The Marvelettes released “Please Mr. Postman” in 1961, and the song became the first Motown recording to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
The group formed at Inkster High School in Michigan and originally performed as the Marvels. Members Georgia Dobbins, Wanda Young, Katherine Anderson, Juanita Cowart and Gladys Horton recorded the song after Dobbins and William Garrett helped develop its original idea.
The record was important both for the group and for Motown, then still a young Detroit label. It topped the Hot 100 in December 1961 and later became one of the label’s best-known early hits. The Beatles recorded their own version on the 1963 album With the Beatles, which sometimes causes confusion about the song’s original performer.