Metro Atlanta Motown legend reflects on holiday hits

Whether it’s Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and The Supremes, or Marvin Gaye, chances are your holiday playlist includes a few cuts recorded at Motown Records.  And that means a Metro Atlanta woman is also part of your seasonal soundtrack, since she sang background on just about every classic track recorded at the famed Detroit-based label.

Louvain Demps -- along with Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow — was a member of The Andantes, the singing trio which became an indispensable part of the Motown sound.  Throughout the 1960s, the group sweetened the tracks of thousands of recordings with their stunning harmonies, including the label’s famed holiday hits.

"It was actually in the summer," Demps explains of recording many of the holiday songs, although the singers managed to conjure up convincing Christmas spirit on perennial favorites like Stevie Wonder’s "What Christmas Means to Me" — a song that was recently back in the iTunes Holiday Top 20, more than 50 years after it was recorded.

"There were certain singers that would come into the studio that you really liked to work with, because they were quick and they were fun," says Demps.  "I just always loved to be in the studio with Stevie."

Another one of the singer’s favorites is "Children’s Christmas Song," a 1965 holiday hit for The Supremes. 

"We were in the studio, and the music came up and everything, and there was another group with us," remembers Demps.  "It was the Contours, the guys who sang, ‘Do You Love Me.’  The bad boys of Motown!  I think I liked this [song] so much because we were able to do something else with our voices, and we were sounding like kids."

Decades later, these classic recordings still echo through the air during this season — and for the Metro Atlanta resident and National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame inductee, they remain a source of true holiday joy.

"You know what, you get kind of absorbed, you know?  You have your shopping cart and you’re going down there and there’s ten people behind you and you hear yourself and you stop and hold up the line.  Oh, that’s fun!"