Story of the Song: Please Mr Postman by The Marvelettes

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on the girl group’s upbeat debut hit

Fantastic four: Wanda, Gladys, Georgeanna and Katherine in 1964 (Redferns)

Gladys Horton and Georgia Dobbins, from Inkster, Michigan, couldn’t sing – or so they thought. Along with three classmates, they called themselves The Casinyets (“can’t sing yet”), and took their chances in a school talent show. They came fourth, but their teacher, a Mrs Sharpley, arranged for an audition at Detroit’s Motown records, which had just charted with The Miracles’ “Shop Around” and was scouting for a follow-up. Robert Bateman at Motown liked what he heard but wanted something more original. A few days later, Dobbins was flicking through some sheet music by a friend, William Garrett, when Horton glanced over her shoulder. Her eye caught a title that she thought was cute: “Please Mr Postman.”

Garrett was summoned to play the song: it turned out to be a slow blues number. The girls decided they needed something more upbeat for their next audition. Overnight, Dobbins wrote new lyrics and beefed up the melody, retaining the cute title. In May 1961, the girls returned to Motown with their song.

This time, the girls struck gold: Bateman and his label boss, Berry Gordy, booked studio time, arrangers and musicians, one of whom was a young drummer called Marvin Gaye.