Song Of The Day 6/26/2014: The Marvelettes - "It’s Gonna Take A Lot of Doing (To Undo All The Damage That You’ve Done)"

Black Music Month/Motown Week: I don't have much on the Marvelettes. We haven't crossed paths much. They were the first group to have a hit with the pop standard "Please Mr. Postman," which was also the first #1 hit for Motown Records ever. Being around in the '60s, they inevitably followed this with "Twistin' Postman." There was this giant tubal structure in the '60s that turned anything that walked through it into a "twisting" thing. "Twistin' USA," "Swanee River Twist," "When The Saints Go Twistin' In" (not a joke), "Twistin' Nixon" (that one's a joke, but it shouldn't be). I'm surprised anyone got out of the early '60s with their lumbar spine still attached. Exercise. Sheesh.

"It's Gonna Take A Lot of Doing (To Undo All The Damage That You've Done)" was co-written by Norman Whitfield and William "Mickey" Stevenson. Whitfield had a hand in so many monster hits it's intimidating: "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," "War," and yes, "Car Wash." Stevenson got off some good ones too: "Dancing in the Street," "Uptight (Everything's Alright)," "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted," and "Devil With the Blue Dress On" with another of this week's entrants, Shorty Long. Supposedly he was the inspiration for the Miracles' "Mickey's Monkey" but I'm too lazy to corroborate that at the moment. Research is hard, man.