Song 57: Heat Wave

Heat Wave - Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas were probably Motown's second biggest girl group behind the Supremes. There's a big difference between biggest and second biggest, which means Martha Reeves occasionally turns up to play gigs in places like Hull or at small London clubs, while Diana Ross is in the rarefied atmosphere of megastardom which means you probably can't even discuss getting her to do a gig for the money that Martha Reeves would do a whole tour for.

Don't get me wrong, I've come to fully understand the greatness of the Supremes and Diana Ross, having been quite sniffy for a long time - if they got, for the most part, the best of the great Motown production line, so be it.

But I don't think there's a better Motown song than 'Heat Wave', one of the great encapsulations of ecstacy and uncontrollable romance in the history of pop music, almost exactly 50 years old. Reeves had a wonderful voice, girlish, yet strong and bell-clear - in later years, it has had an odd tendency to shrillness whenever I've seen her on telly (I tried to get tickets to see her at the Jazz Cafe once but they were sold out). This song brings out the best in that voice but also makes great use of the other Vandellas, especially the brilliant call and response section at the end where she sings "yeah yeah" and they sing "go ahead girl", egging her on to follow her heart.

It's a full-on classic, though not quite a universal standard like 'Baby Love' or 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' - it's also lent itself very well to various covers, including The Who and a blistering version by The Jam. The Jam's love for Motown was barely concealed, to the extent that many people would wrongly say that 'A Town Called Malice' was stolen from 'You Can't Hurry Love'. Not the case. It was in fact a direct steal from a Martha and the Vandellas song called I'm Ready For Love.

I suppose the difference between Martha and the Vandellas and the Supremes is roughly the difference between TLC and Destiny's Child, between stardom and megastardom. As well as 'Heat Wave' there's 'Jimmy Mack', 'Nowhere to Run' and 'Dancing in the Street' - a nice collection of classics, and a place beloved of afficionados.

Martha Reeves seems to be delightful character, ebullient and funny in interview, and even served as councilwoman in Detroit recently, which you can't imagine Diana Ross doing. My main thought about 'Heat Wave' is getting very excited about hearing it out and about a few times, and then dancing woefully badly, even by my own woeful standards, to it, as if. fittingly, I suppose, overexcited.