The Elgins - Heading Away From Heartaches

I always loved The Elgins. Along with The Velvelettes they were one of my favourite Motown groups. They were originally The Downbeats in 1962, with the three guys, Johnny Dawson, Norman McLean and Duke Miller. They added a girl lead singer in 1965, Saundra Edwards and recorded such classics as "Heaven Must Have Sent You" and "Put Yourself In My Place". In 1968 Saundra left and Yvonne Allen joined Motown and took over as lead singer. She recorded tons of stuff at Motown but they never released any more Elgins records. In 1972 "Heaven Must Have Sent You" was reissued in England and became a huge hit. The group appeared at The Torch allnighter in Stoke On Trent, where I was DJing and I met all four of them, Yvonne, Johnny, Norman and Duke. So, seventeen years later, in 1989, I persuaded them to reform for my Motorcity project. Duke had died, so Johnny brought in Jimmy Charles, and together with Norman and Yvonne, The Elgins had a whole new lease of life. This song, "Heading Away From Heartaches" was the first brand new song that I wrote for them along with a re-recording of "Heaven Must Have Sent You". In 2007, they returned to England for the first time in sixteen years, to appear at a big Northern Soul Weekender in Northampton.