Comments on: Marvelous Marv: Motown’s First Recording Artist

By: Dana Spiardi

Dana Spiardi — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 05:10:00 +0000

M.M – I, too stuffed my transistor radio – the Westinghouse H-901P7GP – under my pillow, but we didn’t have the great assortment of stations you enjoyed in NYC. As for Marv, I never actually bought any of his records. But it looks like the highest charting songs were “You Got What It Takes” (#10) and “I Love The Way You Love” (#9). When my neighbor Ruth gave me those singles she no longer wanted, I didn’t even know which side was supposed to be A or B. I just played both, and chose my favorite, which USUALLY ended up being the flip side. But in the case of this Marv single, the A side caught my fancy. It sounded like a carnival.

By: M.M.

M.M. — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 16:38:25 +0000

When you were six I was, um, older and I remember listening to Marvin Johnson songs on, most likely, WINS, WMGM or WABC, New York’s premier pop music stations. I fondly remember stuffing my tinny Japanese transistor radio (which, btw, Steve Jobs did not invent) under the pillow so I could pull almost-all-nighters and make a positive out of my early childhood insomnia. Anyway, I can’t remember his big hit(s?)’s and it’s driving driving me crazy. Could it have been “Baby, You’ve Got What It Takes?” Clearly, you’re a better Internet researcher than I. What were his two Top Ten singles? I’m holding my breath.,