817 Martha and the Vandellas “Nowhere to Run” 1965

“The fourth pop Top Ten single by Martha Reeves (1941- ) and the Vandellas is a tale of a tortured love affair with a far darker tone than all but a few other Motown hits of the era. As Martha wails about running from a man who's ‘no good for me,’ being haunted by his face ‘every step I take’ and whenever she looks in the mirror, and concludes there’s ‘nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,’ this appears to be a portrait of an abused woman who can’t bring herself to break free. It’s disturbing, but compelling. For Reeves, the song evokes “how I felt after seeing 18- and 19-year-old kids coming back from Vietnam with injuries” (Steve Sullivan, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, 2013). 

Martha and the Vandellas “Nowhere to Run”