** This is just a short biographical summary – for the full story, check out this artist’s reviews! **
Vocalist Oma Heard – also known by her married name, Oma Drake – had two short stints at Motown in the 1960s, several years apart, and in 1964 she was a candidate – albeit an outside bet – to take over the plum role of Marvin Gaye‘s duet partner in the wake of Mary Wells‘ departure. But Oma missed her date with stardom; her one and only solo Motown single ended up a much-demanded rarity on the Northern Soul and collector circuits, and she suffered the indignity of being mis-identified as “Oma Page” (another, different sometime Motown singer, the wife of Billy Page) when her demo Marvin duets were finally released at the start of the 1990s. She later returned to Motown (via the third-party Chisa label) as part of the equally obscure girl group Dorothy, Oma & Zelpha.
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Motown Junkies 
Apparently, Oma did not record a whole unreleased album with Marvin Gaye, but five tracks. As a soloist, she left a few then unreleased tracks at Motown which decades later appeared on various artists CDs with previously unreleased Motown tracks. But previous to her spell at Motown, she was in a girl group who recorded under various names such as The Postalettes and The Delicates, alongside sisters Julia (Tillman) Waters and Maxine Waters, who went on to become prolific session vocalists for other artists. Oma appeared to have written a few of their songs. But whether she sang lead on any of their tracks, I do not know.
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