Martha Reeves; Marvin Gaye.Photo:Stuart C. Wilson/Getty; Kypros/Getty
Stuart C. Wilson/Getty; Kypros/Getty
Martha Reeveswill forever be in awe of a fellow music icon.
During an appearance on thelatest episodeof SiriusXM’sFierce: Women in Music, theRock & Roll Hall of Famer, 82, revealed she had a crush onMarvin Gayethat left her “overwhelmed” during a recording session with Martha and the Vandellas.
Marvin Gaye in 1983.Gary Gershoff/Getty
Gary Gershoff/Getty
According to Reeves, Gaye wanted to “be a balladeer” which made singing background vocals on the performer’s 1963 track"Stubborn Kind of Fellow"even more special.
“We sang behind him on ‘Stubborn Kind of Fellow.’ she recalled. “That was when there was only four tracks and the four of us, Gloria, Annette, Rosalind, and myself. And we could touch him. One mic we went, ‘Do, do. Ow. Yeah. Yeah.’ He would [say], ‘I try to put my arms around you.'”
Martha Reeves.Ron Tom/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Ron Tom/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
The artist shared that Gaye caught her sneaking a peek at him during the recording session, which was something she couldn’t help doing because he was “just so fine.”
“He looked over there and saw me just admiring him, just standing there,” she explained. “I can’t help it. He was just so fine. And when he sang, he would close his eyes. So he didn’t know that I was looking at him.”
Reeves explained that she and the fellow Motown artist were trained to open their eyes during their performances, and Gaye would often close his eyes to sing.“And I heard him sing and he looked up and saw me in awe of him,” she continued. “And he said to Mickey Stevenson and Ivy Hunter, the co-writers on the song, ‘Hey man, try this song on Martha.’ I’d done everybody else’s demos, so I was ready ‘cause I had learned the song listening to him, but I didn’t feel it where he felt it. And I know how to take a song if it was a man’s key — to sing the same keyboard on the third of the chord. So instead of going, ‘Callin’ out around the world,’ I went, ‘Callin’ out around.’ Cause the intro reminded me of the bullfights in Spain.'”
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Speaking about the recording experience she added, " If you do something wrong, get a wrong note, or you ain’t got the right inflection, they’ll say, ‘Do it again.’ Uh, make that better. No stopping, no nothing. That’s next tape is what you hear on that record. That’s why it sounds like I’m overwhelmed. And I was.”
source: people.com
