Mary Doing Cover Versions

[rainymourning]

Hi guys I'm sure we all get that when Mary Wells left Motown Berry tried to fill her place for awhile with some other Ladies such as Brenda Holloway and Tammi Terrell. Each of them covered some of Mary's songs but my question is which song(s) of theirs do you think Mary would have sang just as well or even better?

I would have liked to hear her sing Memory Chest from the Complete Duets disc :backgroundsinger:

[Motown Honey]

rainymourning said:

Hi guys I'm sure we all get that when Mary Wells left Motown Berry tried to fill her place for awhile with some other Ladies such as Brenda Holloway and Tammi Terrell. Each of them covered some of Mary's songs but my question is which song(s) of theirs do you think Mary would have sang just as well or even better?

I would have liked to hear her sing Memory Chest from the Complete Duets disc

I'll have to think a bit more on this and I'll be back

[fantagurl]

motown said:

rainymourning said:

Hi guys I'm sure we all get that when Mary Wells left Motown Berry tried to fill her place for awhile with some other Ladies such as Brenda Holloway and Tammi Terrell. Each of them covered some of Mary's songs but my question is which song(s) of theirs do you think Mary would have sang just as well or even better?

I would have liked to hear her sing Memory Chest from the Complete Duets disc

I'll have to think a bit more on this and I'll be back

Same here.That is a good question.

[Emerald City]

An obvious choice of song (for now) but what about Mary taking on Every Little Bit Hurts

[timmy84]

I can see Mary singing "Every Little Bit Hurts".

[fantagurl]

timmy84 said:

I can see Mary singing "Every Little Bit Hurts".

I agree with you.

[rocky g]

Have you heard her sing Everybody Needs Love and old song recorded by Gladys Knight and Pips. Mary sounds real sexy and smooth singing this song

[Diamond Girl]

rocky said:

Have you heard her sing Everybody Needs Love and old song recorded by Gladys Knight and Pips. Mary sounds real sexy and smooth singing this song

I've never heard it, is this readily available

[Kay]

rocky said:

Have you heard her sing Everybody Needs Love and old song recorded by Gladys Knight and Pips. Mary sounds real sexy and smooth singing this song

Would love to hear it

In your opinion is it better than Gladys's version??

[rainymourning]

timmy84 said:

I can see Mary singing "Every Little Bit Hurts".

That is a good choice. Two more I thought of were Lone Lonely Town (done by Tammi and Martha) and You've Made Me So Very Happy

[Kay]

I agree with all the choices so far, Mary was very versatile. Of the songs mentioned I would probably love hearing her sing You've Made Me So Very Happy the most.

[rockyg]

Now that I have had a chance to listen to both tracks recorded by Gladys and Mary. I have a tendency to remember the recorded version of Mary Wells. I have respect for both of these ladies and I love them both. Mary's version is more upbeat tempo with a voice that floats with tempo and her umm are great to listen too. The muscial arrangements are great allowing her the flexibility to use a heavy range to a light range to make the song more interesting.
Gladys' version is a liittle more soulfoul with deepter voice tones. I believe this song was written with Mary in mind and could have been a great #1 for her.Remember Marvin Gaye recorded
I Heard It Through The Grapevine and sold more copies than Gladys. Marvin version was written with ligther tones supplemented with his beautiful tenor. Remember Mary and Marving could sing rough raw tones as well as lighter tones. Gladys has a mellow full sound with deep tones. They are and were great singers. Neither one of them can do no wrong. We have been
bless to have these geat singers(Marvin & Mary) and fortunate to still have Gladys around.
By the way I use to think that Mary leaving Motown was a mistake. It was only a mistake financially; however, moving to other recording labels left us with some great music recorded by her that showed her versatility. I have all of her recordings from her entire career.

[rainymourning]

rockyg said:

Now that I have had a chance to listen to both tracks recorded by Gladys and Mary. I have a tendency to remember the recorded version of Mary Wells. I have respect for both of these ladies and I love them both. Mary's version is more upbeat tempo with a voice that floats with tempo and her umm are great to listen too. The muscial arrangements are great allowing her the flexibility to use a heavy range to a light range to make the song more interesting.
Gladys' version is a liittle more soulfoul with deepter voice tones. I believe this song was written with Mary in mind and could have been a great #1 for her.Remember Marvin Gaye recorded
I Heard It Through The Grapevine and sold more copies than Gladys. Marvin version was written with ligther tones supplemented with his beautiful tenor. Remember Mary and Marvin could sing rough raw tones as well as lighter tones. Gladys has a mellow full sound with deep tones. They are and were great singers. Neither one of them can do no wrong. We have been
bless to have these geat singers(Marvin & Mary) and fortunate to still have Gladys around.
By the way I use to think that Mary leaving Motown was a mistake. It was only a mistake financially; however, moving to other recording labels left us with some great music recorded by her that showed her versatility. I have all of her recordings from her entire career.

That was a good summary and you make a very good point about the range of Mary and Marvin. I think the delivery of some of the artists are what make certain versions better, so I agree with you there. However in time many of the artists that left Motown had some sort of financial issues, but thank God the music is still with us. Could you post up Mary's version for us to listen to? or tell us which CD it may be available on? I would love to hear it.