Marlene Barrow obit

Judith Marlene Barrow Tate Obituary

 

She was not on the list.

Singer. She was one of three original members of the musical group the Andantes. She also filled in for Florence Ballard at a number of Supremes live shows. The Andantes formed in 1958, members included Jackie Hicks, Emily Phillips and Marlene Barrow. In 1958 Louvain Demps replaced Emily Phillips. By 1962 she and the Andantes were doing background vocals for many Motown artist including Mary Wells "My Guy", the Four Tops "I Can't Help Myself", Marvin Gaye "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". She and the Andantes can be heard on numerous other Motown recordings. The trio released a few recordings of their own including 1963's "Too Hurt to Cry", "Too Much in Love to Say Goodbye" with the Marvelettes under the name of the Darnells. The trio broke up in 1973, but reunited in 1989 for Britain's Motorcity Records label. They recorded, but nothing hit the charts. The trio was a member of the 2014 class for the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame. She was 73 years old.

The trio sang background on more than 20,000 Motown songs, upward of 90 percent of the company’s output before its 1972 move to Los Angeles. Theirs are the voices you can hear responding to Mary Wells in her 1964 hit “My Guy” (“What you say? Tell me more — ”). They testified on Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” And, significantly, they provided the oohs and ahs and baby-babies — the depth and sweetness on countless tracks where their separate voices can’t even be picked out, except maybe by the women themselves. To this day, Hicks says, she hears herself on the radio every single day.

The Andantes’ perfect blend was critical to the Motown sound, part of the secret seasoning that listeners could hear only on that label. These women, unsung in so many ways, were a key reason so many people loved Motown music. Yet most Motown fans still don’t know the Andantes’ story.