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 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.
Holland–Dozier–Holland was a songwriting and production team consisting of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. The trio wrote, arranged and produced many songs that helped define the Motown sound in the 1960s. During their tenure at Motown Records from 1962 to 1967, Dozier and Brian Holland were the composers and producers for each song, and Eddie Holland wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocals. Their most celebrated productions were singles for the Four Tops and the Supremes, including 10 of the Supremes' 12 US No. 1 singles, including "Baby Love", "Stop! In the Name of Love", and "You Keep Me Hangin' On".
Kennedy William Gordy, better known by his stage name Rockwell, is an American singer. He is best known for his hit 1984 single "Somebody's Watching Me", which features Michael Jackson on chorus vocals. Gordy is the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy. Other relatives include half-siblings Redfoo, Rhonda Ross Kendrick and half-nephew Sky Blu.
"Somebody's Watching Me" is a song recorded and written by American singer Rockwell, released by the Motown label in December 1983, as the lead single from his debut studio album of the same name. It features guest vocals by Michael Jackson and Jermaine Jackson and Norman Dozier. The song became a major commercial success internationally, topping the charts in Belgium, France, and Spain, and reaching the top 5 in Canada, West Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. In the UK, it reached No. 6 and is Rockwell's only top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart. Rolling Stone magazine called the song "an international and enduring smash hit that, more than 30 years later, remains the perennial paranoia-rock anthem and Halloween mix go-to song."
"I Can't Help Myself" is a 1965 song recorded by the Four Tops for the Motown label.
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.
In Our Lifetime? is the sixteenth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released January 15, 1981, on Motown label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin's Room in Los Angeles, California, Seawest Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at Odyssey Studios in London, England, throughout 1979 and 1980. The album cover was designed by Neil Breeden. Gaye's final album for Motown before leaving for Columbia Records, the album was the follow-up to the commercial failure of Here, My Dear, a double album which chronicled the singer's divorce from Anna Gordy. Entirely written, produced, arranged, and mixed by Gaye, In Our Lifetime? was a departure for Gaye from the disco stylings of his previous two studio efforts and was seen as one of the best albums of the singer's late-Motown period.
Marvin Gaye at the Copa is a live album recorded at the exclusive New York club, the Copacabana, where singer Marvin Gaye performed in August 1966, over a year following The Supremes' 1965 performance there. Marvin was only one of just a few R&B musicians after Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson to perform at the club where performers such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra had performed at regularly. Marvin was the next act from Berry Gordy's fabled Motown label after the Supremes to perform at the nightclub and would be followed by The Temptations in 1968 and Martha and the Vandellas that same year. According to the liner notes later on, Marvin's performance there was a success, however, an ongoing feud between Gaye and his brother-in-law, Motown recording boss Gordy, was said to have been one of the reasons why the album was eventually shelved with the duo fighting over how the album was to be produced. The album had been scheduled for release in January 1967 as Tamla 273 before its permanent shelving. In 2005, Hip-O Select Records, a Motown-associated label created to re-release or release unreleased material from Motown's vaults re-mastered sessions from this album and released it that year.
More Hits by The Supremes is the sixth studio album by Motown singing group the Supremes, released in 1965. The album includes two number-one hits: "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "Back in My Arms Again", as well as the Top 20 single "Nothing but Heartaches".
Meet the Supremes is the debut studio album by The Supremes, released in late 1962 on Motown.
The Supremes at the Copa is a live album by Motown singing group the Supremes, recorded during their debut engagement at the prestigious Copacabana nightclub in New York City. Released in the late fall of 1965, At the Copa was the first live album issued by the Supremes, and the only live album issued by the group's best-known lineup of Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson.
An Evening with Diana Ross is a 1977 live double album released by American singer Diana Ross on the Motown label. It was recorded live at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in December 1976 during the international tour of Ross' one-woman show, for which she was awarded a special Tony Award after the show's run at Broadway's Palace Theater, followed by an Emmy-nominated TV special of the same name. It marked the first time in history a solo female headlined a 90-minute TV special. The album reached #29 in the USA . The album showcased her live performances for the second time as a solo performer, following 1974's Live At Caesars Palace. It was the last live album Ross released until 1989's Greatest Hits Live.
"I Like It" is a R&B/Soul song by American family band DeBarge. Released on August 20, 1982 by Motown Records (Gordy), it was the second single from their second studio album, All This Love (1982).
All This Love is the second studio album by DeBarge, released by Gordy Records on July 22, 1982.
Kerry Ashby Gordy is a career music executive, and fourth eldest child of the founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy. Kerry is the chief executive officer of Kerry Gordy & Associates, Inc. LLC, KGIP Inc., and NuVintage, LLC., intellectual property and branding companies focused on entertainment.
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 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..
Raynoma Mayberry Liles Gordy Singleton was an American R&B producer, songwriter, and vocalist perhaps best known for her association with ex-husband, Berry Gordy during the early days of Motown when she was often known as Miss Ray.
Captured is the 1985 studio album follow-up to singer-songwriter Rockwell's gold album, Somebody's Watching Me. Despite featuring one single featuring Stevie Wonder and another appearing on the soundtrack of The Last Dragon, it was a commercial and critical disappointment.
"Obscene Phone Caller" is a song recorded by American singer Rockwell, released by the Motown label in 1984, as the second single from his debut studio album Somebody's Watching Me.
