Stevland Hardaway Morris, known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder.
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and renamed as Motown Record Corporation a little over a year later on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, Michigan where the label was founded and originally headquartered.
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
Syreeta Wright, who recorded professionally under the mononym Syreeta, was an American singer-songwriter, best known for her music during the early 1970s through the early 1980s. Wright's career heights were songs in collaboration with her ex-husband Stevie Wonder and musical artist Billy Preston.
Hotter than July is the nineteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, and musician Stevie Wonder, released on September 29, 1980, by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. Wonder primarily recorded the album in Los Angeles at Wonderland Studios, which he had recently acquired. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 3, 1981. It was Wonder's most successful album in the UK, where it peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and produced four top ten singles. Music videos were produced for the album's first, third, and fourth singles.
G.I.T.: Get It Together is the eighth studio album by the Jackson 5, released on September 21, 1973 for the Motown label. The album featured the minor hit "Get It Together" and the original version of the subsequent major hit "Dancing Machine", which was later re-released in edited form on a tie-in album of the same name.
The Jackson 5 in Japan, also known as In Japan!, is the first live album released by the Jackson 5, culled from a live concert held in Osaka, Japan at the Kōsei Nenkin Hall on April 30, 1973. It was initially released in Japan on October 31, 1973, and was later released in the United Kingdom in 1988 as Michael Jackson with the Jackson 5 Live. Motown did not release the album in the United States until a limited-edition version was released in 2004, via specialty reissue label Hip-O Select. A quadrophonic mix was released in Japan in 1975, marking an early release of the band's material in surround sound. The album sold over a million copies worldwide.
Moving Violation is the tenth studio album by the Jackson 5 and their final studio album on Motown Records, released on May 15, 1975. Aiming at the developing disco market, the group's funk-based version of Diana Ross & the Supremes' 1968 single "Forever Came Today" was a club hit, while the single's B-side, the R&B ballad "All I Do Is Think of You", became a popular and frequently covered song in its own right.
Harold Edward Davis was an American songwriter and record producer. Davis was a producer and writer for Motown Records for nearly thirty years, and was a key figure in the latter part of the Motown career of The Jackson 5.
Up-Tight is a 1966 album by American singer Stevie Wonder, released by Motown on the Tamla label. It was his fifth studio release.
Conversation Peace is the 22nd album released by American musician Stevie Wonder, on the Motown label in 1995. The album was Wonder's first full-length non-soundtrack studio album since 1987's Characters. This album yielded the hits "For Your Love" and the reggae-flavored "Tomorrow Robins Will Sing". This album also saw Wonder reuniting with Robert Margouleff, who assisted during Wonder's "classic period" from 1972 to 1974.
Where There's Smoke... is a 1979 album by Smokey Robinson, released on Motown Records' Tamla label. It contains his Billboard Top ten pop hit single "Cruisin'".
High Energy is the twenty-eighth studio album by American girl group the Supremes, released in 1976 on the Motown label. The album is the first to feature Susaye Greene; former member of Stevie Wonder's Wonderlove; and is notable for featuring the last Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 pop hit for the group, "I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking". Of their 1970s releases, High Energy is the second-highest charting album on the US Billboard 200, the first being Right On (1970). In Canada, High Energy is the highest-charting Supremes album since TCB (1968).
The Supremes is the twenty-seventh studio album by The Supremes, released in 1975 on Motown Records.
Mary, Scherrie & Susaye is the twenty-ninth and final studio album by The Supremes, released in 1976 on the Motown label. It featured the final line-up for the Supremes, composed of original Supreme Mary Wilson and latter-day members Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene. All three Supremes take leads on the album. The album was a mixture of disco dance tracks (Hi-NRG) and R&B ballads. Payne and Greene mostly took over the dance tracks while Wilson performed the ballads. The album was released in October 1976, nine months before the trio disbanded.
Anthology, also known as Anthology: The Best of The Supremes, first released in May 1974, is a series of same or similarly titled compilation albums by The Supremes. Motown released revised versions in 1986, 1995 and 2001. In its initial version, a 35-track triple record collection of hits and rare material, the album charted at No. 24 on Billboard's "Black Albums" and No. 66 on "Pop Albums".
Motown Chartbusters is a series of compilation albums first released by EMI under licence on the Tamla Motown label in Britain. In total, 12 editions were released in the UK between 1967 and 1982. Volumes 1 and 2 were originally called British Motown Chartbusters; after this the title Motown Chartbusters was used.
The Michael Jackson Mix is a compilation album by American singer and recording artist Michael Jackson, released in 1987. Available as a double LP, double cassette and double CD, the album contains 40 songs from Jackson's Motown career – solo and with The Jackson 5 – edited together in four separate megamixes: "Love Mix 1" and "Love Mix 2" on the first LP, cassette and CD, and "Dance Mix 1" and "Dance Mix 2" on the second LP, cassette and CD.
Bare Back is a 1978 studio album from American soul group the Temptations. This was the second of two albums they recorded for Atlantic Records after temporarily leaving Motown after being with the label since 1961 and the last with vocalist Louis Price, as Dennis Edwards would return to the group when they re-signed with Motown in 1980.
Three Ounces of Love is the sole studio album by American girl group Three Ounces of Love, released on Motown in 1978. Though the group had some successful singles and plans for a follow-up album, this was their only one.
