Song of the Day 8/18: The Marvelettes, “Please Mr. Postman”

In 1961, when the Marvelettes released this song — their debut single and the first Motown song to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 — the story told in the lyrics was clear: The singer’s boyfriend had jilted her, and she had transferred her anxiety to her mail carrier.

Nowadays the distant lover has a plausible cover story — the letter could be three weeks old and getting moldy in the back room of a post office because the mail-sorting machine was removed and left out in the rain.

Bonus trivia: That’s Marvin Gaye, who started out at Motown as a studio drummer, behind the kit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGJcbHni4rc

The Marvelettes started singing together in their high school glee club the year before their big hit. After some personnel changes they had a second spell of success in the mid-’60s. Their last Top 40 hit was in 1967, with the Smokey Robinson composition “My Baby Must Be a Magician.”

“Please Mr. Postman” had a long gestation period. The Marvelettes auditioned for Motown after finishing fourth in a high school talent contest. Executives like their style but asked them to come back with an original composition. They didn’t have one, so Georgia Dobbins, the only high school graduate in the group (the rest eventually dropped out of school to tour), contacted local blues singer William Garrett for help. He gave her the title and some lyrics to an unfinished song he was writing. Dobbins redid it in a doo-wop style for the audition, and Motown songwriters, including Brian Holland, massaged it into its final form.

In 1975, the tune became the third-ever song to reach No. 1 by two different artists when the Carpenters recorded their version. I generally love Karen Carpenter’s voice, but it doesn’t show well here, and Richard’s saccharine arrangement, like many ’50s Revival remakes from the mid-’70s, comes close to camp.