Rosalind "Roz" Ashford-Holmes (born September 2, 1943) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sopranoA soprano is a singing voice with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music...
R&B and
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
singer, famed for her work as member of the popular Motown singing group
Martha and the VandellasMartha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963-1967...
.
Born Rosalind Ashford on September 2, 1943, to John and Mary Ashford in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, Ashford sung in church choirs and learned how to dance in local centers. Developing a passion for music, she joined the glee club and mixed choruses while attending Southeastern High School.
Rosalind "Roz" Ashford-Holmes (born September 2, 1943) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sopranoA soprano is a singing voice with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music...
R&B and
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
singer, famed for her work as member of the popular Motown singing group
Martha and the VandellasMartha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963-1967...
.
Early years
Born Rosalind Ashford on September 2, 1943, to John and Mary Ashford in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, Ashford sung in church choirs and learned how to dance in local centers. Developing a passion for music, she joined the glee club and mixed choruses while attending Southeastern High School. According to her, in 1957, her mother and sister helped land her an audition at a local YMCA club where a man named Edward "Pops" Larkins recruited her,
Annette BeardAnnette Beard Sterling Helton is an American R&B and soul singer, most notable for being one of the original members of popular Motown singing group Martha and the Vandellas.-Early years:...
,
Gloria WilliamsGloria Williams was an American singer notable for being the original lead singer of an early incarnation of Martha and the Vandellas under the name, The Del-Phis....
, and
Martha ReevesMartha Reeves is an American R&B and soul singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles including "Dancing in the Street", "Nowhere to Run" and "Jimmy Mack"...
to form a sister group to a male vocal group.
Naming themselves the Del-Phis, the group performed in local benefit parties all over Detroit and also performed at YMCA parties and high school functions before the group got serious about music around 1960. The following year, they released "I'll Let You Know" on the Chess Records label subsidiary Checkmate. The record didn't go anywhere and two follow-up records where they changed their name to the Vels including "Camel Walk" and "There He Is (At My Door)" also failed to bring any national interest to the group. Williams left the group in 1962 and the remaining trio became
Marvin GayeMarvin Pentz Gay, Jr., better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and instrumentalist with a three-octave vocal range. Starting as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late fifties, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960...
's background singers on hit singles such as "
Stubborn Kind of Fellow"Stubborn Kind of Fellow" is a 1962 single by Marvin Gaye, released on the Motown subsidiary Tamla. The single was historic in many ways for the Washington, D.C.-bred singer and former Moonglows member, for it was the first major hit record for the singer on Motown after three failed singles and an...
" and "Hitch Hike".
After Martha recruited Roz and Annette to back her on a demo record intended for
Mary WellsMary Esther Wells was an American singer who defined the early sound of Motown Records in the early sixties...
titled "I Have to Let Him Go", Motown president
Berry GordyBerry Gordy, Jr. is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.-Early years:...
offered to give Reeves, who was then holding a secretarial job for the label, a recording contract with her and her background singing partners. Choosing the name
Martha and the Vandellas, the group signed to Motown in September 1962 and issued the intended demo recording as their first single.
Martha and the Vandellas
Following a successful performance while performing at the
Motortown RevueThe Motortown Revue was the name given to the package concert tours of Motown artists in the 1960s. Early tours featured Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Mary Wells, The Marvelettes, and The Contours as headlining acts, and gave then-second-tier acts such as Martha & The Vandellas, The Supremes, and...
, the Vandellas scored a hit with their second single, "
Come and Get These Memories"Come and Get These Memories" is an R&B song by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. Their second single released under Motown's Gordy Records subsidiary, "Memories" became the group's first hit single, reaching number 29 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart, and number-six on the Billboard...
". The song, one of the first major compositions by the team of
Holland-Dozier-HollandHolland–Dozier–Holland is a songwriting and production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr.. They are considered to be one of the greatest songwriting teams in popular music. The trio wrote and arranged many of the songs making up the Motown...
, charted at the top ten of the
American R&B singles chartR&B/Hip-Hop Songs, formerly the Black Singles Chart, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues...
. Their second hit, "
(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave"Heat Wave" is a 1963 hit single by Holland-Dozier-Holland made popular by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas on the Gordy label and later by Rock vocalist Linda Ronstadt from her Platinum 1975 album Prisoner In Disguise...
", helped the group to distinguish themselves from the other girl groups in the label including the pop-oriented
MarvelettesThe Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first US #1 pop hit, "Please Mr...
and the doo-wop-influenced
SupremesThe Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
with a rougher, brassier
gospelGospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
-influenced sound.
Reeves was a brassy alto while Annette was a deep contralto, and Rosalind was a high soprano . Like the Supremes'
Florence BallardFlorence Glenda Ballard Chapman , nicknamed "Flo" and "Blondie", was an American singer, and one of the original founders of the Hall of Fame Motown group The Supremes....
, the Marvelettes' Wanda Rogers and The Four Tops' Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Ashford registered as the high background vocal in Vandellas records. After "
QuicksandQuicksand is a colloid hydrogel consisting of fine granular matter , clay, and salt water. In the name, as in that of quicksilver , "quick" does not mean "fast," but "living" ....
" gave the group a third top forty pop hit, Beard left to start a family with her new spouse. Gordy recruited a former member of
The VelvelettesThe Velvelettes was an American singing girl group, signed to Motown Records in the 1960s.-Early years and establishment:The group was founded in 1961 by Bertha Barbee McNeal and Mildred Gill Arbor, students at Western Michigan University...
, Betty Kelly, to replace her.
With Kelly, the group continued their success with signature songs "
Dancing in the Street"Dancing in the Street" is a 1964 song first recorded by Martha and the Vandellas. It is one of Motown's signature songs and is the group's premier signature song.-Martha and the Vandellas original:...
", "
Nowhere to Run"Nowhere to Run" is a 1965 pop single b/w "Motoring" by Martha & the Vandellas for the Gordy label and is one of the group's signature songs. The song, written and produced by Motown's main production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, depicts the story of a woman trapped in a bad relationship with a...
", "
I'm Ready for Love"I'm Ready for Love" is a 1966 single by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. Scoring their biggest hit since "Nowhere to Run" peaked at #8 on the pop singles chart, this tune, which had the narrator longing to be in love with her object of affection, rose to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and...
", and "
Jimmy Mack"Jimmy Mack" is a 1967 pop/soul single recorded by Martha and the Vandellas for Motown Records' Gordy imprint. Written and produced by Motown's main creative team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, "Jimmy Mack" was the final Top 10 hit for the Vandellas in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the...
". Ashford remained in the group when Kelly was replaced by Martha's sister
Lois ReevesSandra Delores Reeves , better known as Lois Reeves, is an American singer, most notable for being the younger sister of Motown legend Martha Reeves, for having replaced popular Martha and the Vandellas member Betty Kelly as member of her sister's group in 1967, and for later singing background...
, herself formerly of the Orlons, in 1968 and the singles "
Honey Chile"Honey Chile" is a 1967 single by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas on the Gordy label. Produced by Richard Morris and written by Morris and Sylvia Moy, the tune described how the narrator wanting to get rid of her boyfriend who's been courting and dating other girls behind her back...
" and "
Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone"Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone" is a 1967 single released by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. The song's production was a departure from the Vandellas' repertoire as their label, Motown, was having a harder time staying with the times in the music industry and having a much harder time...
" came out of it. But following Martha's nervous breakdown over a bad reaction to a hallucinatory drug, Ashford was weary from years of touring and recording that she sought to retire from show business after the group temporarily disbanded. After Martha's return to recording and performing, Ashford was replaced by yet another member of
The VelvelettesThe Velvelettes was an American singing girl group, signed to Motown Records in the 1960s.-Early years and establishment:The group was founded in 1961 by Bertha Barbee McNeal and Mildred Gill Arbor, students at Western Michigan University...
,
Sandra TilleySandra Tilley was an American R&B and soul singer, known for being a member of Motown girl groups the Velvelettes and Martha and the Vandellas. She was also a brief member in the soul group called the Orlons. She was a native of Cleveland, Ohio...
. Ashford went on to work as a nurse after her retirement.
Later years
In 1978, Rosalind was convinced to join Martha and Annette in a reunion performance while performing for a benefit concert for actor Will Geer. Eleven years later, the three original Vandellas recorded the single, "Step Into My Shoes" for the London-based Motorcity Records label. Since then, she and Annette have continued to perform often billing themselves as
The Original Vandellas sometimes reuniting with Martha for benefit concerts. In 1995, she was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as member of Martha and the Vandellas. She continues to perform today.