Rosalind Ashford, founding Martha and the Vandellas singer, dies at 83

Rosalind Ashford, a founding member of Martha and the Vandellas whose high soprano rode above Martha Reeves on "Dancing in the Street" and "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave," died Tuesday, September 15, at the age of 83. She died of natural causes in Redford Township, a suburb of Detroit, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Ashford signed with Motown Records in September 1962 alongside Reeves and Annette Beard and stayed with the group until 1969, years in which the Vandellas became one of the label's signature acts. She was one of three original members of a group that began in 1957 as the Del-Phis.

Martha and the Vandellas were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, becoming only the second all-female group to receive the honor. Ashford is survived by her son, Damon Holmes, four grandchildren and a daughter-in-law.

From a Detroit YMCA to Motown

Ashford was born September 2, 1943, in Detroit, to John and Mary Ashford. She sang in church choirs and danced at community centers as a child, then joined the glee club and mixed chorus at Wilbur Wright High School. She was still a student there when the group that became Martha and the Vandellas took shape.

In 1957, by Ashford's account, her mother and sister helped her land an audition at a Detroit YMCA club. Edward "Pops" Larkins recruited her there, along with Annette Beard and Gloria Williams, to form a sister act to an existing male vocal group. Calling themselves the Del-Phis, the three sang at benefit parties, YMCA events and high school functions around the city. It was not until around 1960, shortly after Martha Reeves joined, that the group grew serious about music.

• 1957: Edward "Pops" Larkins recruits Ashford, Annette Beard and Gloria Williams at a Detroit YMCA club, and the trio names itself the Del-Phis
• 1961: the Del-Phis release "I'll Let You Know" on Chess Records' Checkmate subsidiary
• A further single appears under the name the Vels, on Motown's Mel-O-Dy label, without national success
• The singers work as Marvin Gaye's background vocalists on "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" and "Hitch Hike"

The break came on a demo titled "I'll Have to Let Him Go," intended for Mary Wells, on which the singers provided backup. Berry Gordy, Motown's president, heard the recording and offered Reeves and her singing partners a contract of their own. The group signed with Motown in September 1962 as Martha and the Vandellas, and the demo became their debut single. Gloria Williams, one of the original Del-Phis, left before the signing.

Their second single, "Come and Get These Memories," was among the earliest hits written by the Holland-Dozier-Holland team and followed a standout performance at the Motortown Revue. Released in 1963, it climbed to No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to No. 6 on the R&B chart. The breakthrough came within a year of the signing.

"(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" arrived the same year and went further, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and drawing a Grammy nomination. The record set the rougher, brassier sound that would define the group. "Quicksand" followed as their third top 40 pop hit.

A tribute from Martha Reeves

Martha Reeves, 85, who joined the Del-Phis around 1960 and sang lead on the group's hits, wrote in a tribute posted to Instagram that her heart was heavy.

I am deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Rosalind Ashford. Rosalind played an important part in the early days of Martha and the Vandellas. Her voice will forever be with us through our great recordings together, and she will be missed, but never forgotten. Our Motown family has just gotten a little smaller. My heart is heavy.

Inside the trio the parts were clearly divided. Reeves sang a brassy alto, Beard a deep contralto, and Ashford the high soprano that became one of the group's defining vocal signatures. Her range set her apart from the start of the group's career.

Detroit's Motown produced more than one girl group in the early 1960s. The Vandellas carried a rawer, church-rooted edge next to the polish of the Supremes, and Ashford's soprano gave them grit.

The hits and a shifting lineup

In the summer of 1964 the group recorded the song that outlasted the rest. "Dancing in the Street" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the Vandellas are still best known for it, along with "Heat Wave" and "Jimmy Mack."

• "Come and Get These Memories" (1963): No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 6 R&B
• "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" (1963): No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, Grammy-nominated
• "Quicksand": the group's third top 40 pop hit
• "Dancing in the Street" (1964): No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100
• "Nowhere to Run," "I'm Ready for Love" and "Jimmy Mack": later hits with Ashford on soprano

Ashford sang on almost two dozen Top 40 singles on Billboard's R&B chart, according to the Detroit Free Press. The group's reach ran past its own recordings. "Dancing in the Street" was taken up later by artists including the Mamas & the Papas and Van Halen.

The lineup around Ashford kept changing. Beard left to start a family after "Quicksand" and was replaced by Betty Kelly, formerly of the Velvelettes. With Kelly in the group the Vandellas reached the peak of their fame, cutting "Dancing in the Street," "Nowhere to Run," "I'm Ready for Love" and "Jimmy Mack." Kelly was replaced in 1967 by Reeves' sister, Lois Reeves.

Leaving the group in 1969

Ashford left the Vandellas in 1969 and was succeeded by Sandra Tilley, another former Velvelette. She married, took the surname Holmes and was known afterward as Rosalind Ashford-Holmes. She began a career with Michigan Bell Telephone Co., a regional telephone company in Detroit, leaving touring behind for a job outside music.

Rosalind Ashford returned for Vandellas reunions

Ashford, one of the founding members of Martha and the Vandellas, did not stay away from music for good. She reunited with Reeves and Beard for a 1978 benefit concert honoring the actor Will Geer, and again in 1989 for a tour of the United Kingdom and recordings for Ian Levine's Motorcity label. The original trio recorded the single "Step Into My Shoes" that year.

The original trio performed together at the group's Vocal Group Hall of Fame induction in 2003. Ashford and Beard went on to appear periodically as the Original Vandellas, often alongside the lead vocalist Roschelle Laughhunn, though reunions that included Reeves herself grew rare.

A signature on the Hall of Fame plaque

Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson of the B-52s presented Martha and the Vandellas at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1995, and Ashford's name is among the signatures on the group's induction plaque, according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In later years she met former Motown colleagues for reunions at a Detroit-area restaurant, one of them, Pat Cosby, recalled.

The memories are still precious. We had good times while we could.

Funeral arrangements were pending at the James H. Cole Funeral Home on Schaefer Highway in Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Ashford's name is on Motown records from before the group had a contract of its own. In 1962 the singers worked behind Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells, and those performances drew the attention of Berry Gordy, Motown's founder. Over the next seven years her soprano sat behind a run of hits.

Ashford's soprano is one of the reasons the Vandellas sounded unlike the rest of the Motown roster. The records she made with the group in the early and middle 1960s, cut on Detroit's West Grand Boulevard, are the ones the Vandellas are still identified by.

The songs are still played nearly seven decades after a YMCA club in Detroit put three teenagers together and called them a group. Ashford kept singing with former Vandellas members into her later years, long after the telephone company job had replaced touring as her working life.