“Bye Bye Baby” made the pop Top 50, but this by no means presented the finished Mary Wells. Wells had the chutzpah to do so – and landed herself a contract at Gordy’s Motown label, where the song she’d intended to give to Wilson became her first hit. Gordy put this precocious young lady to the test and asked her to sing her song right there and then. Wells knew Gordy had written hits for Wilson, and asked if he might get one of her songs to the “Reet Petite” hitmaker. Mary left school at 17 but had done her homework: obsessed by local hero Jackie Wilson, she set her sights on writing songs for him, and saw an opportunity in 1960 when she was introduced to Berry Gordy at a Detroit nightclub. In her early teens, Mary sang in nightclubs, having honed her voice at church, and she often sang while working. But being a poor girl in the big city meant that when she was well, she had to help her mother at her cleaning job. Raised by her mother, she grew up poor and suffered from spinal meningitis and tuberculosis as a child. Mary Wells was born in Detroit, on May 13, 1943. Her dream came true but, as the cliché claims, it is wise to be careful what you wish for… Mary Wells was no puppet she was an artist with a yearning to do her own thing. But her career-high point of “My Guy” also marked the moment when the singer knew she had to break free.
She had a uniquely warm voice, an easy-going public persona, and an elegant, sometimes sassy look that made her marketable. She rapidly rose from struggling songwriter to become Motown’s first true icon, and it looked like her celebrity status was here to stay. But during the first half of the 60s, Wells had many hits. Today, Mary Wells is known almost exclusively for “My Guy,” the timeless, sophisticated finger-snapper that took her to the top of the US chart in 1964. Soul music’s first superstar, Mary Wells led where Gaye and Stevie Wonder would eventually follow in the fight for the freedom to express themselves.
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