The Marvelettes singer Wanda Young, who sang on the 1961 classic Please Mr. Postman, has died at 78
- Daughter Meta Ventress said Young died December 15 in Garden City, Michigan
- She died due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Young served as the group’s lead singer for a time until departing in 1969
The Marvelettes singer Wanda Young has died at the age of 78.
Her daughter Meta Ventress told The New York Times Saturday that Young passed away due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on December 15 in Garden City, Michigan.
Young inked with the group prior to their initial record deal with Motown, and served as the group’s lead singer for a time until leaving in 1969. She also went on to have a solo career.
The latest: The Marvelettes singer Wanda Young (center) has died at the age of 78. She was snapped with Katherine Anderson (L) and Gladys Horton (R) in London in 1965
Young was featured on several other notable songs, including Beechwood 4-5789, My Baby Must Be A Magician, Locking Up My Heart, Too Many Fish In The Sea, I’ll Keep Holding On, Don’t Mess With Bill, and The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game.
The Marvelettes are acknowledged as Motown’s breakout girl group, paving the way for other iconic groups such as the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and the Velvelettes.
The group — which at various times also consisted of members Gladys Horton (who died in 2011), Katherine Anderson, Ann Bogan, Juanita Cowart and Georgeanna Tillman (who died in 1980) — received a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination in 2013.
The group’s record label Motown said in a statement Friday, ‘We are so saddened by the news of Wanda Young of the Marvelettes passing. What an impact she has had on the world of Classic Motown and the lives of so many. Her legacy will continue to live on.’
Pioneers: The Marvelettes are acknowledged as Motown’s breakout girl group, paving the way for other iconic groups such as the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and the Velvelettes; Anderson, Young and Ann Bogan seen in 1968 in NYC
Acclaimed: The group received a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination in 2013
‘Wanda had this little voice that was sexy to me, a little country kind of voice,’ Smokey Robinson said in liner notes on the 1993 compilation album Deliver: The Singles (1961–1971), according to the paper. ‘I knew if I could get a song to her, it would be a smash.’
Ventress told the Times that her mother ‘didn’t wake up every day thinking of The Marvelettes, but she never lost that glamour.
‘I told her constantly, “All these people love you.” And she’d say, “Wow,”‘ she recalled.
Young and Horton collaborated on the 1990 album The Marvelettes: Now, according to the newspaper, for the label Motorcity Records.
Young is survived by her three children, several grandchildren and a great-grandchild, as well as four sisters and four brothers.
Hitmaker: Young was featured on several notable songs, including Beechwood 4-5789, My Baby Must Be A Magician, Locking Up My Heart, Too Many Fish In The Sea, I’ll Keep Holding On, Don’t Mess With Bill, and The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game