They were simple love songs that told simple stories, often in joyously happy or heartbreakingly sad ways. "You've Really Got a Hold On Me," "Heat Wave," "Dancing in the Street," "Tracks of My Tears," "Where Did Our Love Go," "My Guy," "My Girl," "Baby Love," "Reach Out, I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself," "Get Ready," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and so on. Throughout the Sixties, Motown produced a catalog of songs that cannot be rivaled. Even if you couldn't put your finger on it, when a Motown song came on, you knew it. The high-end bias of Motown's recordings can be partially traced to the company's reliance on this piece of equipment." They knew people would be listening on their car stereos and on their transistor sets and they were going to do what it took to make their songs sound good and memorable. In his still essential Motown history Where Did Our Love Go? Nelson George writes, "Motown chief engineer Mike McClain built a miniscule, tinny-sounding radio designed to approximate the sound of a car radio. So what was the Motown Sound? Great melodies, lots of tambourines and hand clapping, blaring horns, interplay between the lead singer and his or her backup vocalists, driving bass lines and foot-slapping drum parts. In a neglected corner were the session musicians the Funk Brothers, who played on God knows how many hit songs. Over there was the talent Stevie Wonder, whom the label discovered when he was 11 Marvin Gaye, who wanted so much to be a jazz crooner before he came into his own in the late 60's and, above all, Diana Ross, whom the label put its stake in early on, and who was told so many times that she was a star that she drove off one of the Supremes before quitting to launch a solo career. Over here were the songwriters Robinson and the team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Brian Holland (Holland-Dozier, Holland, or H-D-H). It is rumored that Gordy modeled his hit factory after the Detroit car assembly line that he knew so well: Make a good product, then make something similar, and make it quick. All became part of what would come to be known as the Motown Sound. Over the next decade, the sheer number of chart-topping artists, musicians, and groups produced by Motown defied comprehension: Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye. Postman," by The Marvelettes, was the label's first No. The two had become friends years earlier and Robinson, who was the lead singer of a band called The Miracles, produced, wrote, and sang several of Motown's most memorable hits including the labels' first smash song, "Shop Around" in 1960. ( See an audio slideshow of five of Motown's best tunes.)Ī former boxer and automobile worker, Berry Gordy was a nascent songwriter when, at the urging of Smokey Robinson, a songwriter ten years younger than Gordy, he decided to establish Motown Records. Arriving at the height of the civil rights movement, Motown was a black-owned, black-centered business that gave white America something they just could not get enough of joyous, sad, romantic, mad, groovin', movin' music. 12, 1959, Motown quickly became another Detroit factory where the Big Three produced automobiles, Motown assembled the soul and pop classics that changed America. Then the slogan came true.įounded on Jan. Grand Blvd, the sign demonstrated Gordy's blazing and at the time, unearned arrogance. Follow the front windows of Motown Records' Detroit headquarters was a sign that read "Hitsville U.S.A." Placed there by Motown founder Berry Gordy soon after his company moved into the modest home at 2648 W.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |