Wanda Young (1943-2021) American Singer

Wanda Young (1943-2021) American singer dies at 15 December 2021

Wanda Young American singer (1943-2021)

Wanda LaFaye Young  also known as Wanda Rogers, was an American singer

Wanda LaFaye Young. An American singer who was most famous as a member of Motown’s girl group the Marvelettes. She and fellow Inkster High School classmates including Gladys Horton auditioned together for a position in the musical act The Marvels. She was successful and joined the quintet right around the time of the group signing by Motown and the changing of their name to The Marvelettes.

They hit the ground running with the #1 smash “Please Mr. Postman,” with Horton as lead vocalist. This was the beginning of nearly a decade as one of the premiere female vocal groups. The Marvelettes gave Motown their first #1 hit in 1961, In 1963 she married Bobby Rogers a member of Motown’s musical group the Miracles.

As co-lead she had her share, on which she showed off her sensuous, playful voice, including top hits “Don’t Mess With Bill,” “The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” and “Too Many Fish In The Sea.” After the Marvelettes’ time had run, she had a brief solo career in the 1970’s, and she remained in the Detroit area to live. After Motown moved to Los Angeles in 1972, she left the business. Two of the group’s most successful recordings, “Please Mr. Postman” and “Don’t Mess with Bill” earned million-selling Gold singles from the (RIAA) Recording Industry Association of America.

Full Bio

Wanda Young Biography

Early life

Young was born and raised in Inkster, Michigan. Originally aspiring to be a nurse, Young’s professional music career started after fellow Inkster High School classmate Gladys Horton asked her to audition for a spot left by Georgia Dobbins, an original member of the group, then called the Marvels.

The Marvelettes

After a successful audition, Young joined the group and the quintet, which had auditioned for a deal with Motown earlier, returned with a song written by Dobbins titled “Please Mr. Postman”. Impressed with the group’s sound, they were immediately signed and had their name changed to the Marvelettes. After the song was remastered, the song was released and became Motown’s first No. 1 Pop single in late 1961—it also held the top slot for seven weeks on Billboard’s R&B chart. Young sang lead on the B-side of the single on a ballad, “So Long, Baby”. In 1963, the Beatles recorded “Please Mr. Postman” on their second studio album With the Beatles. In 1975, the Carpenters’ remake of “Please Mr. Postman” hit No. 1 around the world and was one of a dozen million-selling Gold-certified singles for the duo in the United States. It was also the second song to ever hit No. 1 by two different artists.

While Young did occasionally sing leads on Marvelettes’ album cuts, Horton was the main vocalist of the group for singles. Young sang co-lead on Marvelettes’ songs, including singles “Locking Up My Heart” and “Too Many Fish in the Sea”. In 1964, she sang her first (solo) lead on a Marvelettes’ single, “You’re My Remedy”, which didn’t translate as successfully to sales or charts figures.

The first hit single to feature her on lead was the dance hit, “I’ll Keep Holding On”. From then on until the Marvelettes’ departure, Young would be the main lead vocalist of the group. She went on to sing lead on several classics such as “Don’t Mess with Bill” (a million-selling gold 45), “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game”, “When You’re Young and in Love” and “My Baby Must Be a Magician”.

The Marvelettes’ hit making days had waned by the end of the 1960s and in 1970 the group disbanded. In 1970, Wanda recorded a solo album with Smokey Robinson serving as her producer. Sensing marketing value as a Marvelettes release, Motown released the album as The Return of the Marvelettes. The other Marvelettes refused to participate for the album cover and the album flopped. Young left the label in 1972 when the Motown label relocated from Detroit to Los Angeles.

Life after the Marvelettes

Young was involved with many years of substance abuse and alcoholism following the Marvelettes’ departure, largely due to witnessing the shooting death of her sister at the Young family’s Inkster residence. She re-emerged in the late 1980s after accepting an offer from Motorcity Records’ Ian Levine to record new songs and revised versions of her classics with the Marvelettes. She made a brief return to performing in the early 1990s but without Marvelettes members Gladys Horton and Katherine Anderson. Katherine retired from show business after the Marvelettes’ breakup though both Horton and Young collaborated on a Marvelettes recording for Motorcity Records. They released an album called The Marvelettes Now!, the artwork of which was modeled after their pink, 1967 album, and featured both Young and Horton on the cover. Wanda Young (1943-2021) American Singer

In 2002, Kanye West sampled Young’s version of the Miracles’ “After All” for Jay-Z’s rap duet, “Poppin’ Tags” from The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse album, which featured Killer Mike, Big Boi and Twista. The Marvelettes were nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013 and again in 2015.

Wanda Young Personal life and death

On June 3, 1962, Wanda’s first of four children, Meta (Young) Ventress, was born. On December 18, 1963, Young married her longtime boyfriend Bobby Rogers, a member of the Miracles, in Detroit and became known professionally as Wanda Rogers. The union produced two children; son Robert III and daughter Bobbae. Wanda and Bobby divorced in 1975 after 12 years of marriage.

On February 17, 2015, Young’s biological daughter Miracle Rogers, adopted and raised by an aunt, was murdered with a friend in Inkster, Michigan. Rogers was born on August 27, 1982, seven years after Young and Miracles’ singer Bobby Rogers got divorced. Although her paternity is unknown, she received the singer’s last name and was named after his group, the Miracles, even though he was already remarried by the time she was conceived.

In her later years, Young resided in Inkster, Romulus, Redford, and the Brightmoor section of Detroit. She died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Garden City, Michigan on December 15, 2021, at the age of 78.