This is a list of songs written by Berry Gordy , in most cases with other songwriters.
Year | Song [1] | Original artist [1] | Co-writer(s) with Gordy [1] | U.S. Pop [2] | U.S. R&B [3] | UK Singles Chart [4] | Other charting versions, and notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1957 | "Reet Petite" | Jackie Wilson | Tyran Carlo | 62 | - | 6 | 1979: Darts, #51 UK 1986: Jackie Wilson, #1 UK (reissue) |
1958 | "To Be Loved'" | Jackie Wilson | Gwen Gordy , Tyran Carlo | 22 | 7 | 23 | 1958: Malcolm Vaughan, #14 UK 1979: Michael Henderson, #62 R&B |
"We Have Love" | Jackie Wilson | Tyran Carlo, George Gordy | 93 | - | - | ||
"It's So Fine" | LaVern Baker | Tyran Carlo | - | 24 | - | ||
"Lonely Teardrops" | Jackie Wilson | Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo | 7 | 1 | - | 1971: Brian Hyland, #54 pop 1976: Narvel Felts, #62 pop | |
1959 | "Just for Your Love" | The Falcons | Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo | - | 26 | - | |
"Come to Me" | Marv Johnson | Marv Johnson | 30 | 6 | - | ||
"That's Why (I Love You So)" | Jackie Wilson | Tyran Carlo | 13 | 2 | - | ||
"I'll Be Satisfied" | Jackie Wilson | Tyran Carlo | 20 | 6 | - | 1982: Shakin' Stevens, #10 UK | |
"Bad Girl" | The Miracles | Smokey Robinson | 93 | - | - | ||
"You Got What It Takes" | Marv Johnson | Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo, Marv Johnson | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1960: Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, #25 UK 1965: Joe Tex, #51 pop, #10 R&B 1966: The Dave Clark Five, #7 pop, #28 UK 1977: Showaddywaddy, #2 UK | |
1960 | "Money (That's What I Want)" | Barrett Strong | Janie Bradford | 23 | 2 | - | 1962: Jennell Hawkins, #17 R&B 1963: Bern Elliott and the Fenmen, #14 UK 1964: The Kingsmen (live), #16 pop, #6 R&B 1966: Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, #52 pop, #35 R&B 1979: The Flying Lizards, #50 pop, #5 UK 1994: The Backbeat Band, #48 UK |
"I Love the Way You Love" | Marv Johnson | "Mikaljon"(Mike Ossman, Al Abrams, John O'Den) | 9 | 2 | 35 | ||
"All I Could Do Was Cry" | Etta James | Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo | 33 | 2 | - | ||
"Ain't Gonna Be That Way" | Marv Johnson | Marv Johnson | 74 | - | 50 | ||
"All the Love I Got" | Marv Johnson | Brian Holland , Janie Bradford | 63 | - | - | ||
"Who's the Fool" | Singin' Sammy Ward | Smokey Robinson | - | 23 | - | ||
"(You've Got to) Move Two Mountains" | Marv Johnson | 20 | 12 | - | |||
"Happy Days" | Marv Johnson | Toni McKnight | 58 | 7 | - | ||
"Shop Around" | The Miracles | Smokey Robinson | 2 | 1 | - | 1976: Captain & Tennille, #4 pop | |
1961 | "Don't Let Him Shop Around" | Debbie Dean | Smokey Robinson, Loucye Gordy Wakefield | 92 | - | - | |
"Merry-Go-Round" | Marv Johnson | 61 | 26 | - | |||
"Ain't It Baby" | The Miracles | Smokey Robinson | 49 | 15 | - | ||
"Broken Hearted" | The Miracles | Smokey Robinson | 97 | - | - | ||
"I Don't Want to Take a Chance" | Mary Wells | William "Mickey" Stevenson | 33 | 9 | - | ||
1962 | "Dream Come True " | The Temptations | - | 22 | - | ||
"Do You Love Me" | The Contours | 3 | 1 | - | 1963: Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, #1 UK 1963: The Dave Clark Five, #30 UK 1970: Deep Feeling, #34 UK 1984: Andy Fraser, #82 pop 1988: The Contours, #11 pop (reissue) 1995: Duke Baysee, #46 UK | ||
"Way Over There" | The Miracles | Smokey Robinson | 94 | - | - | ||
"Let Me Go the Right Way" | The Supremes | 90 | 26 | - | |||
"Shake Sherry" | The Contours | 43 | 21 | - | |||
1963 | "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" | Mary Wells | Smokey Robinson | 100 | - | - | |
"Don't Let Her Be Your Baby" | The Contours | 64 | - | - | |||
"My Daddy Knows Best " | The Marvelettes | 67 | - | - | |||
1964 | "Try It Baby" | Marvin Gaye | 15 | 6 | - | ||
1967 | "You've Made Me So Very Happy" | Brenda Holloway | Brenda Holloway , Patrice Holloway , Frank Wilson | 39 | 40 | - | 1969: Blood, Sweat & Tears, #2 pop, #46 R&B, #35 UK 1970: Lou Rawls, #95 pop, #32 R&B |
1969 | "I'm Livin' in Shame" | Diana Ross & the Supremes | Pam Sawyer , R. Dean Taylor , Frank Wilson, Henry Cosby | 10 | 8 | 14 | |
"No Matter What Sign You Are" | Diana Ross & the Supremes | Henry Cosby | 31 | 17 | 37 | 1983: Russell Grant, #87 UK | |
"I Want You Back" | The Jackson 5 | The Corporation (Gordy, Freddie Perren, Deke Richards, Fonce Mizell) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1988: The Jackson 5, #8 UK (remix) 1998: Cleopatra, #4 UK 2007: The Jackson 5, #53 UK (reissue) 2009: The Jackson 5, #43 UK (reissue) | |
1970 | "ABC" | The Jackson 5 | The Corporation | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2009: The Jackson 5, #50 UK (reissue) 2011: The Glee Cast, #88 pop |
"One More Chance" | The Jackson 5 | The Corporation | - | - | - | 1997: One, #31 UK | |
"The Love You Save" | The Jackson 5 | The Corporation | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
"I'll Be There" | The Jackson 5 | Bob West , Hal Davis , Willie Hutch | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1992: Mariah Carey (live), #1 pop, #11 R&B, #2 UK 2009: The Jackson 5, #49 UK (reissue) | |
"Give Love on Christmas Day" | The Jackson 5 | Freddie Perren, Christine Perren , Fonce Mizell, Deke Richards | - | - | - | 1998: Johnny Gill, #71 R&B | |
1971 | "Mama's Pearl" | The Jackson 5 | The Corporation | 2 | 2 | 25 | |
"Maybe Tomorrow" | The Jackson 5 | The Corporation | 20 | 3 | - | 1987: UB40, #14 UK | |
"Bless You" | Martha Reeves and the Vandellas | The Corporation | 53 | 29 | 33 | ||
"Sugar Daddy" | The Jackson 5 | The Corporation | 10 | 3 | - | ||
1972 | "(We've Got a) Good Thing Going" | Michael Jackson | The Corporation | - | - | - | 1981: Sugar Minott, #4 UK 1996: Yazz, #53 UK 2000: Sid Owen, #14 UK |
1973 | "Get It Together" | The Jackson 5 | Hal Davis, Don Fletcher , Jerry Marcellino , Mel Larson | 28 | 2 | - | |
1980 | "Power" | The Temptations | Angelo Bond , Jean Mayer | 43 | 11 | - | |
1997 | "All I Want" | 702 | The Corporation, Charles Farrar , Troy Taylor | 35 | 33 | - | |
The Elgins were an American vocal group on the Motown label, active from the late 1950s to 1967. Their most successful record was "Heaven Must Have Sent You", written and produced by the Holland–Dozier–Holland team, which was a hit in the US in 1966, and in the UK when reissued in 1971.
"Get Ready" is a Motown song written by Smokey Robinson, which resulted in two hit records for the label: a U.S. No. 29 version by The Temptations in 1966, and a U.S. No. 4 version by Rare Earth in 1970. It is significant for being the last song Robinson wrote and produced for the Temptations, due to a deal Berry Gordy made with Norman Whitfield, that if "Get Ready" did not meet with the expected degree of success, then Whitfield's song, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", would get the next release, which resulted in Whitfield more or less replacing Robinson as the group's producer.
"Money " is a rhythm and blues song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, which was the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959 as a single for the Tamla label, distributed nationally on Anna Records. Many artists later recorded the tune, including the Beatles in 1963 and the Flying Lizards in 1979.
"I Can't Help Myself " is a 1965 hit song recorded by the Four Tops for the Motown label.
"Stubborn Kind of Fellow" is a 1962 song recorded by Marvin Gaye for the Tamla label. Co-written by Gaye and produced by William "Mickey" Stevenson, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" became Gaye's first hit single, reaching the top 10 of the R&B chart and the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1962.
"Sugar Daddy" is a hit single by the Motown quintet The Jackson 5, released in late 1971.
"Shop Around" is a song originally recorded by the Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla subsidiary label. It was written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy. It became a smash hit in 1960 when originally recorded by the Miracles, reaching number one on the Billboard R&B chart, number one on the Cashbox Top 100 Pop Chart, and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was the Miracles' first million-selling hit record, and the first-million-selling hit for the Motown Record Corporation. This landmark single was a multiple award winner for the Miracles, having been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006, inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of The 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, and honored by Rolling Stone as #500 in their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Beauty Is Only Skin Deep" is a 1964 song, written by Norman Whitfield and Edward Holland, Jr., and produced by Whitfield. Norman Whitfield recorded the song's instrumental track. Two years later, Whitfield got together with Eddie Holland to have lyrics written for the song.
"Do You Love Me" is a rhythm and blues song recorded by the Contours in 1962. Written and produced by Motown Records owner Berry Gordy Jr., it appeared twice on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching numbers three in 1962 and eleven in 1988.
Robert Louis Gordy is an American music publishing executive and a former recording artist under the stage name Bob Kayli. He is the youngest child of Berry Gordy Sr. and Bertha Fuller, the brother of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. and uncle of singer/rapper Redfoo.
"Beechwood 4-5789" is a song written by Marvin Gaye, William "Mickey" Stevenson and George Gordy. It was a 1962 hit single for the Motown girl group The Marvelettes on Motown's Tamla subsidiary record label. The song became a hit again when it was covered by the pop duo The Carpenters in 1982.
"Forever Came Today" is a 1967 song written and produced by the Motown collective of Holland–Dozier–Holland, and was first made into a hit as a single for Diana Ross & the Supremes in early 1968. A disco version of the song was released as a single seven years later by Motown group the Jackson 5.
"I Don't Want to Take a Chance" is a single released by Mary Wells in 1961 on the Motown label. It was the second single release from Wells, who hit the charts with her Jackie Wilson-esque "Bye Bye Baby".
"You've Made Me So Very Happy" is a song written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Berry Gordy, and was released first as a single in 1967 by Brenda Holloway on the Tamla label. The song was later a huge hit for jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1969, and became a Gold record.
"All I Could Do Was Cry" is a doo-wop/rhythm and blues single recorded in 1960, and released in March that year by the singer Etta James. It was written for James by Chess songwriter Billy Davis, Berry Gordy and his sister Gwen Gordy. The song eventually peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard R&B chart and number 33 on the pop chart. James would later re-record the song in the early 1990s.
"With You I'm Born Again" is a 1979 duet written by Carol Connors and David Shire that originated on the soundtrack of the 1979 motion picture Fast Break. It was performed by Motown recording artists Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright and became an international hit for the duo, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK singles chart.
"Heaven Must Have Sent You" is a song written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland when at Motown, and first recorded by The Elgins in 1966. It was also a 1979 disco hit single by Bonnie Pointer.
"Get It Together" is a song written by Hal Davis, Don Fletcher, Berry Gordy, Mel Larson, and Jerry Marcellino, and sung by The Jackson 5 in 1973. It is the title track from their album, Get It Together.
"Standing on the Top" is a funk song recorded by the Motown group The Temptations, written and produced by musician Rick James.