"Heat Wave" is a 1963 song written by the

Holland–Dozier–Holland Holland–Dozier–Holland, often abbreviated as H-D-H, was a songwriting and production team consisting of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. The trio wrote, arranged and produced many songs that helped define the ...

songwriting team. It was first made popular by the

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

vocal group

Martha and the Vandellas Martha and the Vandellas (known from 1967 to 1973 as Martha Reeves & the Vandellas) were an American girl group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s as a major act for Motown Records. Formed by friends Annett ...

, who issued it as a single on July 10, 1963, on the Motown subsidiary Gordy label. The single reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot R&B chart—where it stayed for four weeks—and peaking at number 4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was recorded 12 years later by vocalist

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music. Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three A ...

on her

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

-selling 1975 album '' Prisoner in Disguise''. Ronstadt's version of the song was released as a single in September 1975, reaching number 5 in ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', 4 in ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'', and 6 in ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

''. In 2010, British musician

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

spent a single week (number 28) on the ''Billboard''

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

listing with his retooling of the song.

Martha and the Vandellas original version

Background, composition and reception

"Heat Wave" was one of many songs written and produced by the Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting and producing team. It was the second hit collaboration between Martha and the Vandellas and the team, with the first being "

Come and Get These Memories "Come and Get These Memories" is an R&B song by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. Their second single released under Motown's Gordy Records subsidiary, "Memories" became the group's first hit single, reaching number 29 on the ''Bill ...

". The lyrics of "Heat Wave" feature the song's narrator singing about a guy who has her heart "burning with desire" and "going insane" over the feeling of his love, and asking, "is this the way love's supposed to be?" ''

'' described it as a "danceable rock-a-twister" that could return the group to the Top 20. The song is often referred to as "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave", but the title on the label of the original 1963 single was just "Heat Wave". Produced and composed with a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

backbeat,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

overtones and,

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...

call and responsive vocals, "Heat Wave" was one of the first songs to exemplify the style of music later termed as the "Motown Sound". The single was a breakthrough hit, peaking at number 4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and at number 1 on the ''Billboard'' R&B Singles Chart. It also garnered the group's only

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

nomination for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording for 1964, making the Vandellas the first Motown group ever to receive a Grammy Award nomination. Some versions of the song have a radio edit that cuts out the repetition of the ending of the instrumental portion of the song, which is in one key, featuring the repeated saxophone and piano portion. In a version issued on the compilation ''Gold'', the instrumental is extended as well as the ending portion, which includes Martha Reeves singing more ad-libs while the backing vocalists continue to sing the word "burning" repeatedly. The success of "Heat Wave" helped popularize both Martha and the Vandellas and Holland-Dozier-Holland, while cementing Motown as a strong musical force.

Influence and use in other media

The Martha and the Vandellas version was featured in the 1970 film '' The Boys in the Band,'' in a scene in which several of the characters perform an impromptu

line dance A line dance is a choreographed dance in which a group of people dance along to a repeating sequence of dance step, steps while arranged in one or more lines or rows. These lines usually face all in the same direction, or less commonly face each ot ...

to the recording. It also appeared in

Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (; born September 11, 1940) is an Americans, American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for work in the suspense, Crime film, crime, and psychological thriller genres. ...

's 1976 film '' Carrie'' and was also featured in the 1979's '' More American Graffiti'' and is included on the film’s soundtrack album. In the 1992 film '' Sister Act'', Whoopi Goldberg sings the song (arranged by

Marc Shaiman Marc Shaiman ( ; born October 22, 1959) is an American composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, best known for his collaborations with lyricist and director Scott Wittman, actor Billy Crystal, and director Rob Reiner. Shaiman ha ...

) as part of her Vegas nightclub act saluting '60s girl groups. In a 2007 DVD titled ''The Lovin' Spoonful with John Sebastian – Do You Believe in Magic'', author Sebastian illustrates how he sped up the three-chord intro from "Heat Wave" to come up with the intro to " Do You Believe in Magic". The song was ranked number 50 among the greatest singles ever made in

Dave Marsh Dave Marsh (born ) is an American music critic and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of '' Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone'', and has published num ...

's 1989 book ''The Heart of Rock & Soul''. ''

'' 's editorial staff named it number 12 on their list of 100 greatest girl group songs of all time. In 2021, it was listed at number 257 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''s top 500 best songs of all time.

Credits and personnel

* Lead vocals – Martha Reeves * Background vocals –

Rosalind Ashford Rosalind "Roz" Ashford-Holmes (born September 2, 1943) is an American soprano R&B and Soul music, soul singer, known for her work as an original member of the Motown singing group Martha and the Vandellas. Early years Born Rosalind Ashford on ...

and

Annette Beard Annette Beard, also known as Annette Helton or Annette Sterling, (born July 4, 1943) is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul music, soul singer. Beard is best known for her work with Motown and as an original member of the singing group Ma ...

* Produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier * Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland, Jr. * Instrumentation by

the Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...

: ** Richard "Pistol" Allen – drums **

James Jamerson James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases un ...

– double bass ** Joe Hunter – piano ** Robert White – guitar ** Eddie Willis – guitar ** Andrew "Mike" Terry – baritone saxophone solo

Chart performance and certifications

Linda Ronstadt version

Background and reception

remade "Heat Wave" for her album '' Prisoner in Disguise'' which was recorded at The Sound Factory in Hollywood between February and June 1975 and released that October. Ronstadt's sideman Andrew Gold told ''

'': " erband had been trying to get Linda to add it to her iveset ...one night at a Long Island club called My Father's Place we received six encores and we'd run of tunes. One of us yelled out 'Heat Wave in D' and we did it. he band wasawfully sloppy but the crowd really liked it. So we kept the song in our set." Michael Epstein, the manager of My Father's Place, states he was responsible for Ronstadt's singing "Heat Wave" at his club: when Ronstadt went backstage after advising the audience she and the band had no more material, Epstein says he suggested Ronstadt perform "Heat Wave," writing down the lyrics and playing some chords on a guitar to help her band improvise. According to the ''Rolling Stone'' article the perfectionism of Ronstadt's producer Peter Asher "led to many, many hours of work on 'Heat Wave' in a process that would ikelyamuse the old-line Motown musicians involved in the almost assembly-line approach that resulted in hits including Martha and the Vandellas' 1963 recording of the song." Although Ronstadt had made her top ten breakthrough in 1975 with remakes of the 1960s hits " You're No Good" and " When Will I Be Loved", the lead single from ''Prisoner in Disguise'' was the original

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

composition " Love Is a Rose" with "Heat Wave" relegated to the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of the single which was released in August 1975. However pop radio disc jockeys preferred "Heat Wave", which rose to a number 5 peak in November 1975, while "Love Is a Rose" received support from C&W radio, reaching number 5 on the C&W chart in ''

'' magazine.

Personnel

– lead vocals * Andrew Gold – acoustic guitars, electric guitars, drums, piano,

ARP String Ensemble The Solina String Ensemble, also marketed as the ARP String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral string synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Eminent BV (known for their ''Solina'' brand). It was distributed in the United ...

, congas, background vocals, hand claps * Kenny Edwards – bass, background vocals * Peter Asher – hand claps

Charts

Phil Collins version

Background

In 2010,

remade "Heat Wave" for his

cover album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, '' Going Back'', with the track serving as lead single, the first Phil Collins' single release in over five years. Except for the

Carole King Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter and musician renowned for her extensive contributions to popular music. She wrote or co-wrote 118 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billbo ...

Gerry Goffin Gerald Goffin (February 11, 1939 – June 19, 2014) was an American lyricist. Collaborating initially with his first wife, Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the US No.1 hits " Will You L ...

-penned title cut and that team's "Some of Your Lovin'"—both

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was a British singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop mus ...

hits—and also Collins' take on

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Dubbed the " Gentle Genius", he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious Afric ...

's "Talking About My Baby", ''Going Back'' comprised Collins' remakes of

classics with the session personnel featuring three members of

The Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...

: Bob Babbitt, Ray Monette and Eddie Willis. Collins would say: "To be able to have three of the surviving Funk Brothers play on all the tracks was unbelievable. There was one moment when they were tracking 'Heat Wave' that I experienced a wave of happiness and wonder that this was actually happening to me!". On 31 July 2010,

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

unveiled the music video to support Collins' "Heat Wave" with the singer shown performing the song with a large ensemble of musicians and backing vocalists who performed with him during several showcases promoting the album in the summer of 2010.

Track listing

#"(Love Is Like a) Heatwave" – 2:53 #"Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" – 2:59

Musicians

– vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards * Eddie Willis – guitar * Ray Monette – guitar * Bob Babbitt – bass *Graeme Blevins – tenor saxophone *Phil Todd – baritone saxophone and solo * Guy Barker and Tom Rees-Roberts – trumpets *John Aram – trombone *Connie Jackson and Lynne Fiddmont – backing vocals

Chart performance

References

External links

* * * {{authority control 1963 songs 1963 singles 1972 singles 1975 singles 2010 singles Martha and the Vandellas songs Linda Ronstadt songs Phil Collins songs Songs written by Holland–Dozier–Holland Song recordings produced by Brian Holland Song recordings produced by Lamont Dozier Gordy Records singles Columbia Records singles Asylum Records singles Atlantic Records singles The Jam songs Song recordings produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time