#153: When You’re Young And In Love by the Marvelettes
City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: July 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #20
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “When You’re Young And In Love”
Lyrics: “When You’re Young And In Love”
The Marvelettes were a girl group formed in Inkster, Michigan, in 1960. Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgianna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, Georgia Dobbins, were classmates at Inkster High School. Gladys Horton was born in 1945 in Gainesville (FL). Horton never knew her biological parents throughout her life, and lived with several foster families after being put up for adoption at nine months old. By the time of her high school years at Inkster High School, Horton had taken a strong interest in singing, joining the high school glee club. At age 14, she formed a group called the Del–Rhythmetts with three friends, recording under a small record label called JVB Records. Katherine Anderson was born in Inkster in 1944. While Anderson was not able to afford records growing up, she performed in gospel groups and the high school. She co-founded with Horton the girl group which was initially called the Casinyets. Georgianna Tillman was born in 1944 in Inkster.
In 1961, the quintet, now called the Marvels, entered a talent show contest on the behest of their teacher and ended up finishing in fourth place. Though only the first three winners were offered a trip to audition for the fledgling Motown label, two of the girls’ schoolteachers advised that they be allowed to audition too.
Georgia Dobbins wrote what would be the Marvelettes first hit record titled “Please Mr. Postman”. However, before the group became famous, Dobbins left the group after her father refused to let her perform in the group. She was replaced by Wanda Young, who was born in Inkster in 1943. The Marvels changed their name to the Marvelettes and “Please Mr. Postman” was released as a single. Gladys Horton provided lead vocals. The disc topped the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #4 in New Zealand. In Canada, “Please Mr. Postman” topped the pop charts in Montreal, #3 in Ottawa, and Top Ten in Halifax, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
The Marvelettes had a Top 40 hit with “Twistin’ Postman”. This was followed by the Top Ten hit “Playboy”. “Beechwood 4-5789” was a Top Ten hit in Toronto and Vancouver in October 1962. It peaked at #7 on the Hot R&B Singles chart. The Marvelettes subsequently released nine singles in a row that each failed to crack the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. During this drought, Juanita Cowart left the group in 1963. The Marvelettes finally cracked the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 again in 1964 with “Too Many Fish in the Sea”. The single climbed to #13 in Vancouver. It also reached #5 on the Cashbox Top 50 R&B chart. The Marvelettes had passed on an offer to record the song “Where Did Our Love Go”, which was next offered to The Supremes. The song became the first number-one hit for the Supremes, and set that girl group on a record streak of charting six consecutive number-one hits with Motown up to November 1965 with “I Hear A Symphony”.
In 1965, Georgianna Tillman left the Marvelettes. Now there were just three Marvelettes: Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson and Wanda Young.
In 1966, the Marvelettes finally reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since 1962 with “Don’t Mess With Bill”. The song peaked at #6 on the Hot 100, #3 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart, and #3 in Vancouver, and #4 in Windsor (ON).
In 1967, the Marvelettes had a #13 hit on the Hot 100 with “The Hunter Gets Captures by the Game”. It peaked at #2 on the R&B chart. In Canada, it reached the Top Ten in the cities of St. Thomas (ON), Windsor (ON), and Winnipeg. The group’s next release was “When You’re Young And In Love”.
“When You’re Young And In Love” was written by Van McCoy. He was born in Washington DC in 1940, and learned to play piano at a young age. He grew up singing in the Metropolitan Baptist Church Choir. By the age of 12, he had begun writing his own songs, in addition to performing in local amateur shows alongside his older brother, Norman Jr. The two brothers formed a doo-wop combo named the Starlighters with two friends while in Theodore Roosevelt High School. In 1956, they recorded a single, “The Birdland”, a novelty dance record which made the Top 5 in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1959, “You’re The One to Blame” was a Top Ten hit in Bethesda and also Wheaton (MD), as well as Arlington, Virginia. The disc also charted in Pittsburgh and Boston. In 1961, he released a solo record titled “Mr. D.J.”
He began writing songs for other recording artists. These include “Baby I’m Yours” for Barbara Lewis (#11 in 1965), “Baby Don’t Change Your Mind” by Gladys Knight & the Pips (#4 in the UK in 1977); And “I Get The Sweetest Feeling” for Jackie Wilson (#3 in the UK in 1987). He also had a #1 hit with “The Hustle” in 1975. He told Black Stars Magazine, “I hadn’t even seen the dance when I wrote the song.” In 1976, McCoy had a #4 hit in the UK with “The Shuffle”. Over the years, Van McCoy wrote songs for Jimmy Jones, The Shirelles, Chuck Jackson, Roy Hamilton, The Drifters, Betty Everett, Irma Thomas, Jerry Butler, Bobby Lee, Chad & Jeremy, Nancy Wilson, the O’Jays, Vicki Carr, Major Lance, Donny Hathaway, Brenda & the Tabulations, Melba Moore, David Ruffin, Peaches & Herb, and Faith, Hope & Charity. Van McCoy died of a heart attack at the age of 39 in 1979.
“When You’re Young And In Love” was originally released by Ruby and The Romantics in 1964. It stalled at #48 on the Hot 100. Wanda Young sang lead for the Marvelettes cover of the tune. The song depicts the emotional infusion one can feel when they are young and in love: 1) spring is in the air, 2) there’s magic everywhere, 3) life seems to be just a dream, a world of fantasy, 4) every night is like the Fourth of July, 5) the moon at night seems to shine twice as bright, and 6) there’s no mountain you can’t climb.
“When You’re Young And In Love” reached #1 in Greensboro (NC), #4 in Montreal, Latrobe (PA), Harrisburg (PA), and University Park (PA), #5 in Lexington (KY), #7 in Bloomington (IN), and Charleston (WV), #8 in Wilmington (DL), #9 in Philadelphia, and #10 in Flint (MI) and Hamilton (ON). Internationally, “When You’re Young And In Love” reached #13 in the UK, and #23 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #9 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart.
In 1984, the Flying Pickets cover of “When You’re Young And In Love” reached #7 on the UK singles chart.
In 1967, Gladys Horton left the Marvelettes to get married and raise a family. Her first child, Sammie, was born with cerebral palsy.
The Marvelettes final Top 40 hit was “My Baby Must Be A Magician”. In 1968, it reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. By 1970 the Marvelettes split up. Katherine Anderson wrote the 1971 Top 20 hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips titled “I Don’t Want to Do Wrong”. She spent years working with troubled teens in Detroit. She received her high school diploma at age 52, something touring had prevented her from doing in her youth.
In 1970, Smokey Robinson offered to produce a solo album by Wanda Young. However, Motown was not interested and sought to release an album titled The Revival of the Marvelettes. It was not a hit. During her marriage to Miracles singer Bobby Rogers, on a visit to see her sister in suburban Detroit, her sister was shot in the head by a spurned boyfriend of a friend of her sister (who mistook Wanda’s sister for her sister’s friend). Wanda’s sister died in her arms. Into the seventies, Wanda fell into despair, addiction, and mental illness. Her marriage dissolved after twelve years in 1975.
Horton and Young reunited to collaborate on the 1990 Marvelettes album titled The Marvelettes…Now!, though Young didn’t take part in the group’s performances. The Marvelettes released the single “Holding On With Both Hands” in 1990, which was sung on record by Young but performed by Horton in public due to Young’s severe personal problems. After the recording, Wanda Young fell back into obscurity, while Gladys Horton fronted a Marvelettes group over the next fifteen years.
The Marvelettes have been inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and received the Rhythm & Blues Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.
In 2005, Anderson wrote a musical based on her life story called Now That I Can Dance 1962. In 2017, she formed her version of the Marvelettes with three other singers and began doing performances. She died at the age of 79 in 2023.
Wanda Young suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and died at the age of 78 in 2021.
In 2006, Gladys Horton was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy. In the following years she suffered a series of strokes, and died in 2011 at the age of 65. Gladys Horton’s memoir, A Letter From the Postman: A Memoir by the Original Lead Singer of the Marvelettes, was posthumously released in 2022, co-authored with her son, Vaughn.
July 17, 2026
Ray McGinnis
References:
Spencer Leigh, “Gladys Horton: Singer with the Marvelettes, who had Motown’s first No 1 with ‘Please Mr Postman’,” The Independent, 2011.
Melody Baetens, “Original Marvelettes member Katherine Anderson Schaffner has died at age 79,” Detroit News, September 22, 2023.
Richard Williams, “Wanda Young: Obituary,” Guardian, December 21, 2021.
Ruby and the Romantics, “When You’re Young And In Love“, Kapp Records, 1964.
Flying Pickets, “When You’re Young And In Love“, Virgin Records, 1984.
“Van McCoy, Composed ‘The Hustle,’ Hit in ’75,” New York Times, July 7, 1979.
Gladys Horton and Vaughan Thornton,
This Week Last Week
Leave a Reply