The Marvelettes - Holding On With Both Hands

When I formed Motorcity in 1987 and recorded The Velvelettes, my dream was to also record The Marvelettes, but whereas the Velvelettes had its original lineup and were totally professional and performing as successfully as they had in the Sixties, The Marvelettes was a very sad story indeed. Gladys Horton had become somewhat embittered after years of fake Marvelettes doing the rounds, and giving her no chance of credibility, and the silky golden voice of Wanda Rogers had been stilled for eighteen years, by 1989, of mental health problems, nervous breakdowns, and heavy drink abuse to the extent that she was rumoured to be an alcoholic bag lady. Everyone but everyone said leave her alone, and she would never sing again, but I refused to give in. Marv Johnson found her finally, and brought her to me in Detroit. She looked embarrassing, and was stone drunk, and everyone wanted to steer clear of her. But Kim Weston sobered her up, and got her to the Hitsville Reunion on March 14th 1989. But they still all said I'd never get a vocal out of her, but we persevered for hours and hours, line by line and word by word, till she sounded like her old self, on "Holding On With Both Hands". Then the song had to be performed on TV, and no way was Wanda up to it, so her fellow Marvelette, Gladys Horton, decided to do it in her place. We had been recording Gladys anyway, and did several songs using both Gladys and Wanda together, but this is the only time you'll ever hear Gladys doing the lead vocal on "Holding On With Both Hands".