Customer Reviews

Never Never Leave Me: the 20th Century Sides

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Mary Wells hit big in the early 60's becoming the first Superstar Motown Diva largely responsible for early success of Motown quickly becoming a R&B legend who crossed over to the pop charts with one blockbuster hit after another! Mary Wells and Smokey Robinson were the building blocks of Motown both having memorable hits that ushered in a new sound taking the music world by storm assuring the new record company huge success. After numerous memorable and classic hits, Mary Wells hit big time going to #1 with "My Guy" and this consistent sultry & sublime soulful hitmaker was on top where she belonged having a sound all her own so at this point looked as if the sky was the limit for the great singer. Next Mary Wells decided to move to 20th Century Fox Records with promise of film opportunities and came out with an extraordinary album of sophisicated soulful pop classics appearing to be banned from the airwaves because first single "Ain't It The Truth" is a smooth exotic classic with Mary at her peak and equal and maybe a little better than her classic Motown output! Many of us called radio stations pleading and requested with each new single release to play Mary but were told her 20th Century Fox singles were not on station playlist so it became clear something was going on across the board to keep Mary Wells new recordings away from the public and off the airwaves! With an apparent radio ban in place, at this point in her career, Mary struggled for the rest of her life and never again received acclaim or commerical success her talent deserved even though artistic growth continued as anyone who cares can see in this wonderful collection containing numerous potential hits that never happened and as a result both Mary Wells and the public were cheated. Look at "out of stocks" on this great singers product and click to order fast while you can as this is the awesome collection that was kept from the public on this once in a lifetime great talent...uptown & sophisicated, listen to wonderful single releases such as the rhythmic winner "Use Your Head", hopelessly romantic "Everlovin' Boy", sultry gem "He's A Lover", haunting and hypnotic grandeur of the passionate soulful classic "Never Never Leave Me" and realize Mary Wells deserved to have a great career after Motown as she recorded many incredibly great songs but for some strange and sad reason this was not to be. Standout showing promise is a timeless standard "Time After Time" the closer of this extraordinary collection of wondrous vocal performances and anyone who loves great singers will totally be amazed with this moving sublime version. Over the years always throught of Mary Wells as a stylist on the level of a Peggy Lee and she deserved so much more acclaim than she received. As a lifelong fan of this largely overlooked after 1964 and grossly underappreciated singer, I am sorry the system and music industry let Mary Wells down but grateful she left behind so much pleasure for us connoisseurs to enjoy such as this awesome totally satisfying collection. Thank You Mary Wells, we love you and RIP.

Mary Wells is one of the finest singers of the Rock and Roll era, period. Her Motown work starts off rather raw (Motown hadn't developed its "sound" during most of her tenure there), but when Smokey Robinson took charge of her recordings, especially at the time of her "Mary Wells Sings My Guy" album, they were among the sweetest moments to ever come from the company!

It is a well-documented rock and roll tragedy that Mary's career took a downward turn upon her departure. What makes it even sadder is that she then went on to record some of the loveliest music of her career. Her first Twentieth Century Fox album is wonderful, and completely represented here. "Use Your Head", "Never, Never Leave Me", "Everloving Boy" and others are the mellowest, most beautiful items in her repertoire. I've read them described as a cross between Motown and New York uptown soul. My only nit to pick with this superb album is that her "Mary Wells Sings Love Songs to the Beatles" is completely overlooked. Find a mint copy on vinyl and enjoy it!

This is followed up by the next great album of her career, her "Two Sides of Mary Wells" and other Atco releases. It, too, is not to be missed, even if it is missing "Where Am I Going?", "Sunrise, Sunset", and other, beautiful, big ballad-y type things.