Enjoy this excerpt from the new book ‘100 Greatest Soul Songs’
“Dancing in the Street” was written in the Motown hit factory by Marvin Gaye, horn player Ivy Jo Hunter, and producer Mickey Stevenson. Martha Reeves was working at Motown as a secretary when she recorded the Hot 100 No. 2 hit in 1964. “One day, there was some sort of union dispute and they needed someone to sing on a demo, so I offered,” said Reeves in The Guardian.
“The next thing I knew, I was singing backup on Marvin’s ‘Stubborn Kind of Fellow’ with my old girl band the Del-Phis, who became the Vandellas. A little later, Marvin saw me ogling him—he was such a good-looking man—and said: ‘How about we try this song on Martha?’ The song was ‘Dancing in the Street’ and it became the Motown anthem.
“At first, I didn’t like it. But then I thought about my neighborhood and how we’d stay up all night, dancing in the street.”
“In those days, you could rob a bank easier than you could get into the record business,” recalled Hunter. “I wanted to be a singer, but they needed writers. I started putting ‘Dancing in the Street’ together on a little piano upstairs that anyone could use.
“I couldn’t really play but had a bassline and found some chords to go with it. Afterwards, James Jamerson, the legendary Motown bassist, said he’d never had so much fun playing one note.
“I’d wanted to write a melancholy song, but when Marvin heard it, he said: ‘That’s not a sad song. That sounds more like dancing in the street.’ That became the title and half an hour later the song was finished.
“All the ‘Calling out around the world, are you ready for a brand-new beat?’ lyrics just flowed out. Mickey and Marvin put in the mentions of ‘Philadelphia, PA, Baltimore, and DC’—cities they’d visited on tours. I added: ‘And don’t forget the Motor City.’”
Mick Jagger and David Bowie covered the tune in 1985. All profits from their Top 10 hit went to charity. “When Bowie and Jagger covered it, I made more money in two years than I had in the previous 20,” said Hunter. “I would have kissed their butts in the middle of Broadway.”
