We never hear where the absent boyfriend is in “Please Mr. American troops were already in the country, but those troop levels tripled in 1961. By 1961, President Kennedy had just started focusing on Vietnam. That would change, and Motown would have a lot to do with its changing.Īnd maybe “Please Mr. America, Motown seemed to be betting, wasn’t ready to buy anything that featured the faces of four smiling black teenagers. Instead, there’s just that cartoon image of an empty mailbox. For one thing, the single’s cover art didn’t feature any actual Marvelettes. Still, it speaks to changes that were in the air. It’s a good song, with the sort of hook you can hear a mile away, but it’s also slight, and it just skirts the edges of silliness. The arrangement is jumpy and giddy, all sparkly piano and calypso-inflected drums. Postman” probably sounded like a novelty when it came out - a girl-group number that was simultaneously sadder (thanks to the heart-wracked vocals of lead Marvelette Gladys Horton) and happier (thanks to the interjecting chirps of other Marvelettes) than its competition. That’s a ton of historical significance for one song to bear. Postman,” but Motown Records would change things, polishing and professionalizing it (perfecting an assembly-line formula that bigger labels would struggle to replicate), and in the process producing a whole lot of eternally great art. Black pop music was doing just fine before “Please Mr. And while I’m sure you couldn’t tell at the time, the song would prove a harbinger. But the Motown pop takeover was inevitable, and it finally arrived in the form of four teenage girls from Inkster, Michigan and their plea about a letter that never seems to arrive. Motown Records should’ve scored its first #1 months earlier, with the Miracles’ pop masterpiece “Shop Around,” but Lawrence Welk and his accordion got in the way. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.Ī lot begins here.
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