One Of Motown's Most Famous Songs Came Together Almost By Accident
"Dancing in the Street" is one of Motown Records' best-known songs and biggest triumphs. Outdoing even smashes like "Heat Wave" and "Jimmy Mack," "Dancing in the Street" was Martha and the Vandellas' biggest hit ever, spending two weeks at No. 2, making it one of the Top 10 hits that took over the fall of 1964 before ultimately becoming one of the songs that helped fuel the Civil Rights Movement. A monumental all-American hit, "Dancing in the Street" had humble origins, first coming together in label employee and co-writer Mickey Stevenson's attic and made famous by a singer — and underrated artist every Motown diehard should already know — that wasn't even supposed to have had more than an administrative crack at the tune.
"Dancing in the Street" has endured like few other '60s or Motown songs, covered across genres and to much success by the likes of Van Halen and Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Here's how Martha Reeves got to make the definitive recording with the Vandellas after reworking the original concept.
Dancing in the Street was orchestrated by Marvin Gaye
Martha and the Vandellas were originally the Del-Phis, an in-house backing vocalist group who assisted Marvin Gaye on his early single "Stubborn Kind of Fellow." After dropping a member and getting their own Motown contract, Reeves' act released many songs while its named leader worked behind the scenes, both as a departmental secretary and utility musician. She was initially tapped to provide a vocal guide for a recording of "Dancing in the Street" to be made by label-mate Kim Weston, who would later perform with Gaye on 1967's "It Takes Two," one of the best duets to ever come out of Motown.
Gaye wrote the song with Ivy Hunter and Mickey Stevenson — Weston's spouse. But Reeves impressed the composers with her transformative interpretation, delivered after listening to Gaye's first take. "It was sung in a male register. I thought it was a good song, but not really in my key," she wrote in "Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva." "So they said, 'OK Martha, give it your treatment,' and I came up with the melody."
Reeves admitted that she only enjoyed the song after she personalized it and rewrote it to suit her voice. "It became the anthem of the decade," she said of her biggest triumph and Weston's biggest miss. "I always tease her that she let a good song get away — right out from under her own roof!"