One of the less well-known girl groups of the Sixties, The Fascinations are best known – if at all – for the fact that one of their founder members was Martha Reeves.

The group was formed in 1960 by Reeves and Shirley Lawson, who originally planned on calling their group The Sabre-ettes.

They held auditions and recruited sisters Joanne and Bernadine Boswell, changing their name to The Fasinations (sic) – but Reeves left late the same year and was replaced by Fern Bledsoe.
When Martha rejoined her old group The Del-Phis, soon to sign to Motown and change their own name to Martha & The Vandellas, Bernadette Boswell took over as lead singer of The Fasinations.

They got their own record deal in late 1962, signing to ABC-Paramount where they met Curtis Mayfield, who wrote and produced their first single, Mama Didn’t Lie.

But they were gazumped when Jan Bradley, who had recorded it first, had a hit with the same song. And they were fired from the label when their next single, Tears In My Eyes – the first with the correct spelling of Fascinations – was a flop.

Undeterred, they carried on, despite having to take day jobs to make ends meet, with Bledsoe working as a secretary at Motown (and moonlighting on a handful of lesser singles).

A few years later The Fascinations found themselves back in the studio with Curtis Mayfield when he started his Mayfield Records label in 1966 and made them one of the first acts he signed.

Girls Are Out To Get You was their second single together and their most commercially successful, though it only reached number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 and they were once again dropped by their label.

In early 1968, label-less and with bookings for live appearances dwindling, The Fascinations decided to retire… until 1971 when Girls Are Out To Getcha found new popularity in England when Northern Soul took off.

It reached No.32 in the UK singles chart, encouraging The Fascinations to embark on their first – and so far last – overseas tour.