Martha Reeves & the Vandellas
Annette Beard, Rosalind Ashford, and Gloria Williams
Together as a group charted over 26 hit songs, ten of which reached #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. They are best known for the songs “Jimmy Mack,” “Dancing in the Street” (later covered by David Bowie and Mick Jagger), and “Heatwave.”
Martha and the Vandellas (known from 1967 to 1972 as Martha Reeves & The Vandellas) They were an American vocal girl group formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown. An act founded by friends Annette Beard, Rosalind Ashford, and Gloria Williams, the group eventually included Martha Reeves, who moved up in the ranks as the lead vocalist of the group after Williams’ departure in 1962. The group signed with and eventually recorded all of their singles for Motown’s Gordy imprint.
The group’s string of hits included “Come and Get These Memories”, “Heat Wave”, “Quicksand”, “Nowhere to Run”, “Jimmy Mack”, “I’m Ready for Love”, “Bless You” and “Dancing in the Street”, the latter song becoming their signature single.
During their nine-year run on the charts from 1963 to 1972, Martha and the Vandellas charted over twenty-six hits and recorded in the styles of doo-wop, R&B, pop, blues, rock and roll, and soul. Ten Vandellas songs reached the top ten of the Billboard R&B Singles chart, including two R&B number ones, and six Top Ten Pop Hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Selected members of the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2013.
Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 (they were nominated for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for the song in 1964). In 1993, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas were awarded the Pioneer Award by the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. Except for pre-Vandellas member Gloria Williamson and Vandellas member Sandra Tilley, all members of the group were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, becoming the second all-female group to be inducted. They were inducted by the rock group The B-52’s, whose frothy dance music was inspired by the Vandellas. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003. Two of their singles, “(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave” and “Dancing in the Street” were included in the list of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the group No. 96 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.In 2005, Martha & The Vandellas were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
Always concert favorites, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas were nominated for UK Festival Awards in 2010 and 2011 as “Best Headliner”.
Martha and the Vandellas were inducted into the inaugural class of the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame at Cleveland State University in August 2013