Motown turns 50, but the party’s far from over

By Mike Householder and Jeff Karoub

updated 11:54 a.m. ET Sept. 5, 2009

DETROIT - On Jan. 12, 1959, Elvis Presley was in the Army. The Beatles were a little-known group called The Quarrymen casting about for gigs in Liverpool. The nascent rock 'n' roll world was a few weeks away from "the day the music died" — when a single-engine plane crash claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens.

It's also the day a 29-year-old boxer, assembly line worker and songwriter named Berry Gordy Jr. used an $800 family loan to start a record company in Detroit.

Fifty years later, Motown Records Corp. and its stable of largely African-American artists have become synonymous with the musical, social and cultural fabric of America. The company spawned household names, signature grooves and anthems for the boulevard and bedroom alike that transcended geography and race.

And time.

Motown may be 50 years old, but it isn't any less relevant with current hitmakers — from Taylor Swift to Coldplay — citing the label's signature "sound" as an influence.

Would there be a Beyonce or Mariah Carey had Diana Ross, Martha Reeves and Gladys Knight not come first?

How about Kanye West and Justin Timberlake? What would have become of their musical careers had Motown not blazed a trail with the likes of Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations and The Four Tops?

Video   Motown founder on discovering Jackson June 27: Four decades ago, 10-year-old Michael Jackson was the lead singer in a struggling Jackson Five – until the brothers caught the ear, and eye, of Motown founder Berry Gordy. The music mogul joins NBC’s Lester Holt to reflect on Jackson’s discovery. Today show

"There were just so many amazing artists that came through. It was such a surge," said singer-songwriter Jewel, whose recently released collection of original lullabies includes Motown influences. "And it really informed The Beatles' melodies. So much of what pop music and popular culture became. I recommend everybody go back and look at those melodies and see where they find them today, because they're resurfacing and being remixed, basically, into new pop songs."

From its founding in 1959 to a much-debated move to Los Angeles 13 years later, what has become known as "classic Motown" created a once-in-a-lifetime sound that was local and global, black and white, gritty and gorgeous, commercial and creative, Saturday night and Sunday morning.

"I Heard it Through the Grapevine." "My Girl." "The Tears of a Clown."

Like the two-sided singles the Motown factory churned out 24 hours a day, seven days a week at Studio A inside the Hitsville, U.S.A., building at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, Motown Records in the 1960s stood out from the musical pack — and still does today — because of its ability to tune the tension between two opposing forces.

The Associated Press, on the occasion of Motown's 50th, invited both Motown greats and heavyweights from the worlds of music and beyond to discuss how the legendary Detroit musical movement's sound, style, savvy and sensuality have stood the test of time.

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Getting started
"The thing that struck me was how ferociously determined he had to be to borrow that 800 bucks and start with nothing." — Bill Clinton, former U.S. president

The tale of the $800 loan has become the stuff of legend.

Gordy worked at a Ford Motor Co. plant and wrote songs when he could, all the while dreaming of owning and running his own record company.

The loan from his family's savings club allowed him to make that happen.

He had the vision and the seed money, but next Gordy needed the talent — the singers, songwriters and musicians.

He didn't have far to look.

Detroit alone produced many of the creative wizards who gave Motown its initial burst.

Paul Sancya / AP file A gold record of Diana Ross’ “Ain't No Mountain High Enough” is shown at the Motown Museum gallery in Detroit.

Robinson and the Miracles attended high school together, while Ross and future Supremes Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard grew up in the city's housing projects.

Gordy plucked from Detroit's flourishing nightclub scene a group of supremely talented jazz musicians who would become the label's house band, the Funk Brothers. Strings, winds and brass came from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and other classical outlets.

And the prolific songwriting trio known as Holland-Dozier-Holland — Lamont Dozier and the Holland brothers, Brian and Eddie — also were local hires.

The talent was there. Now what?

Gordy sought to incorporate some of the same principles from the auto factory floor and bring them to bear in the studio on West Grand.

He wanted it to be a place where everybody had a role, but the best ideas would win.

"Berry Gordy made sure everything they put out was 100 percent fierce, 100 percent listenable," said R&B singer Patti LaBelle, who was not a Motown artist but rose alongside it in the 1960s.

"Then, you know if you ... put on a Motown record, you were going to hear something with substance."

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Musicianship and creativity
"Berry Gordy — people think of him as an entrepreneur, but he's a songwriter at heart, which makes total sense. You have a songwriter here and amazing songs. A guy has the brilliance to understand that it starts with great songs." — Anita Baker, R&B singer

Of course, it started with songs, but even that came with a competition more common to commerce than art.

Gordy knew cooperation was crucial but rivalries among singers as well as songwriting teams would be the best way to get a record out the door and onto the top of the charts.

"If (songwriter) Norman Whitfield had a No. 1 hit on The Temptations, Holland-Dozier-Holland would say, ‘Shoot, we gotta get a No. 1 with The Four Tops. Come on in here, Tops,'" recalled Abdul "Duke" Fakir, the lone surviving original member of The Four Tops, which signed with Motown in 1963 and produced 20 top 40 hits during the next decade.

"I'd say, ‘Yeah man, you'd better hurry up, man. I got a bet with The Temptations we're gonna have one in the next two weeks.' We would just push and push and push."

Fakir says there was a relentlessness on all levels of the recording process.

"Nothing was done generically. I've been to a lot of sessions outside of Motown where the session is very generic, very laid-back ... very professional, and there's no guts and blood," he said. "But here, everything was done with passion."

In 1965, during his label's ascendancy, Gordy said passion helped spur Motown to greatness.

"I talked about this one night over dinner with Smokey and Diana Ross," he told AP at the time. "We thought back about the neighborhoods we were in ... and we came up with a six-word definition: rats, roaches, struggle, talent, guts, love."

Motown left nothing to chance: A "quality control" committee met weekly to review the latest sonic offerings. Gordy was the final arbiter, but posed this question: Would you buy the record or a sandwich if you were down to your last dollar?

Don Felder, former guitarist for the Eagles and co-writer of their hit "Hotel California," says the results rarely failed.

"I don't know if anybody ever sat down and looked at the percentages of acts that Berry actually signed, recorded and released and the percentages of hits versus failures. But his track record has just been astronomical. ... He has just, in my opinion, the ears of a genius."

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