"I Promise to Wait My Love" is a 1968 single recorded by girl group Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963–1967...

, released on the Gordy

Motown Records

Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

 label. The third release from the group's Ridin' High, it was another single given to them by producer Richard Morris with co-written credit to Sylvia Moy

Sylvia Moy

Sylvia Moy is a songwriter and record producer, formerly associated with the Motown Records group. The first woman at the Detroit-based music label to write and produce for Motown acts, she is probably best known for her songs written for Stevie Wonder....

. Produced under a Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 sound similar to soul singer Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

, the song has the narrator (lead singer Martha Reeves

Martha Reeves

Martha Rose Reeves is an American R&B and Pop singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Jimmy Mack", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run"...

) promising to wait for her love as he fights in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 though the song doesn't blatantly reference the war disguising it as the war being another woman saying that she'll love him "even though (he does her) wrong". This song was the group's first single to miss the top 40 on the pop singles chart peaking at number sixty-two while it netted a top forty entry on the R&B singles chart peaking at number thirty-six on the chart.

Credits

• Lead vocals by Martha Reeves
  Martha Reeves
  Martha Rose Reeves is an American R&B and Pop singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Jimmy Mack", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run"...
  
  
• Background vocals by Rosalind Ashford
  Rosalind Ashford
  Rosalind "Roz" Ashford-Holmes is an American soprano R&B and soul singer, famed for her work as member of the popular Motown singing group Martha and the Vandellas.-Early years:...
  
  , Sandra "Lois" Reeves and The Andantes
  The Andantes
  The Andantes were a prolific female sessions group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Stevie...
  
  : Marlene Barrow, Jackie Hicks and Louvain Demps
• Produced by Richard Morris
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
  The Funk Brothers
  The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown Records recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972...