Story of the Song: Please Mr Postman by The Marvelettes

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on the girl group’s upbeat debut hit

Fantastic four: Wanda, Gladys, Georgeanna and Katherine in 1964 (Redferns)

Gladys Horton and Georgia Dobbins, from Inkster, Michigan, couldn’t sing – or so they thought. Along with three classmates, they called themselves The Casinyets (“can’t sing yet”), and took their chances in a school talent show. They came fourth, but their teacher, a Mrs Sharpley, arranged for an audition at Detroit’s Motown records, which had just charted with The Miracles’ “Shop Around” and was scouting for a follow-up. Robert Bateman at Motown liked what he heard but wanted something more original. A few days later, Dobbins was flicking through some sheet music by a friend, William Garrett, when Horton glanced over her shoulder. Her eye caught a title that she thought was cute: “Please Mr Postman.”

Garrett was summoned to play the song: it turned out to be a slow blues number. The girls decided they needed something more upbeat for their next audition. Overnight, Dobbins wrote new lyrics and beefed up the melody, retaining the cute title. In May 1961, the girls returned to Motown with their song.

This time, the girls struck gold: Bateman and his label boss, Berry Gordy, booked studio time, arrangers and musicians, one of whom was a young drummer called Marvin Gaye.

The session went well: when The Supremes’ Florence Ballard heard Horton’s rasping lead vocal, her advice was to put a little more soul into it. Gordy renamed them The Marvelettes, and the single was released on the Tamla imprint as Horton turned 16. In December 1961, it became Motown’s very first No 1.

Although it wasn’t a UK hit, The Beatles, quick to pick up on anything hip and American, soon heard about “Please Mr Postman”, and made it part of their live set. “We got it from our fans, who would write ‘Please Mr Postman’ on the back of the envelopes,” claimed Paul McCartney. Replicating the original arrangement, with John Lennon’s vocals double-tracked, it can be found on their 1963 album With The Beatles.

Songwriting credits were confusing from the start. Early copies attribute it to Motown’s in-house producer, Brian Holland, and it is still variously credited to the Motown team, Dobbins and even Garrett. The Marvelettes’ reign as the Motown girl act was soon eclipsed by The Supremes, but the song they made famous was covered by many, and in 1975 it hit No 1 again, this time for The Carpenters.