Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva

A soul music great chronicles her career, which included such hits as "Heat Wave" and "Nowhere to Run," offering a backstage glimpse of the tensions, passions, triumphs, and tragedies behind the legend of Motown.

In the early '60s Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful female pop acts in the world; by the end of the decade they had largely been upstaged by Motown labelmates Diana Ross and the Supremes. Writing with Bego ( Madonna: Blonde Ambition ), Reeves here recounts both the excitement and energy of Motown in its heyday and her frustrations in making a comeback after she was abandoned by music industry moguls. Although she proclaims to set the record straight about her alleged feuds with Diana Ross and Motown president Berry Gordy, Reeves tends to soft-pedal these issues, and her feelings about Gordy are so obviously conflicted as to leave readers befuddled about their true relationship. Consequently, the book is of interest more as an account of a career in the entertainment industry than as an expose of the Motown scene. Reeves's story of her exploitation by her managers, her ongoing drug addiction and a string of relationships gone sour is poignant, and she emerges as a stoic and likable survivor. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A less-than-average celebrity memoir of the averagely famous Motown singer, written with the coauthor of Micky Dolenz's I'm a Believer (1993). Reeves scored hits with the anthemic ``Dancing in the Street,'' the rollicking ``Heat Wave,'' and the gutsy ``Nowhere to Run (Nowhere to Hide).'' Her father was a sharecropper and, like many Southern blacks, brought his family to Detroit after WW II in search of a better life. In high school, Reeves formed the Del- Phis, and they cut one local single. When she lucked into a job as a secretary at fledgling Motown Records, she began working as a background singer with two of her friends; the trio was soon renamed Martha and the Vandellas. They toured with the first ``Motortown Revue''; Reeves tells of performing for a segregated house in the South: ``We [sang] all of the songs twice; once in one direction, and the same song about-face.'' She crossed paths with many Motown legends, from Marvin Gaye (whom the Vandellas accompanied on many early recordings) to Mary Wells, the Temptations, and Smokey Robinson, but tells little about their personalities or their music. Those hoping for catty details of how young ``Diane'' Ross pushed her way into the spotlight will find only the occasional crumb. ``Diane [stole] onstage adlibs from everyone,'' Reeves complains, going on to assert that the Supremes once copied the Vandellas' gowns, forcing them to quickly come up with new outfits. She gives only a sketchy description of her descent into pill addiction and the bad LSD trip that precipitated a late-'60s nervous breakdown. Her ``comeback'' in the '80s and '90s has mostly consisted of rehashing her old hits. Motown historians will glean little new about Reeves's life; fans of the kiss-and-tell genre will be disappointed by the dearth of dirt. (Three 8-page b&w photo inserts, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The Motown group Martha and the Vandellas hit it big in the 1960s with songs like "Dancing in the Street" and "Heat Wave," but they never achieved the superstardom of the Supremes. So it's interesting to hear head Reeves's perspective in this candid and touching reminiscence. After moving to Detroit at an early age, Reeves pursued her driving desire to be a singer and soon found herself at Hitsville U.S.A. with the likes of Smokey Robinson, James Brown, and Diana Ross, all young and dreaming of stardom. She attained her dream but paid the price of many who start so young: drug addiction, financial problems, and mental illness. Reeves openly relates all this as well as her rivalry with Ross, reigning Motown diva. She gets in her digs, but there is a compelling honesty about this book that transports the reader. Her autobiography is much less self-serving than Mary Wilson's Dreamgirl (LJ 12/86) or Ross's puff piece Secrets of a Sparrow (Random, 1993). Recommended.
Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Bay Area Cooperative Lib. System, Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Berry Gordy's Motown entertainment empire has been criticized for sanitizing its stars for mass consumption, a tactic that helped sell African American pop music to white America but clouded who those history-making performers really were. Lately, though, many Motown stars have written autobiographies. Some are bitter and vindictive, but Martha Reeves notably is not. Lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas, Reeves recorded some of the best 1960s pop songs, such as "Dancin' in the Street," "Heat Wave," and "Nowhere to Run"--hits then and virtual standards now. Reeves tells her life story straightforwardly. As a witness to the inner workings at Hitsville USA (as Motown called its Detroit headquarters) when it dominated pop music, she recalls how the distinctive Motown sound was achieved and what life among the array of famous personalities she worked with was like. Although she discusses money battles and in-house rivalries, too, hers is no rumor-mongering tell-all but an account of being at ground zero when some of America's most popular music was created. Mike Tribby