Playboy (The Marvelettes song)
original song written and composed by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, William Stevenson; first recorded by The Marvelettes
"Playboy" is a song composed by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, Mickey Stevenson and singer Gladys Horton, lead vocalist of the Motown singing group The Marvelettes, who recorded the song and released it as a single on Motown's Tamla imprint in 1962. The single, led by Horton, is about a man who fools around with a lot of women and the woman who narrates the story warns him to stay away from her due to the stories she heard of him "running around with every woman in town". Horton is helped out in the song by her Marvelettes cohorts Wanda Young, Georgeanna Tillman, Katherine Anderson & Juanita Cowart. This was released as the third single by the Marvelettes and was their second top ten pop hit reaching number seven on the charts while reaching number four on the R&B chart. In Canada it was number 6 for 3 weeks.
The song is sampled in the Dickie Goodman novelty break-in record "Ben Crazy" (1962). A satire on the Television Doctor's show "Ben Casey".
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Playboy (The Marvelettes song)” is original song written and composed by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, William Stevenson; first recorded by The Marvelettes. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Playboy, Marvelettes and song, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “original song written and composed by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, William Stevenson; first recorded by The Marvelettes” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7203211. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Playboy (The Marvelettes song)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Playboy (The Marvelettes song) primary sources, Playboy (The Marvelettes song) archive and Playboy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Playboy (The Marvelettes song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.