Wednesday June 29, 2022 “(Love is Like A) Heatwave” Martha and the Vandellas
Summer can also bring us those steamy dog days with oven-like temperatures, crushing humidity and blistering sun, but of course Martha has a different heatwave in mind with today’s song.
“Heatwave” written by the legendary Motown songwriting team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland was the first Top 10 hit for Martha & the Vandellas, whose lead singer, Martha Reeves, started as a secretary at Motown. Martha & the Vandellas would be the first Motown group ever to receive a Grammy nomination when this song was nominated in 1964 for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording but would lose to Ray Charles' hit "Busted" which IMHO is not nearly as cool a tune as “Heatwave”.
One of the more prominent 'instruments' in "Heatwave" is handclaps and since Berry Gordy, president of Motown always used whatever resource he could find I am imagining Diana Ross, Marvin Ross and Smokey Robinson working those handclaps with Martha and the Vandellas...clap along with them if you like.
Linda Ronstadt would also have a top ten version of “Heatwave” in 1975. Her producer, Peter Asher (Peter of Peter & Gordon) would bring some studio musicians to record the song with Linda but it was basically Kenny Edwards on bass and Andrew Gold (“Thank You for Being a Friend”) on drums, guitars, piano and synthesizer.
Stay safe and well…and remember from our past exposure to Martha and her Vandellas that those vandellas, by definition, are ‘dream invading demons’ so don’t get too attached.
For those amature guitarists both “Heatwave” and “Do You Believe in Magic” have the identical chord structure, by “Magic” songwriter John Sebastian’s own admission: Dm Em F Em C F