1. Motown

2. Detroit, Michigan in the 1950’s was the home of the booming American automobile industry.
Post-WWII prosperity meant more Americans were owning cars than ever before.
Jobs were plentiful, especially for black workers.
The entire culture was based around mass production.

3. Founded by Berry Gordy Born 1929 Detroit Michigan.
Older siblings were prominent members of black society.
Berry dropped out of high school to become a boxer.
Drafted into the Army in 1950.

4. Berry Gordy
After returning from Korea in 1953, opened a record store selling jazz records.
Didn’t do so well, took a job at Lincoln-Mercury.
Wrote some modest hits for Jackie Wilson and Etta James.

5. Berry turned his talents to producing.
In 1957 discovered “The Miracles” featuring Smokey Robinson.
At Smokey’s urging, Berry borrowed $800 from his family to finance his dream of launching his own label.

6. Berry Gordy launched his new label as Tamla Records.
His first two records by Marv Johnson were picked up for distribution by United Artists Records.
Released his third recording on the short lived Rayber Records.
Tamla’s first hit was “Shop Around” by the Miracles (#1 R&B, #2 Hot 100)

7. The first Motown release was “Bad Girl” by the Miracles.
Most recordings were being released locally on Motown and Tamla and nationally on major labels such as Chess.
Motown and Tamla were merged as The Motown Record Corporation.
Smokey Robinson was named Vice President of the new company in 1961.

8. Hitsville, USA
In 1959, as Tamla records was taking off, Berry Gordy purchased a house at 2648 West Grand Blvd.
Named “Hitsville, USA” the house would serve as Motown’s principle studio and business office throughout the 1960’s.

9. Hitsville, USA
Berry Gordy lived on the second floor of the house. The first floor was the administrative offices and the tape library.
The basement housed Motown’s legendary recording studio - The Snake Pit.
The facility was open for business 22 hours a day, closed from AM for maintenance.

10. Berry Gordy was very active in songwriting and production, especially in the early years.
He demanded that every record be musically simple but with a groove that was polished to perfection.
Case study: “Money”
Case Study: “Shop Around”
Case study: “Do You Love Me”

11. Production Method
Berry Gordy based the production process on what he learned at Lincoln-Mercury.
Create, Make, Sell.

12. Create
Gordy kept songwriters and producers on staff - sometimes they were the same people (such as Smokey).
Each producer was responsible for taking music from the songwriters, teaching it to an artist, and scheduling a session.

13. Create
Sometimes producers would only be able to book their sessions when top acts were on the road.
The band would be recorded to one two track of the two track tape, vocals were added when the artist returned.
Other times, the song was given to a different artist.

14. Create The process of scheduling studio time was very competitive.
Each session was one three hour block of time and was expected to produce three to four songs.
All the producers were trying to book the studio when the top musicians were on their shifts.

15. The Funk Brothers
Motown’s A-list band, The Funk Brothers, would have at least two and as many as four three hour sessions per day.
They recorded so many songs so quickly they often didn’t know when they were hearing themselves on the radio.

16. James Jamerson
Arguably the most important component to The Motown Sound.

17. Benny Benjamin

18. Richard “Pistol” Allen

19. Uriel Jones

20. Earl Van Dyke

21. Joe Hunter

22. Robert White, Joe Messina, and Eddie Willis

23. Quality Control
Berry Gordy developed his quality control methods from what he learned at Lincoln-Mercury.
QC specialist would listen to every song recorded on a tiny speaker meant to resemble a car radio.

24. Quality Control
If QC rejected the mix, it went back to the studio for more work.
If it passed, it would be submitted for review at the legendary Friday Morning Evaluation Meeting.

25. Quality Control
Friday Morning Evaluation Meeting was held every Friday at 9:05 AM.
Anyone was welcome to attend, but at precisely 9:05 the door was locked.

26. Quality Control
Each record was listened to and everyone in attendance would vote on whether it should be released or not.
Berry Gordy could overrule the vote but rarely did.
“If you were hungry and down to your last dollar, would you buy this record or a hot dog?”

27. Quality Control
If two producers both won a vote with the same artist, the producer who had the most recent hit with the artist would get his song released.

28. In 1963, Smokey Robinson produced the Temptations’ first national hit “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” (#11 Pop)
Another producer, Norman Whitfield, beat Smokey in Friday Morning Meeting with “Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue).”

29. In 1964 Smokey won the Temptations back at another meeting with “My Girl” (#1 Pop).
But for the next two years, none of Smokey’s Temptations recordings cracked the Top Ten.
Berry Gordy watched the charts closely and was not satisfied with anything that fell too far from #1.

30. In 1966 Whitfield brought the Temptations in to record “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”
“Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” went head to head with Smokey’s “Get Ready” at Friday Morning Meeting.
The result was a tie an “Get Ready” was released.
Whitfield was crushed.

31. “Get Ready” hit #1 on R&B but only #29 on Pop and was out of the Top 40 in only 3 weeks.
“Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” was released as an emergency follow-up.
#1 on R&B for 8 weeks, #13 on Pop.
The Temptations were Norman Whitfield’s once again - for the next 8 years!

32. Norman Whitfield would go through another such battle in 1967.
Marvin Gaye hadn’t had a top ten hit in three years.
His last was How Sweet It Is (#6) in 1964 by the legendary songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland.

33. Whitfield came to Friday Morning Meeting with a new recording, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.”
However, Holland-Dozier-Holland also came with a song, “Your Unchanging Love.”
“Grapevine” won the vote, but Berry Gordy vetoed the vote and went with his premier songwriting team, H-D- H.

34. A few months later, Whitfield came back to the meeting with a new version of “Grapevine” by Gladys Knight and The Pips.
Up tempo, in the style of Aretha Franklin.
Result: #2 Pop, #1 R&B.

35. Whitfield confronted Gordy about including the original recording of “Grapevine” on Marvin Gaye’s new album.
Gordy agreed but said the song would not be released as a single.

36. When the album came out, DJ’s recognized the title and started playing the track on the air.
Received a huge response.
Gordy finally released Marvin Gaye’s version of “Grapevine” 13 months after Gladys Knight’s version.
Result: #1 on Pop AND R&B, Motown’s biggest selling single for years to come.

37. By 1966, Motown owned seven houses in the West Grand Blvd Neighborhood, hired over 450 employees, and had a gross income of $20 million.
From 1961 to 1971, Motown produced 110 Top 10 hits.