The third song to reach #1 by two different artists was ‘Please Mr. Postman,’ though arguably the best-known version of the track belongs to a band that didn’t send it up the charts.
‘Please Mr. Postman’ was the 1961 debut single of The Marvelettes, and the first song on the Motown label to reach #1. The all-female quartet was one of Motown’s biggest successes before they were eclipsed by The Supremes a few years later.
Like a lot of people, I’m sure, my first exposure to ‘Please Mr. Postman’ was through The Beatles’ excellent cover version on their 1963 album With the Beatles. It’s one of John Lennon’s best early vocal performances (check it out here).
In fact, I couldn’t have told you that a group called The Marvelettes performed the original version of this song — not before I found it on a Web site just the other day. And I certainly didn’t know that The Marvelettes’ ‘Please Mr. Postman,’ released in 1961, was the very first #1 hit for Motown Records in the U.S.
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