Berry Gordy and Motown Music
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Berry Gordy Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan on November 28, 1929. He was the seventh born out of eight siblings. His parents migrated to Detroit from Georgia during 1922. They were part of a mass exodus of African Americans who left the South in the 20s and traveled to northern cities in search of better economic futures. During that time jobs were plentiful in the factories, mainly the big four automotive plants like, Chrysler, Ford, Chevrolet, and General Motors.
Berry and Bertha Gordy would instill in Berry Jr. and his brothers and sisters a strong work ethic and a belief that anything could be achieved through persistence. His family also had deep roots in business. Berry Sr. owned a plastering and carpentry service, a general store, and a printing business. Gordys family believed in the philosophy of Booker T. Washington, which stressed economic independence for blacks. Gordy Sr. named his store after him. Berry Gordy Jr. was heavily influenced by the ambition of his father.
Like his father, he was also very determined and he tried many new ventures. Berry was an average student who earned decent grades. Despite this he decided to drop out of Northeastern High School to peruse a featherweight boxing career. He once even fought on the same card as the great Joe Louis. He had a brief but successful series of fights but decided to give up boxing in 1951. That same year he would then decide to try out the Army. He served for two years during the Korean War, there he earned his high school equivalency diploma.
After his short stint in the army, he decided to open a record store, which only sold jazz records. Berry always enjoyed listening to records in his basement and he had a great love of music. Berry always hung around Detroits popular nightspots to hear the bebop jazz sounds. He was able to see the performances of famous artists like pianist Thelonious Monk and saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker. Unfortunately, Berrys store eventually closed due to financial difficulties.
Gordy soon found himself working at Fords Mercury plant, earning $85 a week. Bored with his assembly line job, he spent all of his free time writing songs. Berry would hum melodies and make up song lyrics in his head to break the monotony of everyday work. Berry soon began to get serious about song writing and he got his big break when he won a talent contest. He wrote a song for Jackie Wilson called “Reet Petite.” It became a major R&B hit in late 1957. Gordy continued to dabble in freelance songwriting and he found success with “Lonely Teardrops,” and “To Be Loved,” which were two other hits that he wrote for Jackie Wilson. He also wrote a hit song for Barret Strong called “Money (Thats What I Want).” This gave Berry a strong reputation as an accomplished songwriter in the music world. Berry was an outstanding writer despite the fact that he was unable to read music. Gordy had no musical talent at all, as far as singing or playing music was concerned. He did however have an ability to gauge whether a song had the elements of popular appeal. He had the power to detect star quality and potential in songs and performers.
The first star that Gordy would discover would be William Smokey Robinson, a Detroit high schooler with a soothing falsetto voice and an ear for sweet lyrics. In 1957 Smokey Robinson was the lead singer of a group called the Matadors. They auditioned unsuccessfully for Jackie Wilsons manager, but Gordy who was instrumental in Wilsons earlier success happened to be present at the audition. His talent for recognizing star power came in handy because he saw something that everyone at that audition seemed to miss.
Berry persuaded Smokey and the Matadors to change their names to the Miracles and work with him. Berry Gordy began recording Robinsons group, The Miracles, for New York based End Records. They had early success with their record “Got a Job/My Momma Done Told Me.” Gordy then established Jobete Publishing company and began Motown Records. The name was derived from the city of Detroits nickname “The Motor City.” Smokey Robinson convinced Gordy to start his own recording company because although Gordy was very successful as an independent songwriter he remained on the fringes of the popular music business, making very little money. He was writing great songs, but he most of the profits were ending up in the pockets of record labels or distributors.
He rented an eight-room house on 2648 W. Grand Blvd with an $ 800 loan from his family. This two-story house would serve as both the recording studio and the administrative headquarters for Motown Records. This famous house would later be known as Hitsville USA and become a major tourist attraction in Detroit. Gordy was the CEO and president for Motown and he named Robinson as its Vice President. In 1960 Motown would release its first hit single, “Shop Around,” by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. It sold over one million copies. It was number 1 one R&B hit and it reached number 2 on the pop chart in early 1961. This was the song that introduced Motown records to the world.
Motown enjoyed its greatest success between 1965 and 1968, when it dominated the Billboard charts. By 1966, three out of every four Motown releases made the charts. Motown was responsible for launching the careers of some of pop music and R&Bs all time greatest performers. Motown had several young singing groups, including The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Marvelletts. There were great performers like Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, the Contours, Junior walker and the All-Stars, The Isley Brothers, and Gladys Knight and the Pips. Yet, despite the success of these great artists, many of whom, are household names even today, no Motown act of the 1960s matched the success of Diana Ross and the Supremes. They scored many number one hits like “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” and “Come See About Me” in 1964. In 1965 they topped the charts again with hits like “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Back in My Arms Again,” and” I Hear a Symphony”. In 1966 they had a famous hit called “You Cant Hurry Love.” They were the second most successful singing group of the decade-surpassed only by the Beatles-but they remain the most successful female singing group of all time. Diana Ross, the groups lead singer went on to have an impressive solo career and she even did a little bit of acting. She was most famous for her role in the movie “Lady sings the Blues.”
There were a lot of factors that contributed to Motown Records early success. One thing was the death