasn’t only in the business of releasing records, they were also in the business of monopolising talent. From buying out smaller soul labels across Detroit, including the likes of Ric-Tic and Golden World, Motown also seemed to seek out as much musical talent as their Detroit surroundings could possibly offer.
It was this search for new talent that brought The Elgins – or The Downbeats, as they were then known – into the Motown roster back in 1962, after the group had recorded for various smaller independent labels around Michigan. It wasn’t until three years after their initial single ‘Your Baby’s Back’ hit the airwaves, though, that Berry Gordy re-christened the group as The Elgins and began to issue their recordings on a far more regular basis.
Even still, the group were never at risk of supplanting any of Motown’s flagship groups, largely because they spent the majority of their time at the label resigned to the VIP imprint. That imprint was designed for the more overtly soulful acts on the label’s roster, but it – rather understandably – rarely achieved the same degree of mainstream recognition as the main Motown label. During the entirety of their career at the label, in fact, the group only managed to release three singles on VIP, the biggest of which was ‘Heaven Must Have Sent You’.
Mainstream audiences did respond, to some degree, to that single upon its release, but, within the context of circa 1966 Motown, a single that peaks at number 50 in the pop charts is hardly something to write home about. Shortly after that single was released, The Elgins quietly faded away into obscurity, joining a landfill of other failed Motown groups that hadn’t quite managed to court the adoration of the pop charts.
That might have been the conclusion of The Elgins’ short-lived soul story; little more than a footnote in the colossal story of 1960s Motown. However, the group were eventually plucked from obscurity by the northern soul scene that blossomed in England during the early 1970s, from the tail-end of the Motown-obsessed mod subculture, who had a particular appreciation for ‘Heaven Must Have Sent You’.
Northern soul purists tended to stay away from overt Motown releases, even during those early days, which should have prevented The Elgins from being spun on the scene, but seemingly, the power of their performance was enough to endear them towards this sweaty, amphetamine-fueled new generation of soul obsessives.
Before too long, Motown itself caught wind of this newly emerging scene and took the opportunity to reissue various old Motown singles which had initially been flops.
One of those new reissues in 1971 was of ‘Heaven Must Have Sent You’ and, despite the fact that it failed to chart upon its initial 1966 release in the UK, the single ended up climbing to the dizzying heights of number three in the singles charts – a good indicator both of the timeless brilliance of the song and the newfound power of the northern soul scene.
