Wanda Young, a singer in the Motown group the Marvelettes, has died, the Universal Music Group–operated uDiscoverMusic.com reports. No cause of death was given. Former Miracles singer Claudette Robinson, who confirmed the news to uDiscoverMusic.com, wrote in tribute to Young, “Wanda was a star on Earth and now she is a star in Heaven. Put on some #Marvelettes and turn it up.” Wanda Young was 78 years old.
Wanda LaFaye Young was born in Michigan in 1943. In the early 1960s, Young’s Inskter High School classmate Gladys Horton asked Young to audition for her girl group, the Marvels, after the departure of original member Georgia Dobbins. Not long after recruiting Young, the group, now called the Marvelettes, recorded its debut single for Berry Gordy’s Tamla Records, “Please Mr. Postman.”
In November 1961, the Marvelettes released their debut album, also called Please Mr. Postman. The next month, “Please Mr. Postman” topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the label’s first No. 1 hit. A couple of years later, in 1963, the Beatles recorded a version of “Please Mr. Postman” for their album With the Beatles. The Carpenters, too, covered the track for 1974’s Horizon.
On “Please Mr. Postman” and other notable Marvelettes songs, Young sang backing vocals, as Gladys Horton was the group’s lead vocalist. Young’s first hit as lead vocalist was 1965’s “I’ll Keep Holding On,” which reached No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Amid the Marvelettes’ success, Young married Bobby Rogers of the Miracles in 1963, and she was often known as Wanda Rogers professionally. The couple divorced in 1975.
The Marvelettes continued to record throughout the 1960s before disbanding by the 1970s. The band’s final album, The Return of the Marvelettes, was essentially a Wanda Young solo album produced by Smokey Robinson. On the record, Young covered the Miracles’ “After All,” which Kanye West sampled for Jay-Z’s “Poppin’ Tags” in 2002.
The Marvelettes were nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 and 2015.
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