100 Fun Facts About Motown

Motown began operating on January 12, 1959 under which label name?

Tamla was a second choice: Gordy wanted to call the label Tammy, after the Debbie Reynolds hit, but found that the name was already taken.

How much did Berry Gordy borrow from his family's savings fund to start the label that became Motown?

$800 came from the Ber-Berry Co-op, the Gordy family's shared savings fund, and covered his side of the deal to release Marv Johnson's Come to Me.

Hitsville U.S.A., the house Gordy bought in 1959, sits at number 2648 on which Detroit street?

West Grand Boulevard turned into a Motown campus, as the growing company took over a row of neighbouring houses on the street for its offices.

What was the Hitsville building used for before Gordy bought it in 1959?

A photographers' studio at the back of the house was converted into the recording room, while Gordy moved his family into the flat upstairs.

Under which slogan did Motown market its acts during the 1960s?

The Sound of Young America pitched the records at every teenager rather than one market, and the label's acts duly won Black and white audiences alike.

Which Barrett Strong single, later covered by the Beatles, gave Berry Gordy's company its first hit?

Money (That's What I Want), credited to Gordy and Janie Bradford, reached the national charts only once it was leased to a label with nationwide distribution.

Before music, what did the future Motown founder do professionally after dropping out of high school?

Boxer was the plan when Gordy quit school in the eleventh grade, and he fought professionally for a few years before trying record retail, a car plant and songwriting.

What kind of music did Berry Gordy's failed 1950s Detroit record shop specialise in?

Jazz was Gordy's own passion, and he stocked it over what his customers actually asked for, so the 3-D Record Mart soon went bankrupt.

Before starting his label, Berry Gordy co-wrote 'Reet Petite' and 'Lonely Teardrops' for which singer?

Jackie Wilson had the hits, but Gordy saw how little the writer earned beside the record company, which pushed him to produce and own records himself.

On which day of the week did Motown hold its weekly quality-control meetings?

Friday morning was judgment day: staff voted on the week's recordings, but Gordy kept a veto and sometimes overruled a song that had won the vote.

Who taught Motown's artists grooming, poise and social graces at the label's in-house finishing school?

Maxine Powell said her aim was to make the young Detroit singers fit to perform for kings and queens, so she drilled them to walk, talk and carry themselves like royalty.

Motown's Studio A at Hitsville, where the house band cut the hits, went by which nickname?

The Snake Pit hardly ever rested, with the house players backing the label's singers down there at nearly all hours of the day and night.

Which group of Detroit session musicians backed most Motown records from 1959 to 1972?

The Funk Brothers stayed all but unknown to the public until a 2002 documentary, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, finally put the players in the spotlight.

How did Motown session bassist James Jamerson famously pluck the strings of his bass?

Only his index finger did the plucking, a habit carried over from his years on upright bass, and the hard-working digit earned a nickname of its own: The Hook.

Motown's studio musicians went uncredited on records until which 1971 Marvin Gaye album?

What's Going On put that right: Gaye had the players' names printed on the cover, the first public credit for a band that had powered the label's hits since 1959.

The first Motortown Revue live album was recorded during a December 1962 week-long stand at which venue?

The early package tours mostly worked the 'Chitlin' Circuit', and in the South audiences were sometimes split by a police-guarded rope.

Which 1961 Marvelettes single was the first Motown record to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Please Mr. Postman had a working postman, Freddie Gorman, among its writers, and a 22-year-old Marvin Gaye, still a jobbing session hand, on drums.

Which 1960 Miracles single became Motown's first million-selling record?

Shop Around was remade at about 3 a.m. because Gordy wanted a faster, poppier take, and he played the piano part on the hit version himself.

Which 1970 record was the Miracles' only Hot 100 No. 1 during Smokey Robinson's years with the group?

The Tears of a Clown began as a Stevie Wonder instrumental and sat on a 1967 album for three years, until Motown's UK office picked it out as a single.

What executive title did Smokey Robinson hold at Motown from the early 1960s until after the 1988 sale?

Vice president was a working job, not an honour: when Robinson left the Miracles he came off the road to concentrate on his executive duties at the label.

Whose 1964 hit 'My Guy', written by Smokey Robinson, was her only Hot 100 No. 1?

Mary Wells walked away at her peak: she turned 21 as the record topped the chart, quit Motown for a rival label, and never had a hit on that scale again.

Under what name did the Supremes form in Detroit in 1959?

The Primettes were put together as a sister act to the Primes, a male group whose singers Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams later went into the Temptations.

The original Supremes all grew up in which Detroit public housing project?

Brewster-Douglass made neighbours of the future stars: Mary Wilson was living there when she befriended Florence Ballard at a school talent show, and Diana Ross spent her teens in the same projects.

Which 1964 single gave the Supremes their first Hot 100 No. 1?

Where Did Our Love Go had been turned down by the Marvelettes, and the trio, known around the office as the no-hit Supremes, disliked it too before it topped the chart.

Which songwriting and production team was behind most of the Supremes' Hot 100 No. 1 singles?

Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1968 in a dispute over royalties, set up their own Invictus and Hot Wax labels, and spent years fighting the company in court.

Which 1965 single written by Smokey Robinson and Ronnie White was the Temptations' first No. 1 pop hit?

My Girl was meant for Robinson's own group, the Miracles, until the Temptations heard it and talked him into letting them record it instead.

Which Temptations record won Motown its very first Grammy Award?

Cloud Nine swapped the group's smooth soul for wah-wah guitars in the style of Sly and the Family Stone, a sound producer Norman Whitfield had at first dismissed as a passing fancy.

Which Temptations lead singer was formally fired by the other four members in June 1968?

David Ruffin had wanted the act rebilled with his own name out front, and when he skipped a show in Cleveland the other four handed him his walking papers.

As of 2024, which co-founder of the Temptations was the only surviving original member?

Otis Williams turned the group's story into its own afterlife: his 1988 memoir Temptations became a TV miniseries and then the Broadway musical Ain't Too Proud.

The Four Tops started out in Detroit in the 1950s under what original name?

The Four Aims became the Four Tops in 1956 to avoid being mistaken for the Ames Brothers, and the same four men then sang together for over forty years.

Which 1966 Four Tops single hit No. 1 on both the US pop and R&B charts?

Reach Out I'll Be There left the Tops themselves unconvinced at first, yet it became their signature song and only the second Motown single to top the UK chart.

Which sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy did Marvin Gaye marry in 1963?

Anna Gordy's marriage to Gaye ended in a divorce he turned into a record: his 1978 double album Here, My Dear chronicles the break-up from his side.

Whose 1967 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' hit No. 2, a year before Marvin Gaye's version?

Gladys Knight & the Pips were not first to the song: the Miracles had cut it a year earlier, but that take was shelved, so theirs came out first and topped the R&B chart.

Which live 1963 single gave Little Stevie Wonder his first Hot 100 No. 1?

Fingertips caught a real scramble on tape: Wonder came back for an unplanned encore while the next act's band was setting up, and a bassist can be heard shouting "What key?"

What did Stevie Wonder win from Motown in the new deal he signed after turning 21 in 1971?

Full creative control paid off at once: writing, playing and producing for himself, he went on to make Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life.

Before fronting the Vandellas, Martha Reeves worked at Motown in what job?

A&R secretary was an accident: she turned up for an audition without an appointment, was told to mind the phones for department head Mickey Stevenson, and stayed on at the desk.

The Jackson 5 formed in 1964 in which city?

The brothers from Gary, Indiana, reached Motown through Bobby Taylor of the Vancouvers, though the label's publicity handed the discovery to Diana Ross.

Gordy created which in-house songwriting and producing team to write exclusively for the Jackson 5?

The Corporation was a deliberately faceless credit: Gordy wanted no more back-room superstars, so the four writers, himself included, never saw their own names on the records.

Which Jackson brother stayed at Motown in 1975 after marrying Hazel Gordy, the founder's daughter?

Jermaine stayed loyal to his father-in-law's label when his father steered the other brothers to Epic, and in 1980 it paid off with Let's Get Serious, a Top 10 hit Stevie Wonder co-wrote and produced.

To which city did Motown move its headquarters from Detroit in 1972?

Los Angeles put Gordy beside the film business he wanted into: he moved west to launch a screen career for Diana Ross, and the company grew into film and television.

Which 1972 Motown Productions film earned Diana Ross a Best Actress Oscar nomination?

Lady Sings the Blues cast Ross as Billie Holiday in Gordy's bid to make her a film star, and the bet paid off: the picture drew five Oscar nominations.

Which entertainment company bought Motown Records from founder Berry Gordy in 1988?

MCA and its partner Boston Ventures paid $61 million for the record label alone: Gordy kept the Jobete song-publishing catalogue and his film division for himself.

Which music group absorbed the Motown label after PolyGram's 1998 sale to Seagram?

Universal Music Group was the record business Seagram already owned, so buying PolyGram let it fold the two together, and Motown came along with the rest of PolyGram's labels.

Which 1985 Commodores single, a tribute to two soul singers who died in 1984, won the group its first Grammy?

Nightshift came after Lionel Richie had left: drummer Walter Orange co-wrote it and sang lead, and it brought the Grammy that none of the Richie-era hits had won.

On the 1983 TV special 'Motown 25', Michael Jackson debuted the moonwalk while performing which song?

Billie Jean, then a new single from Thriller, followed a reunion medley with his brothers, and he slipped into the backwards glide during the song's instrumental break.

Who sang with Marvin Gaye on the 1967 duet "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"?

Tammi Terrell sang her part alone, with Gaye's voice dubbed on afterwards; that October she collapsed into his arms on stage and was later diagnosed with a fatal brain tumour.

Who preserved the Hitsville building and founded the Motown Museum there in 1985?

Esther Gordy Edwards stayed behind to run the Detroit office when the label went west, and the fans who kept knocking to peek at Studio A convinced her the old house was history worth saving.

What did Michael Jackson donate to the Motown Museum in October 1988, along with $125,000?

A fedora and a white glove came with the cheque; the glove was stolen from the museum in 1991 and recovered two days later.

Which singer took "War" to No. 1 in 1970 after Motown held back the Temptations' original as an album track?

Edwin Starr got the song because Motown feared for the Temptations' image: students were asking for a single, so the label had it re-recorded with a singer who had less to lose.

'Motown: The Musical' is based on which 1994 autobiography by Berry Gordy?

To Be Loved shares its title with a hit Gordy co-wrote in his days as a jobbing songwriter, before he founded the label whose story the memoir tells.

Which claymation characters sang Motown's 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' in 1980s TV adverts?

The California Raisins grew out of a 1986 commercial and became stars themselves: their own version of the song reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988.

Which Hollywood dance legend phoned Michael Jackson the day after Motown 25 aired to praise him?

Fred Astaire was Jackson's childhood idol, which made the call sweeter than the ratings: the special drew an estimated 47 million viewers.

Before founding Motown, Berry Gordy worked on the assembly line of which carmaker?

Ford gave Gordy a foundry job before moving him to its Lincoln-Mercury line, and Motown's own way of turning out hits was later described as factory-like.

Which Grammy winner thanked Stevie Wonder in 1976 for not making an album that year?

Paul Simon had reason to joke: Wonder had won Album of the Year with his two previous releases and won it again with his next, Songs in the Key of Life.

Which Stevie Wonder song was written to campaign for a US holiday honouring Martin Luther King Jr.?

Happy Birthday became the campaign's anthem, and Wonder kept pressing with a 1981 rally until Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in November 1983.

In Motown's film The Wiz, Diana Ross played Dorothy and Michael Jackson played which character?

The Scarecrow in this version is stuffed with garbage and teased by crows; the head of Motown Productions thought Jackson perfect for the part.

Michael Jackson's first solo No. 1, Motown's 'Ben', was the theme to a film about which animal?

A rat named Ben befriends a lonely boy in the 1972 film, the sequel to the killer-rodent horror Willard, yet the tender theme earned an Oscar nomination.

Which Motown star's 1981 hit 'Super Freak' was sampled by MC Hammer for 'U Can't Touch This'?

Rick James recorded it with his labelmates the Temptations on backing vocals; their bass singer, Melvin Franklin, was one of his idols.

Which two stars' Live Aid cover of Motown's 'Dancing in the Street' topped the UK chart?

David Bowie and Mick Jagger first planned to perform it live across the Atlantic, one in London and one in Philadelphia, until a satellite delay ruled that out.

Which 1987 film put the Contours' 1962 Motown hit 'Do You Love Me' back in the US Top 20?

Dirty Dancing gave the song a second life, lifting it to No. 11 in 1988; Berry Gordy had written it for the Temptations, who had no Top 40 hits to their name yet.

The record label name Motown is a blend of which two words, a nod to Detroit's car industry?

Motor and town make Motown, and the blend travelled back home: the label's name has itself become a nickname for Detroit, centre of the American car industry.

Which singer wrote the 1981 duet 'Endless Love' and sang it with Diana Ross?

Lionel Richie wrote it for a Brooke Shields film of the same name; it was his first single outside the Commodores and it stayed at No. 1 for nine weeks.

Which Motown vocal group's 1992 ballad 'End of the Road' spent a then-record 13 weeks at No. 1?

Boyz II Men held the top spot for 13 weeks, a record that 'I Will Always Love You' broke later that year, and they then matched the new mark in 1994.

Which Broadway musical, filmed in 2006 with Beyoncé, follows a trio widely likened to the Supremes?

Dreamgirls follows a trio called the Dreams, and its creators publicly denied any link, denials widely believed to have been made to avoid lawsuits.

Which British singer scored his first UK No. 1 with a cover of the Supremes' 'You Can't Hurry Love'?

Phil Collins took it to the top in January 1983, two places higher than the original had managed in Britain, and it gave him a first US Top 10 hit too.

In which city was the Motown 25 TV special taped before a live audience on March 25, 1983?

Pasadena Civic Auditorium hosted the taping, and viewers waited almost two months to see what the audience there had seen: the broadcast came on May 16.

Which English new wave singer, a guest with no ties to the label, sang a Supremes hit on Motown 25?

Adam Ant was one of the few outsiders on the bill, paying homage to the Supremes in a number with Diana Ross herself, while Linda Ronstadt sang with Smokey Robinson.

Which instrument, heard on his teenage Motown hits, is Stevie Wonder known for besides keyboards?

Harmonica solos fill a whole instrumental album he made in 1968 under the name Eivets Rednow, which is Stevie Wonder spelled backward.

Before stardom, Marvin Gaye played which instrument on sessions for the Miracles and Marvelettes?

Drums paid Gaye's way in 1961 at just $5 a week, and he later sat behind the kit on Martha and the Vandellas' 'Dancing in the Street', which he also co-wrote.

Which 1969 single was the Jackson 5's first release on Motown and their first No. 1 hit?

I Want You Back reached the top in January 1970, weeks after the five performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show, and was the only single from their debut album.

Stevie Wonder wrote 'Superstition' for which English guitarist, then beat him to a Motown release?

Jeff Beck came up with the opening beat and was promised the song, but Berry Gordy predicted a huge hit and Wonder's single came out months earlier.

Which Stevie Wonder song about his newborn daughter Aisha opens with a recording of a baby's cry?

Isn't She Lovely runs over six minutes, and Wonder refused to shorten it to fit a 45, so the song was never released as a commercial single.

Stevie Wonder's 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' won an Oscar after featuring in which 1984 film?

The Woman in Red gave Wonder a worldwide smash: the song topped the charts in both America and Britain and added a Golden Globe to its Academy Award.

Which Four Tops lead singer voiced the alien plant Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors?

Levi Stubbs turned down several offers of a solo career out of loyalty to his bandmates, and he refused separate billing on the group's records.

Which singer left Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles in 1967 to become one of the Supremes?

Cindy Birdsong first sang with the trio at a Hollywood Bowl benefit in April 1967, only for her old act's lawyers to file an injunction against Berry Gordy.

Which Diana Ross & the Supremes single was the final Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 of the 1960s?

Someday We'll Be Together was billed as the trio's farewell with Ross, yet it was cut as her first solo single and the other two Supremes are absent from the recording.

Which label did the Jackson 5 join after leaving Motown, becoming the Jacksons as they signed?

Epic signed the family act under its new name, and youngest brother Randy stepped into the line-up for albums such as Destiny and Triumph.

At which 1983 sporting event did Marvin Gaye perform a famously soulful US national anthem?

NBA All-Star Game crowds at the Forum heard him perform over a backing tape played from the stands, a rendition later reused in a Nike commercial.

Which falsetto co-founder of the Temptations sang lead on 'Just My Imagination' and 'Get Ready'?

Eddie Kendricks left the act in 1971 and scored a solo No. 1 with 'Keep On Truckin'', though he was technically a first tenor who favoured the higher register.

Which Temptations No. 1 was first recorded by the Undisputed Truth and runs 12 minutes on the album?

Papa Was a Rollin' Stone was edited down for the single, which went on to win three Grammy Awards in 1973; the album track opens with a 3:53 instrumental introduction.

Which Supremes single was No. 1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom in autumn 1964?

Baby Love was the second of five Supremes singles in a row to top the US chart, and it made them the first Motown act with more than one American No. 1.

Which 1983 film about old college friends has Marvin Gaye and the Temptations on its soundtrack?

The Big Chill packed its soundtrack with 1960s soul, and for one scene the cast wore headphones while filming so they could keep time to a Temptations song.

Which jukebox musical about Motown's Temptations opened at Broadway's Imperial Theatre in 2019?

Ain't Too Proud began with regional productions in 2017 before reaching New York, with a book by the playwright Dominique Morisseau and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

Which rapper turned Stevie Wonder's 'Pastime Paradise' into the 1995 hit 'Gangsta's Paradise'?

Coolio's hit was in turn parodied by 'Weird Al' Yankovic as 'Amish Paradise', so one Wonder album track from 1976 lives on in two very different records.

Which instrument was the trademark of Motown's Junior Walker on 'Shotgun' and other 1960s hits?

Saxophone style anchored the bands Junior Walker played in, and in the 1980s it made him a session and touring player with the rock band Foreigner.

In which city did Diana Ross play her last show with the Supremes, at the Frontier Hotel in 1970?

Las Vegas audiences saw the final show on January 14, 1970, and a live recording of the night came out later that year as a double-LP box set titled Farewell.

Which Supremes No. 1 topped the Hot 100 again in 1987, covered by Kim Wilde?

You Keep Me Hangin' On thus became one of only six songs in the Hot 100's first 32 years to hit number one for two different acts.

Which Motown film did Berry Gordy direct himself after its British director was dismissed?

Mahogany, starring Diana Ross, lost the British filmmaker Tony Richardson partway through, and its theme song went on to top the Hot 100 in January 1976.

Which 1980 Diana Ross No. 1 for Motown was written and produced by Nile Rodgers of the band Chic?

Upside Down stayed at number one for four weeks; Rodgers later said Ross was the first big star Chic had ever worked with, so they took it very seriously.

Which Motown singer's disco cover of 'Don't Leave Me This Way' topped the Hot 100 and won a Grammy?

Thelma Houston's version outshone the 1975 original by Harold Melvin's act with Teddy Pendergrass, which had not even been released as a US single at the time.

Which Motown producer took over the Temptations from Smokey Robinson and pioneered psychedelic soul?

Norman Whitfield won the job in 1966 after one of his productions outcharted Robinson's 'Get Ready', and he later left to launch his own label, home of the hit 'Car Wash'.

Which New York nightclub hosted the Supremes' 1965 debut there, recorded for their first live album?

The Copacabana had booked few Black entertainers before them, Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke among them, and Berry Gordy saw it as a way into the conservative white mainstream.

The Commodores, later signed to Motown, met as freshmen in 1968 at which Alabama college?

Tuskegee Institute gave the band its start at a freshman talent contest, and the name Commodores came when a member flipped open a dictionary and pointed at the page.

Which British singer hosted The Sound of Motown, a 1965 British TV special starring the label's acts?

Dusty Springfield opened each half of the show alongside Martha and the Vandellas, having already recorded her own covers of the label's songs.

Which all-white rock band gave its name to the Motown imprint created for white rock acts in 1969?

Rare Earth were not the first white band Motown signed, but they were the first successful one, arriving after a failed debut album for Verve.

Which late-night radio format of slow, smooth R&B is named after a 1975 Smokey Robinson album?

Quiet storm programming was pioneered in 1976 by Melvin Lindsey, a student intern at Howard University's radio station in Washington who began as a stand-in DJ.

Which vaudeville dancer became Motown's house choreographer and devised the Temptations' moves?

Cholly Atkins called his style vocal choreography, pairing the vocals with stylish gestures and steps, and first freelanced for the Miracles in 1962.

Berry Gordy named Motown's publishing company Jobete by combining the names of which people?

Three of his children, Hazel Joy, Berry and Terry, supplied the Jo, the Be and the Te; EMI took a controlling stake in the catalogue in 1997.

Which future film comedian played guitar in the Motown band Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers?

Tommy Chong later became half of Cheech and Chong, while bandleader Bobby Taylor went on to discover and mentor the Jackson 5.

Which executive, once Berry Gordy's assistant, produced and co-wrote the Motown 25 special?

Suzanne de Passe had earlier developed the Jackson 5's wardrobe and the act they took on the road, long before she wrote and produced the anniversary show.