When twenty-year-old Martha Reeves landed a job as the A & R secretary at Motown Records in 1961, she knew that she was merely waiting in the wings for her lucky break. When the opportunity arose, Reeves seized the moment and delivered a performance that was so electrifying that Motown president Berry Gordy, Jr., offered her a contract of her own. As the lead singer of Martha & The Vandellas, she has had one of the most dazzling careers in popular music.
Million-selling hit recordings - "Come and Get These Memories," "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave," "Quicksand," "Jimmy Mack," "Nowhere to Run," and "Dancing in the Street" - not only helped to put Detroit and Motown Records on the musical map but have made Reeves one of the most thrilling and beloved women in musical history.
Living a fairy-tale existence, headlining nightspots such as Detroit's riverside Roostertail, the Copacabana in New York City, and The Whiskey A-Go-Go in L.A., and becoming friends with show business legends such as Judy Garland, Eartha Kitt, Robert Mitchum, Nancy Wilson, James Brown, Della Reese, and songbird Dusty Springfield, Martha enjoyed the sweet life that fame and musical glamour brings. But as the stakes of stardom grew to epic proportions, competition between the Motown acts escalated.
She soon found that stardom had its downside as well. From backstage battles with her number one rival - Diana Ross - to internal problems within her own group, Martha soon found that maintaining her star stature was an ongoing struggle.
Here is the Motown story from the inside, told with heartbreaking honesty: the truth about the deaths of Mary Wells, Eddie Kendricks, and David Ruffin, what really happened between Diana Ross and Reeves, and the shocking treatment, money struggles, and loss that led Reeves to the brink and back again.
Inducted into The Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 1993, and recently releasing the critically acclaimed retrospective album Live Wire: the Singles 1962-1972, Martha Reeves is charming international audiences once again. As the hallmark story of one woman's dreams fueled by musical stardom, Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva is Martha's compelling saga of broken friendships, drugs, emotional bondage, abusive lovers, and finally inner strength. It is the story of a true soul survivor.
