Mary Wells

Although the passage of time along with countless other towering figures in soul music has dimmed the recollection, Mary Wells stood briefly as Motown’s leading star. Berry Gordy discovered her at seventeen while she was pitching a composition she had written for Jackie Wilson. Her version of “Bye Bye Baby” became her first hit for the label in 1961. The robust vocal delivery of that track soon yielded to a lighter pop-soul approach.

Few soul singers conveyed both reserve and allure in equal measure as effectively as Wells, a quality matched by perhaps only Barbara Lewis. This distinctive persona meshed perfectly with the rising Motown production team, most notably Smokey Robinson. He wrote and produced her major early successes, among them “Two Lovers,” “You Beat Me to the Punch,” and “The One Who Really Loves You,” all of which reached the Top Ten in the early 1960s. Her greatest triumph arrived when “My Guy” climbed to number one in mid-1964, precisely at the height of Beatlemania.

Wells turned twenty-one just as the single ascended the charts and left Motown shortly afterward for a reported advance of several hundred thousand dollars from 20th Century Fox. The precise reasons remain unclear decades later, yet she and her husband-manager believed the label had not offered sufficient compensation to its new star; the prospect of motion-picture roles through 20th Century Fox also proved attractive, though none materialized. Rumors persist that she had been slated for the career trajectory later granted to Diana Ross, while other accounts claim Motown quietly urged radio stations to restrict airplay of her later releases. What remains certain is that she never approached the commercial heights of her Motown period, registering only one additional pop Top 40 entry despite several R&B successes.

Motown, in turn, took precautions throughout the remainder of the 1960s to retain its principal artists on its own roster. The dramatic and ultimately disappointing character of Wells’ departure has tended to obscure the merits of her post-Motown recordings, which critics have routinely dismissed as minor. Although these efforts could not equal the standard of her earlier work in the absence of Smokey Robinson, her 1960s singles for 20th Century Fox—where her tenure lasted only a year—along with those issued by Atco and Jubilee, constituted solid pop-soul performances that left her vocal abilities undiminished. Collaborating with her second husband, guitarist Cecil Womack, brother of Bobby, she wrote and produced numerous late-1960s and early-1970s sessions that explored a more grounded style. Consistent recording opportunities proved elusive during the 1970s and 1980s, and she died of throat cancer in 1992.