1959
DON'T LEAVE ME * MARV JOHNSON * LONDON AMERICAN 9013 * UK
Marvin Earl Johnson was born 1938 in Detroit, his first musical outing was as part of the male vocal group the Serenaders during the mid 1950s.He was discovered by the young Berry Gordy, who recorded him, backed by the Rayber Singers, for the first ever release on his nescient Tamla label. Gordy leased much of the songs he both wrote and produced for Marv Johnson to United Artists. The above, the B side of You Got What It Takes, an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic, was also recorded by the Miracles and put out on the Hi Were The Miracles album, a version that, for me, has the edge on Marv's, as good as his is.