Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7,1958,and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14,1960. Its name,a portmanteau of motor and town,has become a nickname for Detroit,where the label was originally headquartered.
Berry Gordy III,known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr.,is an American retired record executive,record producer,songwriter,film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries,which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
Mary Esther Wells was an American singer,who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s.
Motown 25:Yesterday,Today,Forever is a 1983 television special,produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records,to commemorate Motown's 25th year. The program was taped before a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena,California on March 25,1983,and broadcast on NBC on May 16. Among its highlights were Michael Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean",Smokey Robinson's reunion with the Miracles,a Temptations / Four Tops "battle of the bands",Marvin Gaye's inspired speech about black music history and his memorable performance of "What's Going On",a Jackson 5 reunion,and an abbreviated reunion of Diana Ross &the Supremes,who performed their final #1 hit,"Someday We'll Be Together" from 1969. The show was co-written by de Passe with Ruth Adkins Robinson who would go on to write shows with de Passe for the next 25 years,including the follow-up label tributes—through "Motown 40",Buz Kohan was the head writer.
Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 is the debut studio album from Gary,Indiana-based soul family band the Jackson 5,released on the Motown label on December 12,1969. The Jackson 5's lead singer,a preadolescent Michael Jackson and his four older brothers Jackie,Tito,Jermaine,and Marlon,became pop successes within months of this album's release. Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5's only single,"I Want You Back",became a number-one hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 within weeks of the album's release. The album reached number 5 on the US Pop Albums chart,and spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the US R&B/Black Albums chart.
Ronald Anthony White was an American baritone singer,best known as the co-founder of The Miracles and its only consistent original member. White was also known for bringing Stevie Wonder to the attention of Motown Records,and writing several hit singles for the Miracles as well as other artists including The Temptations,Marvin Gaye,and Mary Wells. White died of leukemia in 1995,at 56 years old. In 2012,White was a posthumous inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Miracles.
Diana &Marvin is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye,released October 26,1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood,California. Gaye and Ross were widely recognized at the time as two of the top pop music performers.
Diana Ross &the Supremes Join the Temptations is,as the title implies,a collaborative album combining Motown's two best selling groups,Diana Ross &the Supremes and the Temptations. Issued by Motown in late 1968 to coincide with the broadcast of the Supremes/Temptations TCB television special,the album was a success,reaching #2 on the Billboard 200. Diana Ross &the Supremes Join the Temptations spent four weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Love Child is the fifteenth studio album released by Diana Ross &the Supremes for the Motown label in 1968. The LP was the group's first studio LP not to include any songs written or produced by any member of the Holland–Dozier–Holland production team,who had previously overseen most of the Supremes' releases.
In Loving Memory is a gospel compilation released by Motown Records in September 1968. It is dedicated to the memory of Motown founder Berry Gordy's sister,Mrs. Loucye S. Gordy Wakefield,and features several popular Motown acts,including Diana Ross &the Supremes,The Temptations,The Miracles and Marvin Gaye,performing versions of popular gospel songs and spirituals.
Blue,originally titled The Blue Album,is a studio album by American singer Diana Ross. Initially recorded between late 1971 and early 1972,it was released as Ross' twenty-third studio album by Motown Records on June 20,2006. Overseen by Ross' musical director Gil Askey,the jazz-flavoured album was originally conceived as a follow-up to her soundtrack to the 1972 American biographical drama film Lady Sings the Blues in which Ross starred. Berry Gordy and Motown subsequently decided to shelve the album,and Ross' next release was the more pop-oriented Touch Me in the Morning (1973) album.
Pamela Joan Sawyer is a British songwriter/lyricist,who started writing songs in the mid-1960s and whose credits as a co-writer at Motown included "Love Child","If I Were Your Woman","My Whole World Ended ",and "Love Hangover".
What Love Has...Joined Together is a 1970 album by R&B group Smokey Robinson &The Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla label. A concept album consisting solely of six short love songs,it charted at number 97 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart,and reached the Top 10 of Billboard's R&B album chart,peaking at number 9. It was the first Miracles album to have no new songs;the recordings are all cover versions of songs written by noted composers,such as Stevie Wonder,Berry Gordy,Frank Wilson,Brenda Holloway and her sister Patrice Holloway,Burt Bacharach and Hal David,Marvin Gaye,The Beatles' John Lennon &Paul McCartney,,and Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers.
The Gordys are an African-American family of businesspeople and music industry executives. They were born to Georgia-reared parents Berry "Pops" Gordy Sr. and Bertha Fuller Gordy and raised in Detroit,where most of the siblings played a pivotal role in the international acceptance of rhythm and blues music as a crossover phenomenon in the 1960s. The accomplishment is attributable to the creation of Motown,a company founded by the seventh-oldest sibling,Berry Gordy Jr.
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.
Paul Riser is an American trombonist and Motown musical arranger who was responsible for co-writing and arranging dozens of top ten hit records. His legacy as one of the "Funk Brothers" is similar to that of most of the other "Brothers",as his career has been overlooked and overshadowed by the stars of Motown that became household names. Some of the Funk Brothers he worked with include:Earl Van Dyke,Johnny Griffith,Robert White,Eddie Willis,Joe Messina,Dennis Coffey,Wah Wah Watson,James Jamerson,Bob Babbitt,Eddie Watkins,Richard "Pistol" Allen,Uriel Jones,Andrew Smith,Jack Ashford,Valerie Simpson,Eddie "Bongo" Brown,Benny Benjamin,Cornelius Grant,Joe Hunter,Richard "Popcorn" Wylie,Marcus Belgrave,Teddy Buckner and Stevie Wonder.
Motown:The Musical is a jukebox musical that premiered on Broadway in April 2013. The musical is based on Berry Gordy's autobiography To Be Loved:The Music,the Magic,the Memories of Motown (1994),and on the history of his founding and running of the Motown record label,and his personal and professional relationships with Motown artists such as Diana Ross,Smokey Robinson,Marvin Gaye,and Michael Jackson. The production's music and lyrics are taken from selections from the Motown catalog. It received four nominations at the 67th Tony Awards.
Anna Ruby Gaye was an American businesswoman,composer and songwriter. An elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy,she became a record executive in the mid-to-late 1950s distributing records released on Checker and Gone Records before forming the Anna label with Billy Davis and her sister Gwen Gordy Fuqua. Gordy later became known as a songwriter for several hits including the Originals' "Baby,I'm for Real",and at least two songs on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album. The first wife of Gaye,their turbulent marriage later served as inspiration for Gaye's 15th studio album,Here,My Dear.
Marilyn McLeod was an American songwriter and occasional singer. McLeod began her career as a songwriter for Motown. Together with Pam Sawyer,she wrote the 1976 Diana Ross hit "Love Hangover".
