Mary Wells – You Beat Me To The Punch
Time and legions of other soul superstars have obscured the fact that for a brief moment, Mary Wells was Motown’s biggest star. She came to the attention of Berry Gordy as a 17-year-old, hawking a song she’d written for Jackie Wilson; that song, “Bye Bye Baby,” became her first Motown hit in 1961. The full-throated approach of that single was quickly toned down in favor of a pop-soul sound. Few other soul singers managed to be as shy and sexy at the same time as Wells (Barbara Lewis is the only other that springs to mind), and the soft-voiced singer found a perfect match with the emerging Motown production team, especially Smokey Robinson. Robinson wrote and produced her biggest Motown hits; “Two Lovers,” “You Beat Me to the Punch,” and “The One Who Really Loves You” all made the Top Ten in the early ’60s, and “My Guy” hit the number one spot in mid-1964, at the very height of Beatlemania.
Mary turned 21 years old as “My Guy” was rising to the top of the charts, and left Motown almost immediately afterward for a reported advance of several hundred thousand dollars from 20th Century Fox. The circumstances remain cloudy years later, but Wells and her husband-manager felt Motown wasn’t coming through with enough money for their new superstar; she was also lured by the prospect of movie roles through 20th Century Fox (which never materialized). It’s been rumored that Wells was being groomed for the sort of plans that were subsequently lavished upon Diana Ross; more nefariously, it’s also been rumored that Motown quietly discouraged radio stations from playing Wells’ subsequent releases. What is certain is that Wells never remotely approached the success of her Motown years, entering the pop Top 40 only once (although she had some R&B hits). Motown, for their part, took care throughout the rest of the ’60s not to lose their big stars to larger labels.
Wells’ departure from Motown was so dramatic and unsuccessful that it has tended to overshadow the quality of her later work, which has almost always been dismissed as trivial by critics. True, it didn’t match the quality of her Motown recordings — Smokey Robinson could not be replaced. But her ’60s singles for 20th Century Fox (whom she ended up leaving after only a year), Atco, and Jubilee were solid pop-soul on which her vocal talents remained undiminished. She wrote and produced a lot of her late-’60s and early-’70s sessions with her second husband, guitarist Cecil Womack (brother of Bobby), and these found her exploring a somewhat earthier groove than her more widely known pop efforts. She had trouble landing recording deals in the ’70s and ’80s, and succumbed to throat cancer in 1992. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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True test of time
East LA
We thought that she was singing" I was looking at you so hard till your mustache had a part."
The pic at :24 is awesome. I downloaded a high rez version and its going on my wall.
im here from donnas class
They don’t have voices like this anymore,beautiful!!!
i love this song so much
What is the song about?
I LOVE THIS SONG IT TAKES ME BACK WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL PAYAH W.L.A
Memoties of old Newsome Park Newport News Va
I love this genre of music! Maybe @Q102 in Philadelphia should launch an Oldies show every Sunday night 😊❤️😊❤️
THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
I grow up listening to oldes
I ENJOY LISTENING TO MY OLDIES!! IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD, that there was a time when life
Mary’s life story is inspiring.
Miss you wolfman jack
Now this is music 2020 cruising down hawthorne blvd
Boomers in the comments, folks
The OLDIESSSSS ARE CRUZZZZIN MUZZZZZIC TRY LISTENIN WHILE YOUR CRUZZZIN YOU'LL SEE WHAT IM LAYIN DOWN TO YOU…
It's sad to see the tragedy of Black music in America unfolding before your eyes, they went from this raw natural talent to autotune and mumble rap .. sad indeed