random facts about my favorite and the most important american label ever
- the first hit on the label was barrett strong’s ‘money (that’s what i want) in 1959
- now headquartered in nyc, motown Records is a subsidiary of the universal motown/universal republic group, itself a subsidiary of universal music group
- the company was founded by berry gordy who is awesome and played by the equally awesome billy dee williams in ‘the jacksons: american dream’ and ‘the temptations’
- motown used a select group of studio musicians known collectively as the funk brothers to play on all motown songs
- a good portion of motown songs’ basslines were played with one finger belonging to james jamerson
- the name motown is derived from the words ‘motor’ and ‘town’ which are names for detroit, out of which the label is based. and that my friends, is called a portmanteau.
- ‘i heard it through the grapevine’ and ‘what’s going on’ were originally rejected by berry gordy for production
- notable label songwriters once included ashford & simpson, smokey robinson, marvin gaye and stevie wonder
- berry gordy would require that artists attend artist development classes to teach them how to think, act, walk and talk like royalty. jr. walker and marvin gaye were exempt from attending classes.
- the temptations motown release ’papa was a rolling stone’ was produced by norman whitfield in 1972 and is the greatest song of all time so step off.
Yay Motown!