Gordy, Berry Jr. 1929—
Berry Gordy, Jr. 1929—
Recording industry executive, entrepreneur
Smokey Robinson a Key “Discovery”
Company’s Beginnings Were Modest
Ross Helped Launch Motown Industries
On the night of January 20, 1988, Berry Gordy, Jr., was inducted into the Rock V Roll Hall of Fame. His peers that evening were the Supremes, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Drifters, folk singer Woody Guthrie, blues and folk singer Leadbelly, and jazz guitarist Les Paul. Gordy was honored in the non-performing category for founding and developing Motown Industries. He originally formed the company in 1959 as the Motown Record Corporation. During the 1960s and early 1970s it grew from a Detroit-based record label specializing in rhythm and blues hits to a full-fledged entertainment corporation based in Los Angeles, active in television and motion pictures as well as records. In 1973 the magazine Black Enterprise recognized Motown Industries as the number one black-owned or managed business. In 1988 Gordy sold Motown Records to entertainment giant MCA Inc. for $61 million. The sale did not include Motown’s publishing division (Jobete Music Co. and Stone Mountain Music), nor its film and television divisions. Gordy would continue to run these operations as the Gordy Company.
Although Berry Gordy, Jr., the seventh of eight children of Berry, Sr., and Bertha Gordy, began the Motown Record Corporation in 1959, the entire Gordy family was called on to make their own special contributions. Indeed, Gordy did his best to foster a family feeling at Motown in the early days. Many of the performers were in their teens or early twenties; Gordy himself was barely 30. As performers were signed to the company they became new members of the “Motown family,” and as in most families, there were incidents of conflict along the way. Gordy was forced to make some unpopular decisions, but throughout the years he kept the enterprise together and firmly on course, soon coming to be known as “Mr. Chairman.”
Despite the fact that none of the Gordys made their names as entertainers, the family was very much a musical one. Its musicality made itself known not in performance, but in the continuing enterprise that has provided the world with numerous performers and countless popular songs. The following excerpt from a speech by the Honorable John Conyers, Jr., of Michigan, to the U.S. House of Representatives on April 19,
At a Glance…
Born November 28, 1929, in Detroit, Ml; son of Berry, Sr. (owner of a plastering and carpentry service, a general store, and a printing business), and Bertha Gordy; married Thelma Coleman, 1953 (divorced, 1959); married Raynoma Liles (divorced, 1962); children: (first marriage) Hazel Joy, Berry IV, Terry; (second marriage) Kerry (son); Kennedy (son; with Margaret Norton).
Worked on an automobile assembly line and as a prizefighter c. early 1950s. Owned record store c. 1955. Co-wrote songs, 1957—, including “Reet Petite,” 1957, “To Be Loved,” and “Lonely Teardrops,” both 1958, “That’s Why,” and “111 Be Satisfied,” both 1959, “Money (That’s What I Want),” 1960, “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” and “The Love You Save”; independent producer, 1958, and music publisher, 1958—. Founded Motown Record Corporation (later Motown Industries) in 1959; resigned as president of Motown Record Corporation, founded and assumed leadership of Motown Industries, 1973; sold Motown Records to MCA Inc. for $61 million, 1988; director of the Gordy Company (comprised of the Motown Industries publishing division—Jobete Music Co. and Stone Mountain Music—and film and television divisions), 1988—. Producer and co-editor of feature films, including Lady Sings the Blues, 1972. Director of feature films, including Mahogany, 1975, and The Last Dragon, 1985. Military service: U.S. Army c. 1951-1953.
Awards: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1988.
Addresses: Office —The Gordy Company, 6255 Sunset Blvd., 18th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90028.
1971, ably reflects the familial nature of the Motown enterprise, as well as Gordy’s sense of social responsibility.
“Mr. Speaker, ten years ago a Detroit assemblyline worker, who had formerly been a prizefighter, saved $800 and started his own business. Like so many before him, he had ideas of what he could do and wanted to try them in a business of his own. His name was Berry Gordy, Jr., and the company he created was the Motown Record Corp. Starting from their own home, the Gordy family has built Motown into the largest independent record firm in the world, and the only major black company in the entertainment business. Berry Gordy realizes that even in America factory workers cannot all become successful businessmen. Therefore, he believes that it is essential that each and every young person receive the maximum education possible. He knows that education is the passport to the future and that tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. One of the many ways Gordy puts his belief to work is through the Sterling Ball, a benefit which directly provides assistance in the form of scholarships to inner city high school graduates who wish to continue their education but are financially unable to do so. This annual charitable event has, to date, helped scores of young men and women, black and white, reach an otherwise impossible goal—a college education. The benefit was originally conceived by Mr. Gordy and his sister, Mrs. Esther Edwards, vice president in the corporation, as a continuing and meaningful memorial to their late sister, Mrs. Loucye Gordy Wakefield, who had been the first vice president of Motown and a personal inspiration to all who knew her.”
Women in High Places
Gordy’s family supported his efforts to establish his own business from the start, with a 1959 loan of $800. Once the company was launched various family members played key roles in its continuing operations. While Gordy’s brothers—Fuller, Robert, and George—participated in the Motown enterprise, it was his sisters who provided most of the help in the company’s operations. Gordy believed in women as executives. His second wife, Raynoma, was an early vice-president, as was Janie Bradford, with whom Gordy co-wrote the 1960 hit “Money (That’s What I Want).” Later, Motown Productions—the film, television, and video arms of the corporation—would be skillfully guided by Suzanne De Passe. As Smokey Robinson wrote in his autobiography, “Berry was big on letting people prove themselves, based on skill, not sex or color.”
In 1951 Gordy was drafted into the army, where he received his high school equivalency diploma. In 1953, no longer in the service, he married Thelma Coleman; a daughter, Hazel Joy, was born the following year. The couple would have two more children, Berry IV and Terry, before divorcing in 1959. While working on an auto assembly line, Gordy started a jazz-oriented record store—the 3-D Record Mart—around 1955, but it soon folded. Like Motown, it was financed largely by his family. At the time, Gordy was writing songs constantly, submitting them to magazines and contests. His big break came in 1957, when future soul star Jackie Wilson recorded “Reet Petite,” which was written by Gordy, his sister Gwen, and Tyran Carlo. Jackie Wilson had just signed with the Brunswick label in 1956 and “Reet Petite” turned out to be his first hit. Gordy’s team wrote four more hits for Wilson over the next two years: ’To Be Loved” and “Lonely Teardrops” in 1958, and “That’s Why” and ’Til Be Satisfied” in 1959.
Smokey Robinson a Key “Discovery”
In 1957 Gordy “discovered” Smokey Robinson, who would later become a rhythm and blues superstar. Gordy had just written “Lonely Teardrops” when Robinson and his group—then the Matadors—auditioned for Jackie Wilson’s representatives. Present at the audition were Nat Tarnapol, owner of Brunswick Records and Wilson’s manager, and Alonzo Tucker, generally described as “Jackie’s music man.” Gordy was also present, though he made it clear to Smokey that he did not work for Jackie Wilson. According to Robinson’s oft-repeated account, Tucker rejected the Matadors for being too much like the Platters, another popular group of the time. Gordy, however, appeared very interested in the group, apparently because of their original material. He introduced himself as a songwriter, and Robinson noted in his book Smokey: Inside My Life that Gordy looked young for his age: “This boyish face hid the fact that he was eleven years older than me.” Robinson also credited Gordy with having more songwriting savvy at that time than he did. He went on to report that Gordy expressed his views on songwriting after complimenting him on his rhymes, saying, “Songs are more than rhymes. Songs need a beginning, middle, and end. Like a story.” It was the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship. Gordy is often credited with a discerning eye for talent, of which his “discovery” of Smokey Robinson is a prime example.
By 1958 Gordy was active as an independent producer, forming the nucleus of what would become Motown Records. He recorded and leased recordings of the Miracles, Marv Johnson, and Eddie Holland to the nationally distributed labels Chess, United Artists, and End. The same year he established Jobete to publish his songs. Jobete was named for Gordy’s first three children, Hazel Joy, Berry IV, and Terry.
Moving toward becoming a full-fledged entrepreneur, Gordy was motivated by a number of factors. Certainly, his family background contributed to and supported his ambition. By then his friend, Robinson urged him to take control of his operations, especially in light of the pitifully small royalty checks he was receiving from the national labels. As a songwriter Gordy had to split his royalties with the music publisher; his way around this was to form his own publishing company, which was valued at nearly $100 million 30 years later. Finally, it was widely known that Gordy did not particularly like the way his songs were being produced at Brunswick. To move forward, he needed to take control and form his own corporation.
Company’s Beginnings Were Modest
According to Robinson, Motown began with six employees who had been operating in 1958 out of an apartment on Gladstone in Detroit. In addition to Gordy and Robinson, they included Ray noma Liles—not yet Gordy’s wife at the time—Bradford, Robert Bateman, and Brian Holland. Holland and Bateman were a songwriting-production duo that evolved a few years later into the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland team, when Brian’s brother Eddie returned to Motown after his contract with United Artists expired.
In 1959 Motown released its first single on the newly formed Tamia label. The name “Tamia” is a variation on “Tammy,” a popular song of the period sung by Debbie Reynolds. The Motown label was activated in 1960, and the company’s third major label, Gordy, debuted in April of 1962. While the Motown sound had its roots in urban rhythm and blues, it was Gordy’s plan to appeal to young people of all races with a kind of music that would retain some of its origins while adding other ingredients. Motown’s early advertising slogan, “The Sound of Young America,” reflected Gordy’s desire for Motown’s music to achieve widespread popularity. The company landed its first number-one pop hit in 1961 with the Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman.”
Crossover Dreams Realized
As late as 1962 Motown’s releases were still appealing primarily to black audiences, as evidenced by their success on the rhythm and blues charts. That year the company placed 11 singles on the R & B Top 10. The company’s strategy, as mapped out by Gordy, was to “cross over” to the white record-buying public. In fact, four singles managed to reach the Top 10 on the pop charts in 1962. The next year Motown placed six more singles on the pop Top 10, with Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips, Part 2” becoming its second number-one pop hit.
Nineteen sixty-four proved a watershed year for Motown. Four of the company’s five Top 10 pop hits went to Number One: “My Guy,” “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” and “Come See About Me.” The other song, “Dancing in the Street,” went to Number Two. Most importantly, Motown had hit on a winning combination with the Suprêmes singing songs written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland. The next year, five Motown releases reached Number One. Reflecting the company’s success, Gordy purchased the Gordy Manor in Detroit.
Gordy’s strategy for producing hits was paying off. While Gordy himself was a talented songwriter and hands-on producer, these strengths alone were not enough to make Motown a success. Rather, it was Gordy’s ability to surround himself with talented people that made Motown a force in the music business. Motown’s greatest songwriters and producers—Smokey Robinson, Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland—were complemented by a group of other gifted writers and producers, all competing within the Motown system to produce hits. Often likened to an assembly line, Motown was indeed a music factory that was able to churn out hit after hit.
Gordy Looked Beyond Records
As Motown’s popularity in the mid-1960s ensured the company’s success, Gordy began to move the company forward by pursuing other entertainment opportunities. As early as 1966 Motown established a West Coast office for expansion into movie production, to secure film roles for Motown stars, and to encourage the use of Motown songs in film soundtracks. Motown also announced its interest in becoming a “Broadway angel,” a financial backer for Broadway plays. By 1968 Gordy had purchased a home in Los Angeles and moved there. During the next few years Motown established additional offices on the West Coast; the move from Detroit was finalized in 1972. For some within the company the move was an unpopular decision; for others, it opened up new opportunities. By that time Gordy had purchased comic Red Skelton’s Bel Air estate and was living there.
The end of the 1960s brought a talented new group to Motown—the Jackson 5. “Discovered” by Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers and introduced to the public by former Supreme Diana Ross, the Jackson 5 hailed from Gary, Indiana. The group, and especially youngest member Michael, enjoyed close ties to Gordy, who often let the entire family stay at his home in California. Gordy headed a songwriting and production team within Motown—called the Corporation—that wrote and produced several chart-topping hits for the Jackson 5, including “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” and “The Love You Save.” Michael Jackson was quoted in The Motown Album as saying, “Berry was my teacher and a great one. He told me exactly what he wanted and how he wanted me to help him get it. Berry insisted on perfection and attention to detail. I’ll never forget his persistence. This was his genius.”
Ross Helped Launch Motown Industries
In 1973 Gordy resigned as president of Motown Records to assume leadership of the new Motown entertainment conglomerate, Motown Industries, which included record, motion picture, television, and publishing divisions. His primary star was Diana Ross, whom Gordy began grooming for television and motion pictures as early as 1968, when she was featured with the Supremes and the Temptations on Motown’s first television special, ’T.C.B.: Taking Care of Business.” A second special with the Suprêmes and Temptations followed in 1969. Ross starred in her first solo television special, “Diana,” in 1971. It was widely rumored that Gordy and Ross enjoyed a special personal relationship prior to Ross’s 1971 marriage to Robert Silberstein.
Gordy was involved as more than producer in Ross’s first film role: singer Billie Holiday in the 1972 Paramount release, Lady Sings the Blues. Motown invested heavily in the film and by most accounts Gordy spent a great deal of time personally editing it. It was a promising start for Motown’s film ventures; Ross received an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Her second film, 1975’s Mahogany, marked Gordy’s debut as a film director. It was followed by The Wiz, a 1978 Universal/ Motown musical version of The Wizard of Oz that garnered largely negative reviews and did poorly at the box office. Motown would not enter the motion picture business again until Gordy’s 1985 effort, The Last Dragon, an entertaining kung-fu musical that fared respectably well at the box office.
“Motown 25” Broke New Ground
Motown scored well in television with the NBC-TV special “Motown 25—Yesterday, Today, and Forever,” which aired in 1983. Edited to a two-hour television special from a four-hour live performance, the show was a tribute to the genius of Berry Gordy. Among the highlights were reunions of the Jackson 5, the Miracles, and the Supremes, and solo performances by Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye. The show garnered nine Emmy nominations for Motown; but perhaps more significantly, it was the most-watched variety special in the history of television.
Motown followed its anniversary special with the 1985 broadcast “Motown Returns to the Apollo.” The show coincided with the reopening of the newly restored Apollo Theater in Harlem, marking its fiftieth anniversary. The special won an Emmy for best variety, music, or comedy program. Following the formula for success that Gordy implemented as far back as 1960—to reach as wide an audience as possible—Motown has made a number of its productions available for the home video market, including specials featuring Marvin Gaye and the Temptations.
Many books have been written by and about Motown’s stars—Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, the Supremes, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson—telling the story of Motown from several perspectives. Perhaps the final word will come from Mr. Chairman himself as Berry Gordy prepares his own autobiography for imminent publication. Through records, movies, videos, and now books, the heritage of Motown—and of the visionary behind it—will be preserved for and appreciated by future generations intrigued by the house that Gordy built.
Sources
Books
Benjaminson, Peter, The Story of Motown, Grove, 1979.
Bianco, David, Heat Wave: The Motown Fact Book, Pierian, 1988.
Fong-Torres, Ben, The Motown Album, St. Martin’s, 1990.
Hirshey, Geni, Nowhere to Run, Times Books, 1984.
Robinson, Smokey, with David Ritz, Smokey: Inside My Life, McGraw, 1989.
Singleton, Ray noma Gordy, with Bryan Brown and Mim Eichler, Berry, Me, and Motown: The Untold Story, Contemporary Books, 1990.
Taraborrelli, J. Randy, Motown: Hot Wax, City Cool & Solid Gold, Doubleday, 1986.
Waller, Don, The Motown Story, Scribner, 1985.
Periodicals
Detroit Free Press, May 15, 1983.
Rolling Stone, August 23, 1990.
—David Bianco
Gordy, Berry Jr.
Berry Gordy, Jr.
Recording industry executive, entrepreneur
Smokey Robinson a Key “Discovery”
Company’s Beginnings Were Modest
Diana Ross Helped Launch Motown Industries
On the night of January 20, 1988, Berry Gordy, Jr., was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His peers that evening were the Supremes, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Drifters, folk singer Woody Guthrie, blues and folk singer Leadbelly, and jazz guitarist Les Paul. Gordy was honored in the non-performing category for founding and developing Motown Industries. He originally formed the company in 1959 as the Motown Record Corporation. During the 1960s and early 1970s it grew from a Detroit-based record label specializing in rhythm and blues hits to a full-fledged entertainment corporation based in Los Angeles, active in television and motion pictures as well as records. In 1973 the magazine Black Enterprise recognized Motown Industries as the number one black owned or managed business. In 1988 Gordy sold Motown Records to entertainment giant MCA Inc. for $61 million. The sale did not include Motown’s publishing division (Jobete Music Co. and Stone Mountain Music), nor its film and television divisions. Gordy would continue to run these operations as the Gordy Company.
Although Berry Gordy, Jr., the seventh of eight children of Berry, Sr., and Bertha Gordy, began the Motown Record Corporation in 1959, the entire Gordy family was called on to make their own special contributions. Indeed, Gordy did his best to foster a family feeling at Motown in the early days. Many of the performers were in their teens or early twenties; Gordy himself was barely 30. As performers were signed to the company they became new members of the “Motown family,” and as in most families, there were incidents of conflict along the way. Gordy was forced to make some unpopular decisions, but throughout the years he kept the enterprise together and firmly on course, soon coming to be known as “Mr. Chairman.”
Motown a Family Effort
Despite the fact that none of the Gordys made their names as entertainers, the family was very much a musical one. Its musicality made itself known not in performance, but in the continuing enterprise that has provided the world with numerous performers and countless popular songs. The following excerpt from a speech by the Honorable John Conyers, Jr., of Michigan, to the U.S. House of Representatives on April 19, 1971, ably reflects the familial nature of the Motown enterprise, as well as Gordy’s sense of social responsibility.
“Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago a Detroit assemblyline worker, who had formerly been a prizefighter, saved $800 and started his own business. Like so many before him, he had ideas of what he could do and
For the Record…
Born November 28, 1929, in Detroit, MI; son of Berry, Sr. (owner of a plastering and carpentry service, a general store, and a printing business), and Bertha Gordy; married Thelma Coleman, 1953 (divorced, 1959); married Raynoma Liles (divorced, 1962); children: (first marriage) Hazel Joy, Berry IV, Terry; (second marriage) Kerry (son); Kennedy (son; with Margaret Norton).
Worked on an automobile assembly line and as a prizefighter c. early 1950s. Owned record store c. 1955. Cowrote songs, 1957—, including “Reet Petite,” 1957, “To Be Loved” and “Lonely Teardrops,” both 1958, “That’s Why” and “I’ll Be Satisfied,” both 1959, “Money (That’s What I Want),” 1960, “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” and “The Love You Save”; independent producer, 1958, and music publisher, 1958—. Founded Motown Record Corporation (later Motown Industries) in 1959; resigned as president of Motown Record Corporation, founded and assumed leadership of Motown Industries, 1973; sold Motown Records to MCA Inc. for $61 million, 1988; director of the Gordy Company (comprised of the Motown Industries publishing division—Jobete Music Co. and Stone Mountain Music—and film and television divisions), 1988—. Producer and coeditor of feature films, including Lady Sings the Blues, 1972. Director of feature films, including Mahogany, 1975, and The Last Dragon, 1985. Military service: U.S. Army c. 1951-1953.
Awards: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1988.
Addresses: Office— The Gordy Company, 6255 Sunset Blvd., 18th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90028.
wanted to try them in a business of his own. His name was Berry Gordy, Jr., and the company he created was the Motown Record Corp. Starting from their own home, the Gordy family has built Motown into the largest independent record firm in the world, and the only major black company in the entertainment business. Berry Gordy realizes that even in America factory workers cannot all become successful businessmen. Therefore, he believes that it is essential that each and every young person receive the maximum education possible. He knows that education is the passport to the future and that tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. One of the many ways Gordy puts his belief to work is through the Sterling Ball, a benefit which directly provides assistance in the form of scholarships to inner city high school graduates who wish to continue their education but are financially unable to do so. This annual charitable event has, to date, helped scores of young men and women, black and white, reach an otherwise impossible goal—a college education. The benefit was originally conceived by Mr. Gordy and his sister, Mrs. Esther Edwards, vice president in the corporation, as a continuing and meaningful memorial to their late sister, Mrs. Loucye Gordy Wakefield, who had been the first vice president of Motown and a personal inspiration to all who knew her.”
Women in High Places
Gordy’s family supported his efforts to establish his own business from the start, with a 1959 loan of $800. Once the company was launched various family members played key roles in its continuing operations. While Gordy’s brothers—Fuller, Robert, and George—participated in the Motown enterprise, it was his sisters who provided most of the help in the company’s operations. Gordy believed in women as executives. His second wife, Raynoma, was an early vice-president, as was Janie Bradford, with whom Gordy cowrote the 1960 hit “Money (That’s What I Want).” Later, Motown Productions—the film, television, and video arms of the corporation—would be skillfully guided by Suzanne De Passe. As Smokey Robinson wrote in his autobiography, “Berry was big on letting people prove themselves, based on skill, not sex or color.”
In 1951 Gordy was drafted into the army, where he received his high school equivalency diploma. In 1953, no longer in the service, he married Thelma Coleman; a daughter, Hazel Joy, was born the following year. The couple would have two more children, Berry IV and Terry, before divorcing in 1959. While working on an auto assembly line, Gordy started a jazz-oriented record store—the 3-D Record Mart—around 1955, but it soon folded. Like Motown, it was financed largely by his family. At the time, Gordy was writing songs constantly, submitting them to magazines and contests. His big break came in 1957, when future soul star Jackie Wilson recorded “Reet Petite,” which was written by Gordy, his sister Gwen, and Tyran Carlo. Jackie Wilson had just signed with the Brunswick label in 1956 and “Reet Petite” turned out to be his first hit. Gordy’s team wrote four more hits for Wilson over the next two years: “To Be Loved” and “Lonely Teardrops” in 1958, and “That’s Why” and “I’ll Be Satisfied” in 1959.
Smokey Robinson a Key “Discovery”
In 1957 Gordy “discovered” Smokey Robinson, who would later become a rhythm and blues superstar. Gordy had just written “Lonely Teardrops” when Robinson and his group—then the Matadors—auditioned for Jackie Wilson’s representatives. Present at the audition were Nat Tarnapol, owner of Brunswick Records and Wilson’s manager, and Alonzo Tucker, generally described as “Jackie’s music man.” Gordy was also present, though he made it clear to Robinson that he did not work for Jackie Wilson. According to Robinson’s oft-repeated account, Tucker rejected the Matadors for being too much like the Platters, another popular group of the time. Gordy, however, appeared very interested in the group, apparently because of their original material. He introduced himself as a songwriter, and Robinson noted in his book Smokey: Inside My Life that Gordy looked young for his age: “This boyish face hid the fact that he was 11 years older than me.” Robinson also credited Gordy with having more songwriting savvy at that time than he did. He went on to report that Gordy expressed his views on songwriting after complimenting him on his rhymes, saying, “Songs are more than rhymes. Songs need a beginning, middle, and end. Like a story.” It was the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship. Gordy is often credited with a discerning eye for talent, of which his discovery of Smokey Robinson is a prime example.
By 1958 Gordy was active as an independent producer, forming the nucleus of what would become Motown Records. He recorded, and leased recordings of, the Miracles, Marv Johnson, and Eddie Holland for the nationally distributed labels Chess, United Artists, and End. The same year he established Jobete to publish his songs. Jobete was named for Gordy’s first three children, Hazel Joy, Berry IV, and Terry.
Moving toward becoming a full-fledged entrepreneur, Gordy was motivated by a number of factors. Certainly, his family background contributed to and supported his ambition. By then his friend, Robinson urged him to take control of his operations, especially in light of the pitifully small royalty checks he was receiving from the national labels. As a songwriter Gordy had to split his royalties with the music publisher; his way around this was to form his own publishing company, which was valued at nearly $100 million 30 years later. Finally, it was widely known that Gordy did not particularly like the way his songs were being produced at Brunswick. To move forward, he needed to take control and form his own corporation.
Company’s Beginnings Were Modest
According to Robinson, Motown began with six employees who had been operating in 1958 out of an apartment on Gladstone in Detroit. In addition to Gordy and Robinson, they included Liles—not yet Gordy’s wife at the time—Bradford, Robert Bateman, and Brian Holland. Holland and Bateman were a songwriting-production duo that evolved a few years later into the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland team, when Brian’s brother Eddie returned to Motown after his contract with United Artists expired.
In 1959 Motown released its first single on the newly formed Tamla label. The name “Tamla” is a variation on “Tammy,” a popular song of the period sung by Debbie Reynolds. The Motown label was activated in 1960, and the company’s third major label, Gordy, debuted in April of 1962. While the Motown sound had its roots in urban rhythm and blues, it was Gordy’s plan to appeal to young people of all races with a kind of music that would retain some of its origins while adding other ingredients. Motown’s early advertising slogan, “The Sound of Young America,” reflected Gordy’s desire for Motown’s music to achieve widespread popularity. The company landed its first number one pop hit in 1961 with the Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman.”
Crossover Dreams Realized
As late as 1962 Motown’s releases were still appealing primarily to black audiences, as evidenced by their success on the rhythm and blues charts. That year the company placed 11 singles on the R & B Top 10. The company’s strategy, as mapped out by Gordy, was to “cross over” to the white record-buying public. In fact, four singles managed to reach the Top 10 on the pop charts in 1962. The next year Motown placed six more singles on the pop Top 10, with Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips, Part 2” becoming its second number one pop hit.
1964 proved a watershed year for Motown. Four of the company’s five top-10 pop hits went to Number One: “My Guy,” “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” and “Come See about Me.” The other song, “Dancing in the Street,” went to Number Two. Most importantly, Motown had hit on a winning combination with the Supremes singing songs written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland. The next year, five Motown releases reached Number One. Reflecting the company’s success, Gordy purchased the Gordy Manor in Detroit.
Gordy’s strategy for producing hits was paying off. While Gordy himself was a talented songwriter and hands-on producer, these strengths alone were not enough to make Motown a success. Rather, it was Gordy’s ability to surround himself with talented people that made Motown a force in the music business. Motown’s greatest songwriters and producers—Smokey Robinson, Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland—were complemented by a stable of other gifted writers and producers, all competing within the Motown system to produce hits. Often likened to an assembly line, Motown was indeed a music factory that was able to churn out hit after hit.
Gordy Looked Beyond Records
As Motown’s popularity in the mid-1960s insured the company’s success, Gordy began to move the company forward by pursuing other entertainment opportunities. As early as 1966 Motown established a West Coast office for expansion into movie production, to secure film roles for Motown stars, and to encourage the use of Motown songs in film soundtracks. Motown also announced its interest in becoming a “Broadway angel,” a financial backer for Broadway plays. By 1968 Gordy had purchased a home in Los Angeles and moved there. During the next few years Motown established additional offices on the West Coast; the move from Detroit was finalized in 1972. For some within the company the move was an unpopular decision; for others, it opened up new opportunities. By that time Gordy had purchased comic Red Skelton’s Bel Air estate and was living there.
The end of the 1960s brought a talented new group to Motown—the Jackson 5. Discovered by Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers and introduced to the public by former Supreme Diana Ross, the Jackson 5 hailed from Gary, Indiana. The group, and especially youngest member Michael, enjoyed close ties to Gordy, who often let the entire family stay at his home in California. Gordy headed a songwriting and production team within Motown—called the Corporation—that wrote and produced several chart-topping hits for the Jackson 5, including “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” and “The Love You Save.” Michael Jackson was quoted in The Motown Album as saying, “Berry was my teacher and a great one. He told me exactly what he wanted and how he wanted me to help him get it. Berry insisted on perfection and attention to detail. I’ll never forget his persistence. This was his genius.”
Diana Ross Helped Launch Motown Industries
In 1973 Gordy resigned as president of Motown Records to assume leadership of the new Motown entertainment conglomerate, Motown Industries, which included record, motion picture, television, and publishing divisions. His primary star was Diana Ross, whom Gordy began grooming for television and motion pictures as early as 1968, when she was featured with the Supremes and the Temptations on Motown’s first television special, “T.C.B.: Taking Care of Business.” A second special with the Supremes and Temptations followed in 1969. Ross starred in her first solo television special, “Diana,” in 1971. It was widely rumored that Gordy and Ross enjoyed a special personal relationship prior to Ross’s 1971 marriage to Robert Silberstein.
Gordy was involved as more than producer in Ross’s first film role: singer Billie Holiday in the 1972 Paramount release, Lady Sings the Blues. Motown invested heavily in the film and by most accounts Gordy spent a great deal of time personally editing it. It was a promising start for Motown’s film ventures; Ross received an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Her second film, 1975’s Mahogany, marked Gordy’s debut as a film director. It was followed by The Wiz, a 1978 Universal/Motown musical version of The Wizard of Oz that garnered largely negative reviews and did poorly at the box office. Motown would not enter the motion picture business again until Gordy’s 1985 effort, The Last Dragon, an entertaining kung-fu musical that fared respectably well at the box office.
“Motown 25” Broke New Ground
Motown scored well in television with the NBC-TV special “Motown 25—Yesterday, Today, and Forever,” which aired in 1983. Edited to a two-hour television special from a four-hour live performance, the show was a tribute to the genius of Berry Gordy. Among the highlights were reunions of the Jackson 5, the Miracles, and the Supremes, and solo performances by Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye. The show garnered nine Emmy nominations for Motown; but perhaps more significantly, it was the most-watched variety special in the history of television.
Motown followed its anniversary special with the 1985 broadcast “Motown Returns to the Apollo.” The show coincided with the reopening of the newly restored Apollo Theater in Harlem, marking its fiftieth anniversary. The special won an Emmy for best variety, music, or comedy program. Following the formula for success that Gordy implemented as far back as 1960—to reach as wide an audience as possible—Motown has made a number of its productions available for the home video market, including specials featuring Marvin Gaye and the Temptations.
Many books have been written by and about Motown’s stars—Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, the Supremes, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson—telling the story of Motown from several perspectives. Perhaps the final word will come from Mr. Chairman himself as Berry Gordy prepares his own autobiography for imminent publication. Through records, movies, videos, and now books, the heritage of Motown—and of the visionary behind it—will be preserved for and appreciated by future generations intrigued by the house that Gordy built.
Sources
Books
Benjaminson, Peter, The Story of Motown, Grove, 1979.
Bianco, David, Heat Wave: The Motown Fact Book, Pierian, 1988.
Fong-Torres, Ben, The Motown Album, St. Martin’s, 1990.
Hirshey, Gerri, Nowhere to Run, Times Books, 1984.
Robinson, Smokey, with David Ritz, Smokey: Inside My Life, McGraw, 1989.
Singleton, Raynoma Gordy, with Bryan Brown and Mim Eichler, Berry, Me, and Motown: The Untold Story, Contemporary Books, 1990.
Taraborrelli, J. Randy, Motown: Hot Wax, City Cool & Solid Gold, Doubleday, 1986.
Waller, Don, The Motown Story, Scribner, 1985.
Periodicals
Detroit Free Press, May 15, 1983.
Rolling Stone, August 23, 1990.
—David Bianco
Gordy, Berry Jr.
Gordy, Berry Jr.
Gordy, Berry Jr., founder and visionary behind Motown Records; b. Detroit, Nov. 28, 1929. Berry Gordy Jr., dropped out of high school to become a featherweight boxer. Upon his discharge from the Army in 1953, he set up a record store that soon went bankrupt. Subsequently working on a Ford Motor Company assembly line, Gordy began writing songs during the mid-1950s. His first song sale, to Decca, was “Reet Petite/7 Jackie Wilson’s first, albeit minor, pop hit in 1957. Gordy’s earliest major songwriting success came with “Lonely Teardrops,” a top rhythm-and-blues and smash pop hit for Wilson in 1958. Gordy formed Jobete Music in 1958 and began producing records for Eddie Holland and Marv Johnson, who scored a smash R&B and pop hit with Gordy’s “You Got What It Takes” in 1959.
Encouraged by songwriter friend William “Smokey” Robinson, Gordy borrowed money from his family to found Tammie Records, soon changed to Tamla Records. The label’s first significant success occurred as distributor of Barrett Strong’s “Money,” on his sister’s Anna label. Later in 1960, “Shop Around,” cowritten by Gordy and Robinson, became Tamla’s first smash hit for Robinson’s Miracles, establishing the label as an important independent. Eddie Holland’s brother Brian subsequently collaborated on early hits by the Marvelettes, as Robinson worked with Mary Wells for a series of hits in 1962 on the newly formed Motown label. Before year’s end, the Contours hit with the raucous “Do You Love Me,” written by Gordy, on yet another label, Gordy.
As the Motown family of labels developed local Detroit talent, Brian and Eddie Holland teamed with songwriter Lamont Dozier in 1963 to create a distinctive pop sound of widespread appeal. Initially working with the rough- sounding Martha and the Vandellas, Holland-Dozier-Holland (H-D-H) achieved massive songwriting and production success with the Supremes from 1964 to 1967. The team also wrote and produced major hits for Marvin Gaye and the Four Tops. In the meantime, Smokey Robinson was writing hits for Mary Wells, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and his own Miracles.
Recognized by 1964 as the largest independent record company through its success in the singles market, Motown diversified into an entertainment complex. The Jobete Music Company handled song publishing and copyrighting, while Hitsville, U.S.A. controlled the company’s recording studios and International Talent Management trained artists in matters of deportment. Gordy’s unprecedented concern with career management, coupled with the rigorous discipline imposed on artists, alienated some of his acts and led to the company’s first defection in 1964 by Mary Wells. Nonetheless, Motown became respectable as acts originally aimed at teen audiences were groomed for the adult pop market. Thus, acts were introduced into the American supper club circuit and prime-time television while the company was establishing itself internationally.
During 1967, to create a higher degree of visibility for several of its singers, Motown renamed three of its acts: the Supremes became Diana Ross and the Supremes; the Miracles, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles; and Martha and the Vandellas, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Later Motown experimented with psychedelic soul for the Temptations under producersongwriter Norman Whitfield. The team of Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson also provided hits to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and to Diana Ross’s solo career.
Suffering the departure of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team in 1967, Gordy concentrated on the career of Diana Ross as a solo act beginning in 1970. Maintaining the company’s success with the astounding popularity of the teen-oriented Jackson Five, Gordy moved the operation to Hollywood in 1971 and established Motown Industries, expanding his activities to a Broadway musical and films. Bolstered by the success of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder as album- oriented singer-songwriters, Motown was nonetheless challenged in the pop and soul fields by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International label by 1973, particularly by the O’Jays.
During the first half of the 1970s, Diana Ross was established as Motown’s first all-around entertainer through her work in supper clubs and films, particularly with 1972’s Lady Sings the Blues. Other films, including Mahogany and The Wiz, proved flops between 1975 and 1978. Moreover, Motown suffered a series of defections in the 1970s. Martha Reeves began recording solo for other labels in 1974 and the Four Tops switched to ABC/Dunhill. Gladys Knight and the Pips recorded for Buddah beginning in 1974 and, in 1975, the Jackson Five moved to Epic, as did Michael Jackson in 1978. The Miracles (without Smokey Robinson) switched to Columbia in 1977 and the Temptations went to Atlantic. Nonetheless, Motown maintained its position as an important independent label with the recordings of Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Commodores, and Rick James.
During the 1980s, Motown struggled to retain its prominence in popular music. Diana Ross moved to RCA in 1981 and Marvin Gaye signed with Columbia in 1982. The Temptations returned in 1980 and the Four Tops were back in the mid-1980s, later switching to Arista. The Gordy label introduced the popular De-Barge family in 1983. The company staged a successful 25th anniversary celebration in 1983, later broadcast on ABC-TV, and Motown Productions produced Lonesome Dove, one of the highest-rated mini-series of the decade, for CBS television in 1989. However, many former employees, including Eddie Holland and members of the Vandellas and Marvelettes, sued Motown, alleging failure to pay royalties.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, Gordy sold Motown Records to MCA and Boston Ventures in July for $61 million. Boston Ventures later bought out MCA’s interest and sold Motown Records to the Dutch-based Polygram conglomerate for $325 mil-lion in August 1993. In late 1994, Warner Books published Gordy’s self-serving biography To Be Loved.
Bibliography
David Morse, Motown and the Arrival of Black Music (N.Y., 1971); Peter Benjaminson, The Story of Motown (N.Y., 1979); Don Waller, The Motown Story (N.Y, 1985); Nelson George, Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound (N.Y., 1986); J. Randy Taraborrelli, Motown: Hot Wax, City Cool and Solid Gold (Garden City, N.Y, 1986); David Bianco, Heat Wave: The Motown Fact Book (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1988); Sharon Davis, Motown: The History (Enfield, Middlesex, 1988); Ben Fong-Torres, The Motown Album: The Sound of Young America(N.Y, 1990); Raymona Gordy Singleton, Berry, Me and Motown: The Untold Story (Chicago, 1990); Berry Gordy, To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown: An Autobiography (N.Y. 1994).
—Brock Helander