Legendary Motown singer Martha Reeves has seen her share of battles. That includes disagreements with her original back-up singers, the Vandellas, a stint on the Detroit City Council and recent criticism of her rendition of the national anthem.
Yet at age 85, Reeves says she still has fight left in her. And music.
She’s showcasing both on her first new record in two decades, called “Searching.”
Reeves says from her first days in Motown’s Artists and Repertoire, or “A&R” department, she’s tried to deliver tunes that pack a message.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
Martha Reeves: I did a “Heat Wave,” I’ve “Danced in the Street,” I’ve had “Nowhere to Run,” I’ve been in “Quicksand.” What else do I need to do?
Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Then why are you doing another record?
MR: I record ’cause I can. My manager, Chris Rowe, kinda helped me get back on the good foot, I’ll put it that way. To do a recording that everybody can learn to love, like Stevie Wonder’s “To Know You is to Love You” (The first single released from “Searching.) We chose that on purpose because I have a personal history with Stevie Wonder.
I was kind of appointed his day care nurse at Motown. When he first came to the studio, he was brought to the A&R department with no introduction or anything. He just was there. I looked and saw a young man, about 8 years old. I said, “Hi, how you doing? What’s your name?” He said, “Stevie. What’s yours?” I said, “Martha.” He said, “You sound like a nice person. Let me see what you look like.” And he fingered my face, precious fingers all over my face.
We got to know each other and fell in love at that moment. He took the liberty of playing rhythms on the typewriter, the telephone. I think he played “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” on the telephone.
We had a good time until they came and knocked on the door and said, “Stevie, you’re needed in Studio A.” It was just across the hall. So I followed him. We had gotten acquainted and I felt like I was a part of him and he was a part of me, being A&R director.
He went to every instrument in that room and played it. Played a bit of drums, a bit of keyboard, piano, xylophone, harmonica, congas, bongas. He played everything. And (Motown founder) Berry Gordy was standing on the side watching carefully, observing this new talent that Ronnie White of the Miracles had brought to him from church. And after hearing him play all those instruments Berry said, “This kid is a wonder.” There’s his name. Went from Stevland Judkins to Stevie Wonder.
And to sing Stevie Wonder’s “To Know You is to Love You,” a duet between him and his wife, Syreeta, it’s gonna hold a special place in my heart. And I’m sure that Stevie will appreciate it too. To know you is to love you. He’s talking about, maybe, his loved one. I’m talking about God. To know God is to love Him.
QK: It always sounds like you had to really fight your way onto the Motown label, from being a receptionist to them actually recognizing you as an artist?
MR: I was an artist first. I was invited to come to the A&R department for an audition. But when I got there, there was a job. I was asked to answer the phone, by the same guy that approached me and asked me to come to Hitsville, USA (Motown’s original headquarters.) He’d be right back. I didn’t know him that well. But he had given me a card saying, “You have talent. Come to Hitsville.” I was discovered.
On that card was the name Barrett Strong, who sang “Money (That’s What I Want,) one of the first songs my dad liked from Motown. He worked for the city water department, so he was very aware of what was going on in the city. And “Money” was one of his favorite songs. Here I am in the office and I’m talking to the people who produced the song that my dad had taken favor to. And my brother, Benny Reeves, had sang at Hitsville with the Contours. So I was coerced or invited or drawn to or whatever you want to call it on purpose at Motown records. I was asked to come back the next day, the next day, the next day, and it became a habit. Every day, nine o’clock, I’d be at Hitsville, USA. Official secretary, but not really. An artist waiting on my turn. I was invited and I stayed.
QK: There’s so many experiences everybody I’ve ever talked to that’s been connected to Motown has had. And so many classics that you recorded, “Dancing in the Street,” all the rest of them. This is a horrid question journalists often ask, but when you look back at that, are there any moments or songs that have always stood out to you from that time?
MR: Every one. Mom showed me something very young in my life while singing gospel songs in my grandfather’s church. Never sing a song unless you can feel it in your spirit, in your soul. If it can mean something to you, then it’ll be real. If it don’t mean anything to you, it’s just an act of recording. But every song that I sing means something to me, I have it in my heart. Know what I’m talking about, and then give it my worship, give it my praise. And that works for me.
QK: The same way now with this new one, “Searching?”
MR: Yeah. I’m on another level now. I can imitate all my teachers. My album has been classified as jazz but it’s gospel. It’s rock, but it’s pop. It’s rap, but it’s disco. It’s rock and roll, but it’s the blues. We’ve got everything. Somehow we’ve mixed together an album that’s featuring every genre of music, every mode, every mood. So I’m having a good time.
QK: We were talking about Motown. One of the songs on this album is an old Motown song, “I Got it Bad,” that you had cut back in the 1960’s but never released.
MR: It was put on a compilation album that Motown released long after it was recorded, three discs of unreleased product. That shows you have stocked up hit after hit after hit. Some of them have been released, some of them are yet to be. But I worked really hard in the A&R department and I recorded more songs than other artists at Hitsville, USA.
QK: And the one that’s on “Searching,” did you guys remake it completely or did you just take the old recording and kind of gussy it up a bit?
MR: Everything is brand new with brand new musicians, the best to be had from all over the world. I got a chance to be a co-writer on some of the songs. I’ve written on every album I ever recorded. But I’ve never gotten credit. Somehow now I feel I’ve arrived as an artist. I was asked my opinion and was allowed the chance to write on some of the material was already presented to me.
QK: It sounds like there is very much a “praise God” theme, vibe, throughout the entire record.
MR: Yes. I’m dedicated. I’ve got no choice for the rest of my life. I’m reborn. I’m saved by grace. I’m a messenger. I know my job.
One of the questions to me has been, “What made me go back in the studio?” I’ve never been out. I’ve been recording all these years. Most artists are recording all their lives. Everything doesn’t make it to the public or get released. But artists have to stay active, they have to stay in the mode of. I have to sing every day.
QK: People will speak about the civil rights movement and they’ll bring up “Dancing in the Street” and tie it sometimes to the riot, the rebellion in Detroit in 1967. They’ll say some of them thought it was a call to riot, like an anthem of sorts. Was there even any truth to that?
MR: There’s no truth whatsoever. The sweet Marvin Gaye wrote the song. I happened to be standing in the studio at this window that you could see him sing. And I was able to roam around the studio because I worked in the A&R department. So I stood there and watched Marvin, which was one of my favorite pastimes. He was so fine, I gotta be real with you. I was watching him sing “Dancing in the Street” and he did a wonderful job. He saw me in the window and beckoned to me, “Come here, Martha, come here.”
When I went in he said, “I want you to sing this song for me.” And in my mind I thought, I don’t wanna be in the street. I wanna be in the studio, I wanna be in the house, I wanna be in the theater, I wanna be at the casino, I wanna be somewhere, I don’t wanna be in the street.
I didn’t know it was gonna be the hit that it was. It took me the first take to realize that the tape machine wasn’t turned on. They didn’t think I was ready to record it. The engineer, Lawrence Horn, said, “Hey man, the machine wasn’t on.” So I wanted to be angry about it, but I expressed it in my delivery of “Dancing in the Street,” if anybody listens to it and hears how excited I was.
Marvin recorded it to keep people from fighting and breaking into people’s businesses and throwing bricks and acting the fool. He thought if everybody started dancing to that beautiful music that he wrote, it would quench that riot and everything would be wonderful. Those were our intentions. However wrong they were taken is another thing altogether.
QK: You were actually onstage at the Fox Theater when the riot started happening and you had to kind of mellow the crowd out as things were going on?
MR: Yeah, they sent me out there. Said, “Come here Martha.” I thought something was wrong, my dress had unzipped or my shoes weren’t tied or something. And they said, “You gotta go on stage and tell everybody that the riot is on, there are tanks in the street, it’s an uproar. You gotta get these kids out of your dressing room and out of this theater and get to their home. There’s a curfew. There’s a siren going on. Can you hear it? Go to the stage and tell everybody they’ve got to leave quietly. Don’t run, ’cause if you panic the audience, somebody might get stampeded.” He said all this to me and pushed me out on stage.
And I went to the mic and somehow God gave me the ad lib to say, “Everybody, there’s been a riot, you’ve got to go home. Leave quietly.” It worked. Everybody just calmly walked out, with be barely any sound whatsoever. It was scary. Nobody hollered out, “What do you mean?” None of that. Everybody just got up and walked out. Half of them ran, of course, because you could hear the sirens. It was a horrible time.
QK: When people get to a point where they’ve really done a lot in their career and have all this vast experience, some will ask what would be your advice for the next generation, to any young artists coming up? Especially nowadays compared to Hitsville, when everything is digital, it’s streaming, people can share files, and is an artist even gonna earn anything from their work? And you don’t have the big A&R departments spending zillions to develop you as an act. What advice would you have for people coming up in this age?
MR: I don’t know. Nobody advised me. I just went into it head first and took my chances and took what fate had for me. I’ve always tried to be righteous, I’ve always tried to be honest, and always tried to put my best foot forward. I’ve had lessons and I used them. I study other singers, singers that went before me. I imitate them in some of my moves when I sing.
On this new album, I was allowed to do whatever I felt like doing, whatever I heard in the lyrics, however I wanted to express them. I haven’t had that kind of freedom in my past recordings. I’ve almost been dictated to by the person that actually wrote the song. This time I was allowed to not only add to the lyrics of the songs already written, but to bring songs that I’ve written solely on my own. It makes me feel like not only an artist but a writer too, and a producer as well. I’d like to produce some other talent, younger talent, teach them what I’ve learned.
Everything that I’ve ever done, somebody came and got me and made me do it. Or didn’t make me, but asked me if I could. And I was willing and able. Everything in show business.
My first song was “Jesus Met the Woman at the Well” with my two older brothers at my grandfather’s church. I was three years old, but we won that candy! I still remember the words. So, since the age of three I’ve known that I got a message and God will use me. Because I can. He can’t use everybody, because everybody’s not willing. I’m a willing spirit.
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