Mary Wells - You Beat Me To The Punch
  • 6 years ago
I have dug through the archives and edited together the footage of our wonderful re-recording of one of Mary Wells' biggest ever hits, "You Beat Me To The Punch". Along with the footage from "My Guy", these two videos capture Mary at her scintillating best in the studio. In fact, I recorded Mary's very last album before she died. My very first single with her, which was on Nightmare Records, before the Motorcity label was even created, "Don't Burn Your Bridges", was only the second ever Motorcity song to actually be recorded, although the fourth single to be released. And funnily enough, her next song was the second ever single on the actual Motorcity label itself. Mary was a true diva, a lovely person and a dear wonderful, much-missed friend. Wherever she went, her four year old daughter, Sugar, was with her. She was left without a mother at such a young age. I guess she'd be about twenty three or four now. Mary was with us in Detroit for a TV show to perform her second single with us, and she came out with the greatest line in history, which is somehow captured on a grotty dark bit of video for posterity. "When you deal with the Motown artists you're dealing with true genius. And like all true geniuses, we're all mentally disturbed". Liz Lands was there, and wholeheartedly agreed with her. I treasure that quote. And also, one time, I teamed up Mary Wells with Marvin Gaye's brother Frankie, to recreate Marvin and Mary's hit, "Once Upon A Time", and watching it now, it's so hard to believe they both passed away. When we all first went to Los Angeles, in April 1989, to have a second public reunion there of all the California based former Motown artists, immediately following the one we'd just done in Detroit, Frankie came along, and we were all shocked and numbed by how much he looked like his late brother Marvin. So I had the brilliant idea of teaming him up with Mary Wells for them to re-do "Once Upon A Time". At the end of that video, which you can also see here on YouTube, I have included an amazing out-take where Mary forgets who Frankie was and calls him Marvin, because she said they could have been twins, both in appearance and vocally, and she should have known, if anyone did.