One of the 1960s’ more renowned “girl groups” coming out of Berry Gordy’s Motown music center in Detroit, Michigan, was named “Martha and the Vandellas.” Between 1963 and 1967, this group – consisting initially of Martha Reeves, Annette Beard, and Rosalind Ashford – laid down a string of hits that helped define the popular music of that day. Their sound was distinctive, and it would become one of the hallmark musical identities to be associated with Motown for years thereafter. But in the 1960s, this music also distinguished Motown as a rising power in the pop music business. For at that time, Motown was just beginning to be noticed on the national music scene.
One of the first big hits to come from Martha and the Vandellas was “Heat Wave”– a key song released in July 1963; a song that helped send this group, Motown, and its songwriters into the realm of big business. At the time, leading-edge baby boomers, with their significant buying power, were moving through their high school years. “Heat Wave” hit the streets precisely as millions of these kids were coming of age. A buoyant, hard-driving rock ‘n roll tune, “Heat Wave” captured the spirit and optimism of its time – along with the energy of its young listeners – as well as well as any song of that era. Even to this day, “Heat Wave” is an irresistible dance tune. In 1963, it quickly scaled the pop charts.
By 1971, when the Motown organization moved west to Los Angles, Martha and the Vandellas parted company with the record label, going out on their own for a time. Things were never quite the same thereafter. Reeves, in fact, was stunned to learn of Motown’s move to Los Angeles and she fought a legal battle with the label to be released from her contract. In the 1970s, Reeves had a bout with prescription drug problems, but emerged in the late 1970s drug free.
As female artists at Motown, Martha & the Vandellas were second only to Diana Ross and the Supremes, with whom they competed for resources and attention. One story has it that Berry Gordy favored the Supremes, and allocated resources accordingly. Once the Supremes had demonstrated their crossover appeal with a couple of No. 1 pop hits, Gordy decided they would be the more lucrative group, and he reportedly sent the best material to the Supremes and helped them in other ways. Martha Reeves would later write that Gordy held back the song “Jimmy Mack” for two years because it sounded too much like a Supremes song.
Reeves and two other Vandellas – Beard and Ashford – would sue Motown for back royalties in the 1980s. Beard and Ashford in fact, claimed at one point they had received no royalties from Motown dating to the 1960s. There was a settlement in some of the litigation, and at least one lump sum payment to Beard and Ashford. But as of 2004 or so, disputes were still ongoing in some of the cases. Reeves appeared to have had separate litigation dating to 1983, and won a lawsuit for some back royalties, an award which also specified royalties for current and future reissues of past work.