Thanks for the Motown Memory, Freddy
I received a fan e-mail over a month ago from a guy who is a music teacher in Canada. This email was even more special than usual. (I get fanmail now and then…really! I am always surprised and flattered that anyone knows who I am!) The email from Alex said that he is teaching his students one of my old Motown songs…”Freddy“.
That was 1960, Kids; I was 15.
(It was also before anyone but my family knew how to spell my first name correctly.)
The Post Script on the email about knocked me out…
…it said,”By the way, one of my students gave me your email address.” Are you kidding me?! I would have thought that Alex’s grandfather gave him the address! I wrote back to tell Alex that I would look for one of the old photos from “back in the day”. (That would be when I was 15 and the first white, female recording artist for Motown Records in Detroit. Barry Gordy Jr. signed me. I worked with Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, The Choker Campbell Group, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Mickey Stevenson, Norman Whitfield, The Four Tops and The Temptations.)
I found the photo I was looking for. My friend Ryan scanned it for me so that I could make a print and so that I could also use it here. That photo of me from 47 years ago and one of me today, at 62, are on the way to Alex and his music class. A real life lesson for me…Thank God and the Universe for “*pipes” and cheekbones! (And that is NOT just…tales from a broad.)
(*pipes:singing voice, not “guns”)
September 6, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I never knew you had brown hair! The picture is great of you Conny. I guess your name got spelled wrong a lot back then. I Did!! I have to tell you a story about your song “Freddie” When the record came out I got so excited for you that I made a sign “Hear Conny VanDyke sing “Oh Freddie” on Motown records. I then crusied the Totem Pole and Big Boy on Woodward with the sign on the side of my car.
I liked the song a lot and after all you were my classmate back then. I spelled you name right for I had the record. Helps LOL. Yes, it’s great to have people recognize you for your achievements. Hope you enjoyed my blast from the past.
September 18, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I remember how beautiful you were back then and you’re still so beautiful after all these years.
September 25, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Mark! How great to hear from you. Thank you for the compliment…you were always smooth as well as handsome!
xocvd
January 8, 2009 at 7:39 am
was watchin the fox channel and saw you on the move with burt renolds was wooundering if you are any relation to dick Van Dyke and if you ever get to stockton calif???
January 11, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Thanks for the interest, David. When I did The Merv Griffin Show years ago, Jerry Van Dyke was also a guest. He, of course, is Dick’s very talented brother. We were curious as to whether or not we were related, so Jerry made a few long distance calls from the Green Room. He found that his father (or his grandfather) and MY grandfather were brothers. So, that is what is known as a real distant relative! And, I haven’t been to Stockton since filming “Hell’s Angels ‘69″ in 1968. (Spent a weekend there at a car racing event.) Thanks again for letting me hear from you.
cvd
August 4, 2009 at 4:19 am
Conny,
So good to see you on CSI. I am so happy you are still acting. I also was able to get your interview when I got a copy of Hell’s Angles. What you had to say to your fans was most informative about the making of the movie as well as some of the personal tid bits you gave on the Angles.
Thanks for sharing that with us.