Above: Three of the four Marvelettes, with Gladys Horton on the right.
FIFTY-TWO YEARS ago today, sixteen-year-old Gladys Horton and the Marvelettes delivered Motown’s first number-one single, “Please Mr. Postman.” The 1961 chart-topper was distinguished by Horton’s emphatic vocals as she sang, “De-liver the let-ter, the sooner the bet-ter!”
Horton created the group with five friends from a Detroit high school, with one member leaving to make it a four-girl act. “We only started singing together because Gladys asked us,” recalled Katherine Schaffner, one of the founding members. Originally called the Casinyets, a contraction of “can’t sing yet,” the band was signed by Berry Gordy’s Detroit-based Motown label, changed its name to The Marvelettes, and recorded “Please Mr. Postman” a month before Horton’s sixteenth birthday.
The Marvelettes enjoyed moderate follow-up success to “Please Mr. Postman” before their brief reign as Motown’s top girl group was eclipsed by the Supremes, whose first smash hit, “Where Did Our Love Go?” had been initially offered to Horton’s group. “Please Mr. Postman” was covered by the Beatles in 1963 and the Carpenters in 1975.
BEST TEENAGERS EVER 