The first female star to emerge and leave Motown!
Mary Wells was the first female superstar of Motown. Her first three singles all charted in the top 10.
Working closely with Smokey Robinson and the songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland, Mary’s career was flying high between 1960 and 1964.
She even headlined Motown’s revue tours in 1962, meaning she was seen as the label’s biggest act.
To top the success off she released My Guy which became such a big hit it even charted in the U.K.
This led her to join The Beatles, who had declared her their favorite singer, on their tour in 1964, making her Motown’s first artist that perform overseas.
This all seemingly went to Mary’s head as she started to demand more money from Berry Gordy. Lawsuits followed and Mary Wells’s career came to a halt.
Apparently, the argument started with the money Berry made from her success was clearly invested in Mr. Gordy’s new discovery, Diana Ross, and her band The Supremes.
Wells left Motown in 1964 to pursue her recordings with other labels. After ten years of mainly flops, Mary called it a day in 1974 to raise children.
In 1977, she made a comeback with Gigolo, a disco tune that reached #2 on the charts. This must have spurred her on as she now spent another decade recording for various labels, unfortunately with little success.
In the early ’90s, Mary fell ill and lost her fortune to medical bills. Her old pals Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson gathered a bunch of stars to help her with cash, benefit concerts, thoughts, and prayers.
Mary pulled one last multi-million dollar lawsuit against Motown for unpaid royalties before she finally passed away in 1992. She was buried in the same cemetery as Sam Cooke.
Mary Wells Tunes | Related Pages
My Guy
You can learn how to play My Guy by Mary Wells using chords, lyrics, TAB, backing track, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 | Bb Bb6 |
Nothing you could say could tear me away from my guy…
Mary Wells on the web
Artists & Bands
Behind every single tune you learn, there’s an artist or band with an entire catalogue of music, waiting to be discovered.
Find out more about these great Artists & Bands, and let their tunes guide you to success.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about Mary Wells tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
