Please Mr. Postman

Some might think it was originally performed by the Beatles in 1963 or by the Carpenters in 1975, but it was the girl group the Marvelettes who first had a hit with Please Mr. Postman in 1961. While there's some discrepancy over the writing credits for the tune, the one constant in the various versions include Brian Holland of Motown's hit-making team Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Legend has it that the instrumentation in the studio was provided by Motown session players known as the Funk Brothers, which included Marvin Gaye on drums.

The song put the Marvelettes on the charts and gave Motown it's first #1 hit, paving the way for their more popular successor, the Supremes.

Leader Of The Pack

One genre dufusdownbeat has sadly slighted is Girl Groups. Well, this week we rectify that.

The Shangri-Las formed in Queen's New York in 1963 and was made of of two sets of sisters: 14 year-old lead singer Mary Weiss and her 17 year-old sister Betty, and back up singers and identical twins Marge and Mary Ann Ganser, 16 years of age. While they recorded as a quartet, they often toured as a trio because Betty didn't like to tour.

In late 1964, the Shangri-Las were looking for a follow-up to their recent hit Remember (Walking In The Sand). They found it with something called Leader of the Pack. The song is among the pantheon of a genre referred to as the "dead disc" and includes such songs as Dead Man's Curve by Jan and Dean, Tell Laura I Lover Her by Ray Peterson, and the Cavaliers Last Kiss.

The group issued one original album, lasted a couple of years and at the height of their success toured with the Beatles, James Brown, Dusty Springfield and the Zombies.

The following clip is from Steve Allen's The Tonight Show with a cameo from Robert Goulet.