Image from a poster titled "Eat Fruit - Be Healthy" by the Federal Art Project, 1938
By 1959, the Moonglows were not really the Moonglows anymore. Harvey Fuqua was the only original Moonglow left - the remaining members had been replaced with singers from a group called the Marquees. Among these New Moonglows was a young singer named Marvin Gaye, and he sang the lead on the New Moonglows' 1959 single (Chess 1738) "Mama Loocie". The flip side of this single was "Unemployment" (I'm not sure if Gaye sang on this one, although that's pretty clearly Fuqua singing the lead). Considering the song's title, the peppy doo-wop arrangement is a little odd, but the song does a good job of portraying the process of cataloging one's woes while standing in line at the Unemployment Office. Still, it's a far cry from the Moonglows' famously romantic singles like "Sincerely", "Most of All", and "The Ten Commandments of Love".
"Unemployment" by the Moonglows
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