Arguably the most soulful of the Motown girl groups, Martha and the Vandellas established themselves as part of "The Sound of Young America" (Motown's company slogan) with the Top Ten single "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" in the fall of 1963. Although some of their hits were thought to have political undertones, the songs they made popular during the mid-1960s were, like most Motown singles, African-American dance records with a strong backbeat designed to appeal to a white audience. Martha and the Vandellas emerged as hitmakers almost a year before the Supremes began to dominate the charts, but by 1965 the latter group had overtaken the former in popularity. As Motown president Berry Gordy, Jr., and the talented songwriting and production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland (brothers Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier) focused their attention on the Supremes, they neglected Martha and...