Above: Linda Ronstdt’s release.
Released July 9, 1963
Format 7″ single
Recorded June 20, 1963
Studio Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A)
Genre Soul
Length 2:47
Label Gordy
G 7022
Songwriter(s) Holland–Dozier–Holland
Producer(s) Brian Holland
Lamont Dozier
“Heat Wave” is a 1963 song written by the Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting team. It was first made popular by the American Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. Released as a 45 rpm single on July 9, 1963, on the Motown subsidiary Gordy label, it hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B chart—where it stayed for four weeks running—and peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It was recorded 12 years later by rock vocalist Linda Ronstadt on her Platinum-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, 4 in Cash Box, and 6 in Record World. In 2010, British musician Phil Collins spent a single week (number 29) on the Billboard Adult Contemporary listing with his retooling of the song—a smooth combination of both versions.
Above: A-side label of one of US vinyl releases
“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”. 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?” 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 backbeat, jazz overtones and, doo-wop 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 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 electric piano portion. In a version issued on the compilation Gold, the instrumental is extended as well as the ending portion, which includes Reeves singing more ad-libs while her group mates continue to sing the word “burning” repeatedly.
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 to the recording. The success of “Heat Wave” helped popularize both Martha and the Vandellas and Holland-Dozier-Holland, while cementing Motown as a strong musical force.
In a 2007 DVD entitled “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”.
Billboard named the song #12 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia