When soul and R&B icon Martha Reeves first joined record company Motown in 1961, she spent months as the legendary American label's telephone receptionist before she got a chance to sing in the studio.

She was invited to audition after a producer from Motown heard her sing in a nightclub, only to have her hopes dashed in the beginning.

The 67-year-old tells Life! in a telephone interview from Detroit: 'I quit my day job as a cleaner and went the next day, only to be greeted and told there was no audition that day.'

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