Post by timmy84 on Jan 31, 2008 2:23:08 GMT -5
Mary Wells timeline
1943
-May 13: Mary Esther Wells is born in Detroit, Michigan on this day. Raised without a father, Mary suffers from spiral meningitis as a young child losing her sight, hearing and almost paralyzed. She eventually recovers from the life-threatening disease and regains her sight, hearing and legs by the age of eight. By then she had already found an outlet in singing, performing in her church choir by the age of three.
1953
-Age 10: Mary starts performing in talent shows and nightclubs.
1960
-September: After giving a song she wrote for Jackie Wilson to Motown staff worker Robert Bateman, Wells auditions for Berry Gordy singing the song acapella. Instead of giving the song to Wilson, Gordy signs Wells to a recording contract making her the second female artist after Mabel John to join the then-fledging label.
-December: Motown issues the very first single on the Motown subsidiary, Wells' "Bye Bye Baby" - the song she had tried passing on to Jackie Wilson. The song ends up peaking at number 8 R&B and number 45 pop in the winter of 1961.
1961
-April: Wells' second Motown single, the string-heavy and raw R&B number, "I Don't Want To Take a Chance", becomes the 17-year-old's first top 40 hit on the pop chart reaching number 33 on that chart while peaking at number nine on the R&B chart.
-August: Wells releases her first album, Bye Bye Baby (sometimes credited as Bye Bye Baby: I Don't Want to Take a Chance) on the Motown label. It's the third overall album released by a Motown artist.
1962
-March: With Smokey Robinson now exclusively writing for Wells, Motown issues Wells' first Robinson composition, the calypso-like "The One Who Really Loves You". Smoothing Mary's rough edges for a smoother delivery, the song becomes Wells' first top ten pop hit reaching number eight on the chart while peaking at number two on the R&B chart. The song will start a streak of popular hits Wells would release that will firmly launch her into the pop music spotlight.
-June: Motown issues Wells' "You Beat Me to the Punch", the song strikes lightning twice as the song reaches number nine pop and number-one R&B later winning Wells a Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording.
-August: Mary's second album, The One Who Really Loves You, is released. The album will break through the Billboard top ten albums chart where it peaks at number eight becoming Motown's best-selling release up until that point.
-September: Motown releases "Two Lovers" as the next single. Following "The One Who Really Loves You" and "You Beat Me to the Punch", it becomes Wells' third consecutive top ten hit on the pop charts peaking at number seven and reaching number-one R&B. Because of this achievement, Wells becomes the first female R&B artist to accomplish three top ten singles off one album and becomes the first ever Motown artist to accomplish that feat.
-October: Mary performs on American Bandstand.
-December: Mary Wells becomes an instant headliner when Motown's Motortown Revue starts touring.
1963
-March: Mary reaches number fifteen pop with the ballad "Laughing Boy".
-April: Mary performs alongside other Motown acts at the Apollo Theater during the annual Motortown Revue, which is taped for a promotional special. Mary performs her songs alongside four members of the Temptations (excluding Al Bryant).
-June-September: Mary hits the top 40 on the Billboard charts with the hits "Your Old Standby" (#8 R&B, #40 pop), "What's So Easy for Two Is So Hard for One" (#8 R&B, #29 pop) and "You Lost the Sweetest Boy" (#10 R&B, #22 pop).
1964
-March 3: Motown issues Wells' biggest and best-known hit, "My Guy". The song's sultry delivery - aimed by Mary's shy seductive demeanor and the coos from the Andantes - help the song sell. By the summer, it becomes the number-one hit in the country. It also becomes the first Motown single to truly break through in the UK where it peaks at number five. The song's success is so massive the Beatles publicly call her their favorite female artist opting a UK tour where Wells opened for the Fab Four.
-April: Motown issues what would be Mary's next-to-final album with Motown, Together, a series of duets she scored with fellow Motown star Marvin Gaye. The duo score hits such as "Once Upon a Time" and "What's the Matter With You Baby".
-May: Motown issues Mary's final studio album with them, Mary Wells Sings My Guy, which reaches number six on the pop chart. That month, after reaching 21, Mary opts out of re-signing with Motown. Wells and Motown went back and forth before allowing Mary to leave the label after it was discovered her original deal with the label was almost null and void because of her age (being only 17 when she signed with them).
-July: Fresh out of Motown, Mary signs with 20th Century Fox in hopes of more financial control and hopes for film roles. That month, the label issues Mary's first post-Motown single, "Ain't It the Truth". The song peaks at #45 pop. She would have more hits with Fox including "Use Your Head" (#13 R&B, #34 pop) and "Never, Never Leave Me" (#15 R&B, #54 pop) before leaving the label for Atco in 1965).
1965
-October: After signing with Atco, she releases the hit, "Dear Lover" (#6 R&B, #51 pop).
1966
-April: Atco releases their only album with Wells, The Two Sides of Mary Wells.
1968
-June: Mary reaches #22 R&B and #65 pop with "The Doctor" while recording briefly for the Jubilee label.
1969
-May: Mary's final R&B charter for 12 years, "Dig the Way I Feel", reaches #35 R&B. Afterwards, Mary retires from show business to raise a family with then-husband Cecil Womack. The couple would divorce in 1977. Wells would have four children - three with Cecil and another child with another Womack brother, Curtis.
1981
-June: Mary is signed with Epic Records. The 38-year-old Wells finds herself in a recording studio for the first time since 1974.
-October: Epic releases Mary Wells' first single in seven years, the dance single, "Gigolo". The song finds a modest audience especially with club audiences when it reaches #13 on the Billboard Dance Music/Club Play chart.
1982
-January: Mary's "Gigolo" reaches #69 R&B. It becomes Wells' final charted single on the Billboard R&B chart.
-April: Mary performs on Soul Train.
1983
-May 16: Mary reunites with Motown artists performing "My Guy" on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever. Afterwards, Mary keeps up a grueling tour schedule as a successful oldies act.
1990
-March: Signing a contract with Ian Levine's Motorcity Records label, Wells issues her final album, Keeping My Mind on Love.
-July: Mary discovers she has cancer located in the larynx. She undergoes a radical operation to get rid of her cancer that ends up ravaging her vocals. Thirty years after her career took off, Wells' cancer ends the singer's career for good.
-September: Mary is given a tribute live on the Joan Rivers Show by colleagues such as Stevie Wonder, who performs "My Guy" (under the title "My Girl" performing Wells' song).
1991
-June: Mary testifies in front of cancer telling Congress to encourage government funding for cancer research. It would be one of Wells' final public appearances.
1992
-July 26: After being hospitalized for pneumonia and riddled in a hospital bed at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Hospital in Los Angeles, Mary Esther Wells finally succumbs after a long struggle. Wells dies at the age of only 49. At her funeral, her once-close collaborator Smokey Robinson solemnly sings "My Guy" at the end of his eulogy to the late star.
----
P.S., it was long overdue!
1943
-May 13: Mary Esther Wells is born in Detroit, Michigan on this day. Raised without a father, Mary suffers from spiral meningitis as a young child losing her sight, hearing and almost paralyzed. She eventually recovers from the life-threatening disease and regains her sight, hearing and legs by the age of eight. By then she had already found an outlet in singing, performing in her church choir by the age of three.
1953
-Age 10: Mary starts performing in talent shows and nightclubs.
1960
-September: After giving a song she wrote for Jackie Wilson to Motown staff worker Robert Bateman, Wells auditions for Berry Gordy singing the song acapella. Instead of giving the song to Wilson, Gordy signs Wells to a recording contract making her the second female artist after Mabel John to join the then-fledging label.
-December: Motown issues the very first single on the Motown subsidiary, Wells' "Bye Bye Baby" - the song she had tried passing on to Jackie Wilson. The song ends up peaking at number 8 R&B and number 45 pop in the winter of 1961.
1961
-April: Wells' second Motown single, the string-heavy and raw R&B number, "I Don't Want To Take a Chance", becomes the 17-year-old's first top 40 hit on the pop chart reaching number 33 on that chart while peaking at number nine on the R&B chart.
-August: Wells releases her first album, Bye Bye Baby (sometimes credited as Bye Bye Baby: I Don't Want to Take a Chance) on the Motown label. It's the third overall album released by a Motown artist.
1962
-March: With Smokey Robinson now exclusively writing for Wells, Motown issues Wells' first Robinson composition, the calypso-like "The One Who Really Loves You". Smoothing Mary's rough edges for a smoother delivery, the song becomes Wells' first top ten pop hit reaching number eight on the chart while peaking at number two on the R&B chart. The song will start a streak of popular hits Wells would release that will firmly launch her into the pop music spotlight.
-June: Motown issues Wells' "You Beat Me to the Punch", the song strikes lightning twice as the song reaches number nine pop and number-one R&B later winning Wells a Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording.
-August: Mary's second album, The One Who Really Loves You, is released. The album will break through the Billboard top ten albums chart where it peaks at number eight becoming Motown's best-selling release up until that point.
-September: Motown releases "Two Lovers" as the next single. Following "The One Who Really Loves You" and "You Beat Me to the Punch", it becomes Wells' third consecutive top ten hit on the pop charts peaking at number seven and reaching number-one R&B. Because of this achievement, Wells becomes the first female R&B artist to accomplish three top ten singles off one album and becomes the first ever Motown artist to accomplish that feat.
-October: Mary performs on American Bandstand.
-December: Mary Wells becomes an instant headliner when Motown's Motortown Revue starts touring.
1963
-March: Mary reaches number fifteen pop with the ballad "Laughing Boy".
-April: Mary performs alongside other Motown acts at the Apollo Theater during the annual Motortown Revue, which is taped for a promotional special. Mary performs her songs alongside four members of the Temptations (excluding Al Bryant).
-June-September: Mary hits the top 40 on the Billboard charts with the hits "Your Old Standby" (#8 R&B, #40 pop), "What's So Easy for Two Is So Hard for One" (#8 R&B, #29 pop) and "You Lost the Sweetest Boy" (#10 R&B, #22 pop).
1964
-March 3: Motown issues Wells' biggest and best-known hit, "My Guy". The song's sultry delivery - aimed by Mary's shy seductive demeanor and the coos from the Andantes - help the song sell. By the summer, it becomes the number-one hit in the country. It also becomes the first Motown single to truly break through in the UK where it peaks at number five. The song's success is so massive the Beatles publicly call her their favorite female artist opting a UK tour where Wells opened for the Fab Four.
-April: Motown issues what would be Mary's next-to-final album with Motown, Together, a series of duets she scored with fellow Motown star Marvin Gaye. The duo score hits such as "Once Upon a Time" and "What's the Matter With You Baby".
-May: Motown issues Mary's final studio album with them, Mary Wells Sings My Guy, which reaches number six on the pop chart. That month, after reaching 21, Mary opts out of re-signing with Motown. Wells and Motown went back and forth before allowing Mary to leave the label after it was discovered her original deal with the label was almost null and void because of her age (being only 17 when she signed with them).
-July: Fresh out of Motown, Mary signs with 20th Century Fox in hopes of more financial control and hopes for film roles. That month, the label issues Mary's first post-Motown single, "Ain't It the Truth". The song peaks at #45 pop. She would have more hits with Fox including "Use Your Head" (#13 R&B, #34 pop) and "Never, Never Leave Me" (#15 R&B, #54 pop) before leaving the label for Atco in 1965).
1965
-October: After signing with Atco, she releases the hit, "Dear Lover" (#6 R&B, #51 pop).
1966
-April: Atco releases their only album with Wells, The Two Sides of Mary Wells.
1968
-June: Mary reaches #22 R&B and #65 pop with "The Doctor" while recording briefly for the Jubilee label.
1969
-May: Mary's final R&B charter for 12 years, "Dig the Way I Feel", reaches #35 R&B. Afterwards, Mary retires from show business to raise a family with then-husband Cecil Womack. The couple would divorce in 1977. Wells would have four children - three with Cecil and another child with another Womack brother, Curtis.
1981
-June: Mary is signed with Epic Records. The 38-year-old Wells finds herself in a recording studio for the first time since 1974.
-October: Epic releases Mary Wells' first single in seven years, the dance single, "Gigolo". The song finds a modest audience especially with club audiences when it reaches #13 on the Billboard Dance Music/Club Play chart.
1982
-January: Mary's "Gigolo" reaches #69 R&B. It becomes Wells' final charted single on the Billboard R&B chart.
-April: Mary performs on Soul Train.
1983
-May 16: Mary reunites with Motown artists performing "My Guy" on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever. Afterwards, Mary keeps up a grueling tour schedule as a successful oldies act.
1990
-March: Signing a contract with Ian Levine's Motorcity Records label, Wells issues her final album, Keeping My Mind on Love.
-July: Mary discovers she has cancer located in the larynx. She undergoes a radical operation to get rid of her cancer that ends up ravaging her vocals. Thirty years after her career took off, Wells' cancer ends the singer's career for good.
-September: Mary is given a tribute live on the Joan Rivers Show by colleagues such as Stevie Wonder, who performs "My Guy" (under the title "My Girl" performing Wells' song).
1991
-June: Mary testifies in front of cancer telling Congress to encourage government funding for cancer research. It would be one of Wells' final public appearances.
1992
-July 26: After being hospitalized for pneumonia and riddled in a hospital bed at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Hospital in Los Angeles, Mary Esther Wells finally succumbs after a long struggle. Wells dies at the age of only 49. At her funeral, her once-close collaborator Smokey Robinson solemnly sings "My Guy" at the end of his eulogy to the late star.
----
P.S., it was long overdue!