Hi, Mr McLean,
Uh, you're not joining the meeting, are you?
Um, that's what I came here for,
The door's locked at certain times,
and, you know, no one comes in,
I didn't know that,
I heard a rumor, something about locking people out,,,
Yeah, well, um,,, you know, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry I'm late,
No, but so am I, but you won't be able to stay,
I would just like to urge you that this is serious business,
because from these meetings come the records
that Motown releases to the street,
We've got to maintain our high standards,
because if the records are not created properly,
then we have a bad image out there,
Luckily, we have one record in the top ten this week,
which is always good, with Marv and Tammi's record,
-The artists that are wide open
for releases are Diana Ross and the Supremes,
which we're working on heavily,
and we have what I consider a smash on the Four Tops,
Stevie Wonder has a couple of things but he is still open,
The Temptations are still open,
They have a few things that I have heard that were cut
that I think will be extremely good,
Um, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles,
Gladys Knight and the Pips,
Edwin Starr, we're gonna release his thing,
Martha, so we're cleared up here,
we're gonna release her thing,
Jr Walker has a couple of things,
And then we have this thing on the Isley Brothers,
We will not compromise on quality,
I hear many producers talking
about they don't get releases,
First one stayed here ten years
since they don't have the proper quality
on a major artist,
they will never get a release on a major artist,
But the opportunity, as I said before, is here,
OK, ladies and gentlemen,
if there are no further comments,
then the meeting is adjourned till next week,
♪ One, two, three, four! ♪
In my mind, the Motown story begins
long before we thought it began,
♪ I never met a girl ♪
♪ Who makes me feel the way that you do ♪
♪ You're all right ♪
♪ Whenever I'm asked who makes my dreams real ♪
♪ I tell 'em you do ♪
♪ You're outta sight ♪
♪ So fee-fi-fo-fum ♪
♪ Look out, baby, cos here I come ♪
♪ And I'm bringing you a love that's true ♪
♪ So get ready ♪
♪ I'm gonna try to make love to you ♪
♪ So get ready ♪
♪ So get ready, here I come,,, ♪
I was always a hustler trying to make money,
trying to better myself,
Somehow, I was fascinated by everybody being the same,
You know, white and black,
they stub their toe, they hurt, something funny, they laugh,
I mean, it was like, to me, just almost a no-brainer,
As a kid, I would sell the Michigan Chronicle,
which was a black newspaper,
I said I can make a lot more money
if I sell it to white people, too,
One day, I decided to go downtown,
take my little black papers in the white neighborhood,
and I sold more papers than I'd ever sold before,
And I took my brother the next week,
I said, "We gonna get rich, baby!"
We went down to the white neighborhood
and we sold nothing, There was my first lesson:
You are about to witness
the very exciting story of a city and its people,
Detroit today stands at the threshold
of a bright new future,
One rich with the promise of fulfilment,
In this bustling city on the straits,
there is a resurgence of civic pride
and unfettered imagination,
The city on the straits welcomes you
to share that vision,
as it continues to plan, to build,
and yes, to dream,
Starting in the music business
was an evolution, of course,
since over a period of years, I was a shoeshine boy,
a boxer, I was writing songs,
But if I had just right away made money,
I don't know what might've happened to me,
but I kept getting knocked down,
I knew I wanted to be in music so I had this record store,
I didn't realize the customer was always right,
They'd come in and say,
"You got something by Muddy Waters or BB King?",
and I was trying to sell them jazz,
I would say, "If you want Muddy Waters,
go down to Hayes Street, They sell Muddy Waters,
I ain't got it, I ain't gonna have it,"
It's only 12 bars, 12 bar-blues, they all say the same thing,
"I love my baby but my baby don't love me,"
I mean, how many times can you say that
in how many different ways?
But the people in Detroit, working in the factories,
they wanted the blues,
and so I realized it was that simplicity in the music
that people understood and people felt good about,
I did get the blues,
but it was too late to change our business,
because I was bankrupt,
So, I had to get a real job,
and that's why I went to the Ford Motor Company
Lincoln-Mercury plant,
And when I was on the assembly line,
I started perfecting my skills of writing songs,
The factory had this assembly line,
And I would see the cars
start out with the bare minimum frame,
and go around the circle,
and different stations that put things on there,
and they would go out another door a brand-new car,
I said, "My goodness! I can do that with people,"
Of course, everybody laughed at me
and said, "That's ridiculous,
You can't take human beings and treat them like cars,"
I said, "No, everybody's gonna have their personality,
but I got this idea: one station here,
producer over here, arrangers over here,
dance instructors over here,
They go from room to room and come off a brand-new star,"
And eventually, when I felt that it was right
and my sisters promised me
that they could get my songs to Jackie Wilson,
I quit my job, and I was ready,
The factory played such an important part,
because I saw the machine and how it could work,
with the assembly-line process
that I based my company on,
There are so many unsung heroes and,,,
and people that were just part of the team,
part of the effort,
but there was nobody greater than Smokey,
who is still my best friend today,
If I were doing this, I'd call this,,,
Just forget everything else and say, "Berry and Smokey,"
You know, just, "Berry and Smokey,"
I always loved singing,
and singing seemed like my impossible dream
because of where I was growing up,
I didn't think that would be available to me,
Going back to Detroit,
getting these thoughts and memories
and reflections is just incredible, you know?
You know something else I think about?
I used to be riding with you
when they first got the record players in the car?
Yeah,
You'd be driving and ducking your head under,
"Where's that new Supremes record, man?"
"Wait a minute, I will find the record, man,
You just drive!"
Smokey Robinson was a member of a group
that was auditioning for Jackie Wilson's manager,
So, we sang for them, and they rejected us,
And I walked out in the hallway with them, and I said,
"Oh, you guys were really good,"
I said, "Oh, thank you very much, man,"
And he said, "Yeah," he said, "I'm Berry Gordy," "What?"
"The Berry Gordy who wrote Reet Petite?"
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Reet petite ♪
♪ The finest girl you ever wanna meet ♪
"You're Berry Gordy?"
I said, "Yeah, Only one I know," You know?
And then he made a mistake because he said,
"You got any more songs, man?"
And I had a loose-leaf notebook with about 100 songs in it,
And he said, "A song has gotta be like a short story,
where the beginning, the middle and the end tie in together,"
He said, "You rhyme stuff really well
but your songs are just rambling,"
Which they were, And so he started to mentor me,
♪ Walked all day till my feet were tired,,, ♪
And the first record that we ever recorded
was a song called Got a Job,
Berry would produce records
and put them with other companies,
because Berry hadn't started Motown yet,
Got a Job was in the top five of the R&B charts,
so we know that we sold some records,
When it came time to pay the royalties,
this guy sent Berry a check for $3,19,
Back in those days, they paid you if they wanted to,
If they didn't, they didn't pay you
especially if you were black,
So, Smokey said,
"If this is the kinda money you're gonna get,
you might as well be in business for yourself,
Shortly after that, he started Motown, and um,,,
the rest is history, man,
Every family needs a home,
and it was my then-assistant and future wife Raynoma
who found the two-story house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard,
And the fact that it was in the neighborhood,
It was on West Grand Boulevard at 12th Street,
You don't get more 'hood than that,
At Hitsville, everything was in-house,
the offices, the studio, the sales department,
I even lived upstairs,
And it goes back to my great-grandparents,
Berry Gordy Snr and Berth Ida Gordy,
They raised their children
in an entrepreneurial environment,
Well, the family grocery store
was named after Booker T, Washington,
who was a big advocate of self-sufficiency,
Growing up, I knew that was
a very important principle for our family,
My grandmother put together this family savings club
called the Burberry Co-op,
and essentially, it's their own
loaning institution within the family,
She was tough with money,
I mean, I begged for $1,000,
She only OK'd 800,
How tough is that?
That was the beginning of what we know as Motown today,
That was his first investment,
Yeah, this was the magic room,
And started off with one track,
Everything was on one track, Then we got two tracks,
We thought we were the most innovative people,
We could put our lead singer in there, have them separate,
Always looking for magic,
always looking for that magical sound,
Or to be with him, doing the mix,
You know, he'd mix, he'd do, like,,,
327 mixes on one tune
and use number two,
He was notorious for that,
"Berry's going to mix your tune,"
"No, no, please! Please! Don't let Berry mix the tune,"
Sometimes you have it perfect and you wanna get it better,
you wanna get it better,
"They said they want the Motown sound,"
No one could duplicate our sound,
because even I didn't think it was a good,
You know? He thought it was great,
There was arguments about that, "Man, are you kidding?
New York is sending people here to record in Detroit
thinking they'll get our sound,"
But they couldn't get our sound
because our echo chamber was the bathroom upstairs,
Exactly,
People would come off the road
and come to the studio because something was always going on,
You know, 24 hours a day, somebody would be in that studio
recording, doing something,
This is it,
I remember Shop Around,
the first million-seller for Motown,
took 20 minutes to write, Just flowed out,
I ran to Berry's office, I said, "I got it, Berry,"
He said, "Let me hear it, man," so we go down to the piano room,
♪ Just because you've become a young man now ♪
♪ Do some things that you don't understand now ♪
So, that's how it was, you know?
We put the record out,
The record's been out for about two and a half weeks,
It's doing fair, It's doing OK, It's doing pretty good,
Three o'clock in the morning, one morning, my phone rings,
Hello?
I said, "I know, I recognize your voice,"
I said, "What do you think is happening?"
I said, "I'm asleep, What's happening with you?"
I said I didn't feel right, We didn't have the magic,
He said, "I'm gonna change everything,
I'm gonna change the beat, change the sound,
I'm gonna change the feeling, I'm changing everything,"
And I said, "OK, man, that's cool,"
I said, "See you tomorrow," He said, "No, Right now,"
Three o'clock in the morning,
So, we came over here,
and everybody showed up except for the piano player,
so he played the piano himself on the record,
And Shop Around then went number one,
The first million-seller was his redo of it
after the record had been out,
Now, I want you to get ready!
♪ Just because you've become a young man now ♪
♪ There's still some things that you don't understand now ♪
♪ Before you ask some girl for her hand now ♪
♪ Keep your freedom for as long as you can now ♪
♪ My mamma told me ♪
♪ You better shop around ♪
♪ Oh yeah, you better shop around,,, ♪
That's how we did stuff,
He didn't care if it had been out for two weeks,
So what? It's not too late,
No, the masses of people haven't heard it
cos it's not really a hit right now,
♪ Before you take a girl and say "I do" now ♪
♪ Make sure she's in love with you now ♪
♪ My mamma told,,, ♪ Come on!
♪ You better shop around ♪
♪ Feel all right! Whoo! ♪
♪ Oh-oh,,, ♪
Motown was able to accomplish everything they accomplished
because they were self-sufficient,
When you can just do what you want
without somebody breathing over your neck
telling you what to do,
that's when the real magic starts to happen,
To be successful in the music business,
you gotta have hit records,
I'm a producer, writer, this, that,
but really, I feel myself as a teacher,
and so I had to find songwriters to teach,
Smokey was my first project,
Before that, I was top of the totem pole,
I was, like, the man
because I wrote the songs, I produced them,
But then Smokey, one day, he came into my office,
and he wanted me to hear a new song,
I thought it was,,,
just one of the greatest new, clever songs I'd ever known,
And this was the day I knew that he,,,
I had a little genius on my hands, you know?
♪ I will build you a castle with a tower so high ♪
♪ It reaches the moon,,, ♪
"Give your lovin', warm as mamma's oven,
and if that don't do, I'll try something new,"
And I was just blown away,
I had this wonderful feeling but also this scary feeling
that my throne is,,, Here's a guy that's,,,
writing a song that I could not ever think of,
And I was the songwriter, I was teacher,
And from that day forward,
I started slipping from my post,
because he started coming up with major hits,
I always thought maybe
I could one day, in my life, compete with him with girls,
You know?
Oh, please!
But that was out of the question,
You're hearing this story from Casanova here himself,
"You're hearing this story from Casanova himself,"
You know? I mean,,,
Exactly!
You know, Bob Dylan's called him America's greatest poet,
and he really did write poetry,
He was so honest, so straightforward,
The lyrics don't take a lot to decipher
but then you realize it took a lot of genius to write them,
At the time, Smokey was doing his thing,
singing to the women,
He created so many babies with his romance
and his feeling of that,
and,,, a lot of them were his!
My key writing team
was Smokey Robinson and Holland-Dozier-Holland,
We were not trained musicians,
You know, Brian would skip school
to come there to learn to write songs,
I had no idea about writing,
I knew that Smokey, in my opinion,
was the greatest writer ever,
OK? And I still do,
So, I took two songs of Smokey's
and I wrote all the lyrics down and I studied them,
Eddie had this idea, he said, "Look, man,
you and Brian can do the tracks and melodies
and come up with the ideas, and I'll be waiting,
You shoot them to me and I'll jump on the lyrics,
And that became Holland-Dozier-Holland,
it became a factory within a factory,
There was somebody in every corner writing a song,
And they were young,
And these guys was coming up, 17, 18, 19,
they were young, so Berry was like a coach
with a great young talented team,
everybody was trying their best,
Berry was very patient with me,
At the time, I think I was a secretary,
that was in order to justify the $30 a week I was getting,
Norman hung around here for years
before he even got the chance to get in a studio
to do any records,
Playing tambourine,
that's how he started; from the bottom,
And then, finally, he was doing that good
and he got his confidence,
And when he started producing, man, he was,,,
Incredible,
Awesome, He had electricity, magic,
And then we brought in Nick and Val,
They were a writer and producer team out of New York,
We were so excited,
Motown, we've arrived as songwriters,
This is a dream come true,
We got in a taxi, we said, "Take us to Motown,"
And we got down to the two little buildings
on West Grand Boulevard,
I said, "We want to go to the main office,"
He said, "Well, this is the only Motown I know,"
That little "Hitsville USA",
But the hits were coming out of that little building,
Norman Whitfield,
Holland-Dozier-Holland and Smokey,
they were all the greatest,
There were coming up with songs, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Because of that Motown structure,
and because of the feelings
of all the producers and the writers
and the freedom that Berry Gordy gave all of us,
it made that company extremely prolific,
Being a teacher also means finding ways
to unlock people's true potential,
And at Motown, we took that very seriously,
Berry Gordy's great ability was to be able to sense
the talent that one had,
I always felt that Marvin Gaye was so much more talented
than even he realized,
Marvin wanted to be another Frank Sinatra,
but that really wasn't his style,
But he is so good-looking,
It was a little difficult trying to sing behind him
and look at him at the same time,
He wanted to change his career many times,
One time, he wanted to be a football player,
A boxer,
You know, he wanted to be an astronaut,
You know what I'm saying?
"Marvin, you know, you're a singer,"
You know, I started Motown as a jazz singer,
I couldn't sell a bean,
I was sitting at the piano one night in a depressed mood,
So, anyway, Berry blasé'd in,
So, he stopped me, he said, "What are you doing?"
I said, "A song I'm writing,"
It was a jazz version, I would say, um,,,
I said, "Oh, well, you know,,,"
Berry could sense what needed to happen to make it pop,
And I'm not saying pop meaning pop music,
but I'm saying to make it have that thing,
So, anyway, Berry said,,,
I said, "Oh, man!"
So, he said,,, So, I said,,,
He said right here, a group could say,,,
They finished it up and I said, "They'll never sell a thing,"
And as it turned out, it was a great big smash,
♪ Oooh-ooh ♪
♪ Hey, baby ♪
♪ I try to put my arms around you ♪
♪ All because I wanna ♪
♪ Hold you tight ♪
♪ Every time I reach for you, baby ♪
♪ Try to kiss you ♪
♪ You jump out of sight ♪
♪ Out of sight ♪
♪ Hey, now, I've got news for you ♪
♪ Don't you know I've made plans for two? ♪
♪ Guess I'm a stubborn kinda fella ♪
♪ Got my mind made up to love you ♪
♪ Whoo-whoo ♪
♪ Baby, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Hey, yeah,,, ♪
Berry made us great,
I can't think of no record company
where the head could sit down and write a song
as well as he could,
♪ Say yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
You know?
So, I came to Berry to be an artist, you know?
I was saying to myself,
"I'm gonna be the next Jackie Wilson,"
Berry said, "I heard you write songs,"
So, I'm singing my songs and he said,
"Your songs are great but your voice is for shit,"
I said, "What?"
Man, I grabbed all my music up off the floor,
put it in my briefcase,
I'm walking outta there, I'm done with this,
He was so fast-talking, slick,
you know, from the street,
and so I said, "Mickey, what else can you do?
Can you do A&R?"
And he said, "Whatever it is, I can do it,
If it's to do with music, I'm all over it, man,"
I said, "I record anybody I wanna record?"
"Anybody you wanna record,"
I said, "Can I record myself?"
Berry told Mickey he wanted a house band,
We're missing a band who can play funky,
He said, "I got a session," I said, "Don't worry,"
"I know guys that are so funky,
they out-funk themselves,"
The best musicians were the jazz musicians,
and the brothers in Detroit,
they weren't making any money
because they weren't getting respect,
but there were still great,
It's hard to define just how important
Detroit was to Motown,
The whole migration from the South
and the automotive industry and the churches
and the clubs that sprang up
would be a vessel to discover talent,
Between the church and the clubs,
and the corner, there was a lot going on,
The groups that we had
that we grew up with in Detroit as teenagers
if you could not do harmony on key,
you were lousy, and they would tell you,
"Get the hell outta here!"
"And get off the corner!"
And they were so smart,
"Sing somethin' about my momma," That was called the Dozens,
And I said, "I don't want you talking about my momma,
I don't play that," "Oh, you don't play that?
Well, then, pat your foot while I play it!"
You know what I mean?
They would do the hambone on me,
You didn't do the hambone, man?
Boy, that used to be the thing, the hambone,
And I'd do that,
And then I'd make up a song, Yeah,
♪ Me and your momma ♪
So, music existed in the community,
but it took a place like Hitsville
to sort of give those people a place to come to collaborate,
So, I would pick them,
and I finally put together a great unit of guys,
And they became the Funk Brothers,
and they became our house band,
He hired the jazz musicians because they were smarter
than normal musicians, They could do all this stuff,
But Jamerson, who was always doing upbeats in the downbeats
and jazzy things, he would get off the beat,
I'd look around and I'd be walking over to him,
and he'd be up and then he'd catch himself
and he'd do a whole,,, arpeggio and stuff,,,
You know, and he was right on the,,,
I would get him and I'd get there and he sounded so good,
I said, "That's pretty good, Can you do that riff again?"
When I think of Benny Benjamin
and James Jamerson and Robert White
and Joe Messina and on and on and on,
you gotta know that
I was picking up from all those various musicians
trying to figure out how to do it,
Paul Riser, when he came to do an arrangement,
he was only 18 years old,
One of the greatest arrangers ever,
just outta high school!
I was classically trained
and enjoyed nothing but classical,
I thought that R&B music was just the worst, OK?
You also have in Detroit a big investment
in public education,
They had an incredible public music program
in these high schools,
And Motown artists came from these communities,
Back when I was in school,
Ford Motor Company would give the class tickets
to go to see the Detroit Symphony,
I saw them playing violins, French horns
and oboes and bassoons,
I thought that was the greatest sound ever,
So, that's what got me going,
There was something about what was in that soil in Detroit,
you know, that just sort of,,,
folks came up,
I've been in some, you know,
really cool company in the studio,
but having that group of creative people
in the same room, it's just incredible,
And they were playing real instruments back then, too,
Like, they actually could play the piano and the drums,
No machines needed,
I didn't know much about Hitsville USA
because I lived on the East Side,
Anyway, I dared take that coach go to
2648 West Grand Boulevard,
and what a world I walked into!
She came to audition a few times,
I would find nice ways of saying,
"Uh, Martha, come back later,"
And I must've looked like I was gonna cry or something,
cos he said, "Answer this phone, I'll be right back,"
This "right back" was four hours,
I walked in my office,
and before I could speak, she says,
"You got an important call from such-and-such,
and I think you oughta answer this line right here,"
So I said, "Martha,
how would you like to work as my secretary?"
She says, "OK,"
It was everybody working in the same spirit,
everybody of one accord, making hit records,
And it was great to be there,
We were recording sometimes tracks without the singer,
and according to the union,
you had to have a singer singing it live,
You couldn't do tracks in those days,
And I was doing pretty good in the office,
but when the union man made a surprise visit,,,
Everybody went crazy,
"You're doing a session in there,
and the union guy's coming!"
You know? "The union guy's coming!"
We told Mickey, man, "Gotta put somebody on the mic!"
His secretary, "I'll do it!"
And that was the chance she was waiting for all this time,
Then she grabbed the mic and started singing it,
and she was Martha,
♪ Calling out around the world ♪
♪ Are you ready for a brand-new beat? ♪
♪ Summer's here and the time is right ♪
♪ For dancing in the street ♪
♪ They're dancing in Chicago ♪
♪ In the street ♪
What happened was, you had a preacher,
who was standing in front of the pulpit
with his arms open wide saying,
"The door to the church is now open,"
And everybody came in, all kind of people,
doing all kinda things
and getting fulfilled with spirit,
♪ And records playing, dancing in the street ♪
♪ Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear ♪
♪ Just as long as you are there ♪
♪ So come on, every guy grab a girl ♪
♪ Everywhere around the world ♪
♪ They'll be dancing in the,,, ♪
These were exciting times because it was a first time
you're hearing, you know, rock 'n' roll
in our city and people that we knew,
I witnessed Stevie wonder coming to Hitsville,
I was, what, 11 years old when I went to Motown,
That day, Smokey was at Motown,
and he said, "I heard you can sing,"
I said, "Yeah, better than you,"
I was, like, you know, a little smart-mouth kid,
Everything Stevie played looked genius,
We didn't know what a genius was,
For me, it was like going into a candy shop,
all these instruments were around,
So, he sat down at that big, long grand piano
and he played as if he had known Liberace himself,
I said, "My, this baby's talented!"
When he went to the full set of drums, He was so good,
He jumped on the organ, played the organ,
Sat him on a stool and gave him the bongos,
Next, he's stood up and he took a harmonica out of his pocket,
He could play everything,
And we were like, "OK, that's what the genius is,"
Berry Gordy said, "This kid is a wonder,"
I probably was paying very little attention to people,
and I'd say, "Oh," you know, I'm glad to meet you, OK,,,"
I think until I got to Diana Ross
and I heard that voice, I was like,
"OK, I'm in love," You know,
"Goodbye, instruments,"
How about it, ladies and gentlemen?
Let's hear it for the young man, Stevie Wonder!
He even wrote a song at the Apollo,
Called Fingertips, which went to number one,
Cos he wanted to get more excitement,
so he came out for his bow,
and instead of taking a bow, he told the audience,
"Clap your hands just a little bit louder,
Clap your hands just little bit louder!"
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Clap your hands just a little bit louder ♪
♪ Clap your hands just a little bit,,, ♪
Everybody started getting up, going,
and it got good to him,
And people was clapping their hands and he wrote a song,
♪ Everybody, say yeah! ♪
♪ Yeah! ♪
♪ Say yeah! ♪
♪ Yeah! ♪
-♪ Say yeah! ♪ - ♪ Yeah! ♪
-♪ Yeah? ♪ - ♪ Yeah! ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪
That particular night was an amazing night,
The girls were screaming and all this kinda stuff,
That was probably the really first time
that I understood the power of,
you know, when you do a performance a certain way,
you get the kind of reaction that you get
when you blow the house out,
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Now goodbye, goodbye ♪
♪ Goodbye, goodbye ♪
♪ Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye ♪
Motown in the earlier days was like going to Disneyland,
You know?
But it was a musical Disneyland,
I mean, you could walk through the halls of Motown,
and see Marvin Gaye playing a piano in the corner,
um, you would see the Holland Brothers
running down with their music,
saying, "Man, it should be like this!"
I was upstairs in the hallway in the house,
and I was just banging,,,
I said, "Man,,,"
He said, "I don't know yet,"
"What you gonna do with that?"
The following Monday, everybody came in,
putting background on it,
Smokey come into the reception area,
I think the Supremes were sitting there too,
And he said, "Everybody, come in the studio!"
That's his pretty voice,
He said, "Repeat after me!"
"Come on, is everybody ready? Yeah!"
-Is everybody ready? - Yeah!
Mickey's Monkey, singing on that is the Miracles,
Martha and the Vandellas,
Two of the Temptations,
The Marvelettes,
Mary Wilson,
It probably had more artists on it
than any other song I can remember,
He said, "OK, start the music," ♪ Lum di lum di lie ♪
♪ Oh-oh ♪
♪ All right ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ This cat named Mickey came from outta town yeah ♪
♪ He was spreading a new dance all around ♪
♪ In just a matter of a few days, yeah,,, ♪
We were just young people making music,
getting our feet wet,
I think that the way we had Motown
was a once-in-a-lifetime musical event,
You can never get the amount of talent
that was in one room in Motown,
Stevland, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes,
all these people who are juggernauts,
And you look at a young Michael Jackson,
you know, and Smokey Robinson talks about
seeing Michael Jackson for the first time
and just going, like, "What is that?"
♪ Baby, baby, baby, baby ♪
♪ Baby, baby ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah! ♪
I got a telephone call
from Mr Gordy one night,
"Listen, we just signed this group called the Jackson 5,
You're gonna be their manager, so you better come down,"
He said, "This is Shelly Berger, Show him what you can do,"
They started doing this Smokey Robinson
Who's Lovin' You,
There is talent and there is talent,
and then there's genius,
And then, he said,,, ♪ When I,,, ♪
♪ When I ♪
♪ Had you ♪
♪ I treated you bad ♪
♪ And wrong, my dear ♪
♪ And, girl, since ♪
♪ Since you went away ♪
♪ Don't you know I sit around ♪
♪ With my head hanging down ♪
♪ And I wonder ♪
♪ Who's ♪
♪ Lovin' ♪
♪ You ♪
And the only songs we learned back in those days
was the Motown songs,
cos they were the biggest songs on the radio,
Next you know, we were in the recording studio,
There was Marvin Gaye, there was Stevie Wonder,
Smokey Robinson,
And we had to sing their songs in front of them,
I was so nervous,
You know, whenever I sing Who's Lovin' You,
especially young people, they say,
"Why'd you sing a Michael Jackson song?"
I wrote this song before Michael Jackson was born,
That's his song now,
Who's Lovin' You is Michael Jackson's song,
All the people you hear singing it now sing it like him,
As the company grew, so did the challenges
of managing a team,
I realized that I needed
to not only give them direction in music
but whatever I had learned about life,
I could use that in some way,
pushing people but not making them feel
they were being pushed,
So, I created competition, you know?
Beat me, If you can,
Have a better record than I have
and of course, many of them did,
The competition grew and developed,
one feeding off the other,
And it made you sharpen your,,,
sharpen your tools, you know?
It made you dig a little deeper
to come up with something that would stand apart,
Competition breeds champions,
But remember, you can't let that competition
get in the way of the love,
If you're producing an artist, say, Stevie,
you would want him to have a hit,
And if I see you working with him,
I want him to have a hit as well,
Because if it's successful, everybody has an opportunity
to work with that artist as well,
So, artists would love that,
You take love out of the picture,
it's ego, jealousy,,,
Stuff that can kill any organization,
I always asked,,,
But he couldn't, He was writing material for the Miracles
and for Mary Wells,
The best thing that happened to the Temptations
was when Mary Wells left the company,
That opened him up for us,
The Temptations, we were trying to get some hits,
We couldn't get any hits until finally, I got a hit on them
with The Way You Do the Things You Do,
using Eddie Kendricks's voice to sing lead vocal,
♪ You got a smile so bright ♪
♪ You know you could have been a candle,,, ♪
So, I looked at the lyrics, I said,
"Got a smile so bright, could have been a candle?
That's some hokey,,,"
Smokey just laughed and said, "Yeah,"
♪ The way you swept me off my feet,,, ♪
My greatest competitor
for getting music out on the Temptations
was Norman Whitfield,
They had a contest to see
who would break the Beatles' command on the top five,
It was that kind of a contest,
I was hurt many times by not having releases,
That made me stronger,
enough to get the public and Mr Gordy
to get away from that Smokey Robinson sound,
Norman Whitfield came to me,
He said, "If you would write the lyric for me,
get the release on them,"
I said, "Man, leave the Temptations alone,
You know darn well if you try to beat Smokey,
you got problems,"
He said, "Ed, Ed, I think this is it,"
Norman Whitfield came up
and he kinda knocked Smokey out of that release,
so Smokey was not happy about that,
♪ I love you, girl, with all my heart and soul,,, ♪
They were all using Eddie Kendricks to sing the lead
cos that was the first hit they ever had,
Paul Williams and David Ruffin were in that group,
who were awesome singers,
So, I wanted to write something for them,
Everybody was bragging about Norman knocking him out,
so when he said, "I got a new record
on the Temptations to follow up My Guy,,,"
♪ Nothing you can say ♪
♪ Could tear me away from my guy,,, ♪
",,,that would settle the score,"
he said, "I'm coming up with a new record My Girl,"
and so, of course, we thought
that was most ridiculous thing we ever heard,
I mean, you come up with My Guy,
what, you gonna do
My Mother-In-Law, you know, My Wife?
I was actually writing My Girl
because David Ruffin had such a great voice,
He had this unique voice, and I just wanted it to be isolated,
So, we were recording it, running it down,
and I had a Jamerson play,,,
So, we will still just running it down,
We hadn't even started to record it yet,
And Robert White, lead guitarist for the Funk Brothers,
Robert stood up and started walking around this studio,
with his guitar just playing,,,
Just walking round,
And he started laughing, "No, no, no, man, no, no, no,"
And I said, "No, no, no, no!
Are you kidding?
That's in the record! That's on the tape!"
It became one of the most famous guitar riffs ever,
and he was just kidding around,
We were appearing at the 20 Grand,
and the place went crazy,
And Smokey came by, and he came backstage, and he said,
"Man, I got a song for you guys that,,,"
So, us being young and cocky,
"Man, bring it on, We'll sing anything,"
♪ I've got sunshine ♪
♪ On a cloudy day ♪
♪ When it's cold outside ♪
♪ I've got the month of May ♪
♪ I guess you say ♪
♪ What can make me feel this way? ♪
♪ My girl ♪
♪ Talkin' 'bout my girl ♪
♪ My girl! ♪
When Paul Riser added the strings and the horns,
My Girl took on a whole 'nother kind of life,
So, I took my classical training and put it to use,
And we came up with, um,,,
with My Girl, as you hear it today,
♪ My girl ♪
-♪ My girl ♪ -♪ My girl ♪
♪ Talkin' 'bout my girl ♪
♪ My girl! ♪
♪ Ooh-hoo,,, ♪
Smokey Robinson sent a record up there
called My Girl,
I refused to go in the studio, I was just totally wiped out,
February 1965,
Mr Gordy sent us a congratulations telegram,
said that we had sold over a million records
and we were number one,
and also the Beatles sent us a telegram congratulating us,
I have it hanging up in my house,
♪ I don't need no money ♪
♪ Fortune or fame ♪
♪ I got all the riches, baby ♪
♪ One man can claim,,, ♪
People have asked me a thousand times,
"Hey, man, aren't you sorry
you didn't keep My Girl for yourself?"
Had it not been for the Temptations,
David Ruffin and Norman Whitfield,
I would have never even written My Girl,
Berry wanted us to be competitive,
We were fiercely competitive, but we helped each other,
The Motown family,
Quality Control was something
that I picked up from the Ford Motor Company,
After the assembly line was done,
it still had to go to Quality Control,
to make sure that the quality was there,
You bring your record in on said artist
and you play it and then you get a vote,
The main thing was to get hits,
If somebody's record was better that yours,
you're looking at the company as a whole,
Those Quality Control meetings were beautiful and loving
but vicious,
OK, let's,,, Can we finish our meeting here?
It's afternoon now,
A decision will be made on the Temptations record,
Which side is it?
- My Girl, - My Girl?
How many think that's not a hit?
How many think it is a hit?
How many's undecided?
OK, what are your comments?
- No, you can't pass,
You think it's a hit record?
To be in there with a bunch of guys that you're competing with,
and yet they constructively giving you some information
that they think will make your product better,
You could tell that the writers
had been talked to and trained,
The beat was solid,
Old Jamerson had that bass out there,
You understand me? It was way out there!
They didn't just throw a record out,
That record was doted on,
it was,,, it was nourished, It was beat,
You know, it was whupped,
Tracks of My Tears was one of those songs,
The first time I took it in there,
they listened to it and said, "Yeah, man, it's a good song,
That's really good, man, But you ended it up wrong,"
♪ So take a good look at my face ♪
♪ You'll see my smile looks out of,,, ♪
I didn't end it with a chorus,
♪ Take a good look at my face ♪ It wasn't ending with that,
I was ending up with,,, ♪ I need you, need you ♪
And they all said, "Are you crazy?"
"The strong bit's the chorus and you're ending with that?"
♪ I need you ♪
♪ Need you ♪
"You better change that," so I did,
♪ Yeah, just look closer and it's easy ♪
♪ Oh, the tracks of my tears ♪
♪ Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby ♪
♪ Take a good look at,,, Ooh ♪
♪ Yeah, you'll see my smile ♪
♪ Looks out of place ♪
♪ Look a little bit closer,,, ♪
And so, they were cut-throat, but they were constructive,
There was nothing like it,
Berry had a great ear,
He was always saying if you don't get them
in the first four to eight bars,
you got to go back to the drawing board,
He'd say that all the time,
"Get 'em in the first ten seconds,"
We used to come up with these fabulous intros,
something that would catch your attention immediately,
And that's what,,,
♪ Sugar pie, honey bunch ♪
♪ You know that I love you ♪
Boom! ♪ I know you wanna leave me! ♪
♪ I know you wanna leave me but,,, ♪
♪ But I refuse to let you go ♪
We stopped the record, probably, cos sometimes I would go,
"OK, you win, it's coming out next week,"
♪ Cos you mean that much to me ♪
♪ Ain't too proud to beg ♪
♪ And you know it ♪
♪ Please don't leave me, girl,,, ♪
Everybody had to speak their truths,
what their truths were,
You were free in here,
Whatever you say will never be held against you,
I challenge anybody, including me,
They say that for when Smokey had a song up against mine,
and we had two songs,,,
I speak the truth!
Not that that was their opinion,
They just said it to get at you,
No, because they wanted to test me always,
When I had a record called, um,,, Temptations,
Dream Come True,
Dream Come True, that was it,
♪ Dream come true, da-da-da-da ♪
♪ Dream come true ♪ I mean, it was phenomenal,
It's a great record,
You know, his song was,,, compared to mine,
you know, mediocre, That was, you know,,, And, um,,,
When I said, "How many people liked my song?",
and no hands went up,
And Smokey, I saw him looking at people, "Ha-ha-ha," you know?
I mean, it was all a coup, It was a coup,
But because the company
was such a democratic situation in this Quality Control,
stuff like that happens, you know? So, that was it,
The first step would be
the writing of the song, the creative part,
Then we had to deal with the selling part,
with the distributors, Create, sell, collect,
To get the talent picture and what goes on behind the company,
there could be none better than Berry, who started it out,
And from the sales picture
on what makes a record company tick in sales,
the dollars and cents, which is very vital, Mr Barney Ales,
vice president in charge of sales,
He was a strong Italian, who I convinced to work for me,
But it was not easy getting him to give up his great position
where he was at the top of his game,
Him and I used to hang out together,
and one night, I said, "I've got a great new restaurant
I've just been going to called the Chop House,"
We came in and they saw me with him,
and they said, "I'm sorry, we don't serve black people,"
I said, "That's fantastic, cos I don't eat them,"
And they looked at him and said,
"You know,,," And he's,,, you know,"
Then I got a little,,, Sicilian,
And we sat down, and of course, people were staring,
but the point is that Barney didn't care,
Berry and I had a great relationship,
and Berry was great in the studio,
and I was great with the distributors,
My whole dream was to make the world,,,
understand,,, hear our music,
And they could either like it or not like it,
But when we couldn't get music played on the white stations,
what makes you think white people
are gonna like your music?
I said I want all people,
It's not black music, it's music by black artists,
I remember when they were promoting my records,
and Barney Ales took me to the station, CKLW,
which was the powerhouse station,
And the guy looked at me,
He said, "I'm a-tell you something, Eddie,
I'm playing this record because of Barney Ales,"
He made that happen,
Berry was most interested in
where the records were going in the charts,
and was he getting paid? Which I collected,
One of the stories when I came to Motown was that
the Mafia owned Motown,
and it kind of lent to the folklore of it,
and Barney looked like that Italian Mafioso guy,
I mean, he got me in so much trouble,
"He's being run by the Mafia! You see that guy?
He can't even leave Detroit," Remember when I told you?
You know, I said, "Barney, you look like
you could be in the Mafia or something,"
He said, "Yeah, that's served me well
many times, many times to get your records played," you know?
And I was criticized by
a lot of black people for having the white people there,
"He's a traitor! He won't hire black people!"
I said, "What you mean?
Look and see, I got a lot of black people!
But I also got white people,"
It's not about black or white, I wanna win,
In some cases, the best person was white,
Other cases, the best person was a woman,
The fact that they were women in key positions at Motown
seemed natural to me,
We drove her crazy, We got on her nerves,
I didn't realize she was only 21,
But at an early age, she was very, very smart,
I didn't realize how forward-thinking it was
until I saw many other organizations
where there was not a reciprocal kind of picture,
All Berry's sisters worked in the company
at one point or another,
They did jobs that men would do and did them better,
Most companies that we would visit?
Ain't no woman in no key position
making no decisions, But he had them at Motown,
He had black, white and Jews working at Motown,
He wasn't stuck on the thing of,
"This is a black company, It's got to be all black,"
The color of business is green,
I got a lot of credit for all that,
and true, I put it together,
but these people grew on their own,
And at some point, you know, it was not me, it was magic,
And it became a brand,
Thanks to the teenager,
the record business is a big, big business,
They marketed Motown as the Sound of Young America,
Children who had been born after World War II
were coming into their teen years by the early '60s,
and they were aware of the importance
of that market for selling records,
You saw the Motown label, you were gonna buy it,
whether you knew what it was or not,
The Motown label, the brand, became that important,
If it's on Motown, that's the shit,
You know? I'm buying it, I gotta listen to it,
Artist Development was a key station
on the production line,
My sisters really persuaded me to bring in the charm school,
So, I had no idea that was gonna be as important as it was,
All of us were just,,,
If an idea sounded good, we'd try it,
It was a critical part of the equation
that you not only create great talent, great songs,
but now you've got to present those songs,
Ford never saw that kind of thing on the assembly line,
They were grooming their artists for the long run,
When we had signed with Motown,
so we had to go through what everybody else went through,
which was we had our pictures taken,
and then we learned how to move, choreography,
You learn how to move as a band,
Go through the whole thing, and we did that,
And, uh,,, they,,, we knew we were a challenge,
I don't care who you became, who you were,
Two days a week, you had to go to Artist Development,
And then, sometimes you'd try to dance,
You couldn't dance,
Wait a minute! What you mean? I taught Michael, man,
♪ Oh, baby, all I need is one more chance ♪
♪ To show you that I love you ♪
Cholly Atkins was our choreographer,
and he would stop and say,
"Boy, I am so glad you're the lead singer,
so I don't have to really try to show you these steps,
You just stand over there and sing,"
People like Maxine Powell taught them how to walk and talk
and do things gracefully,
This department would groom and polish them
so that they could appear in number-one places
around the country,
And even before the king and queen,
You know, they came from a humble beginning,
But I told them where they would be appearing,
and they laughed and said that I was out of my mind,
But with me, it isn't where you come from,
it's where you're going,
She said, "I don't teach you how to use a spoon or fork,
You learn that at home,
I teach you how to be proud and to walk
and hold yourself from a higher standard from inside,"
We start with body language,
Your body language tells so much about you,
You do not protrude the buttocks,
She was making us have self-confidence
and building our self-esteem,
Letting us know that we had to be socially accepted
in order to do this,
To represent not only a kind of music
but a culture and spirit of the people,
Now, some black folks would be like,
"Man, why I gotta do that?"
You know what I'm saying? "Why I gotta act white
in front of these white folks?
I wanna be me, I wanna be black,
They calling me 'nigger' anyway, Why don't I just own that?"
And Berry was like, "Yeah, you could own that,
But then what happens to the art?"
Because Berry was like, "The art is colorless,
The music has no color,
It just has a feeling, it has a pulse to it,"
Some people didn't get it, But they get it now,
No one spent longer in Artist Development
than the Supremes,
My mother had parents
who had worked in the cotton fields in the South,
And many of them had not gone to school,
Our parents wanted us to get an education,
go to college,
The time we got to Motown, I didn't wanna go to college,
I'm like, "I wanna make records,"
I remember with the Supremes, they were singing
and I thought it was making faces,
I said, "What are you doing?"
And they said, "What are we doing? We're singing!"
I said, "Well, it looks like you're making faces,"
Who in the hell would've thought,
all those different artists, the Supremes and people,,,
Oh, my God, you should've seen those girls
when they first came there!
You would've never believed it!
The fabulous Supremes! How about it?
So, they were waiting around
being called the "no-hit Supremes",
♪ Stop hurting me ♪
-♪ Hurting me ♪ -♪ Hurting me ♪
♪ Now don't you think you're,,, ♪
I would tell the producers,
"Whatever it takes to get them a hit,
we have to keep trying,
If they don't get a hit, it's our fault, not theirs,"
I cut about three records on them,
And, you know, nothing happened,
Berry cut three records, nothing happened,
♪ But my heart can't take it no more,,, ♪
Then finally, Holland-Dozier-Holland,
who had written Where Did Our Love Go
for the Marvelettes,
♪ Oh yes, wait a minute, Mr Postman ♪
♪ Wait, Mr Postman,,, ♪
But the Marvelettes didn't like it,
I was talking to Gladys Horton, and she said, "No, baby,
we don't do stuff like that,"
I said, "What you say?"
♪ You better wait a minute, wait a minute,,, ♪
That was a first for me,
And so I said, "I gotta find somebody to do this song,"
Then I saw Mary Wilson one day, I said, "Mary, Mary!
I got this song I just finished for you guys!"
And she was, "Yeah?
Is this the song that you played to Gladys?"
I said, "What are you talking about?"
I told Eddie Holland, "Eddie, we need a hit!
If we don't get a hit,
our parents are gonna make us go to college,
and that song is not a hit,"
Got them in the studio and they did the song,
I can't forget that night, It was like a nightmare,
God!
Oh, man, Diana was upset and everything,
She was going, "Talk to Berry about it,"
Berry came down to listen, and he said,
"Wait a minute, This sounds like it could be something,"
♪ Baby, baby ♪
♪ Baby, don't leave me ♪
♪ Ooh, please don't leave me ♪
♪ All by myself ♪
♪ You came into my heart,,, ♪
When the record came out,
they were opening the show, the Dick Clark tour,
and by the time the tour was over, they were closing,
because Where Did Our Love Go had taken over,
Number one before you could say "Jackie Robinson",
♪ Baby, baby ♪
♪ You were a perfect guy,,, ♪
Now everybody at Motown was at our heels,
Now we were no longer the "no-hit Supremes",
I was standing outside Motown,
Berry Gordy said to me,
"Listen, concentrate on the girls,
This group will carry the company,"
I think we were the only girl group
to have five consecutive number ones,
Holland-Dozier-Holland did all these songs for us,
Holland-Dozier-Holland were gods at Motown,
They were right under Berry, as far as I was concerned,
in terms of their importance,
There was that quality and those kinds of songs
that resonated with America,
and they didn't know what they were even feeling,
That was them, That was the genius,
From New York City!
The Apollo Theater proudly presents
the Motor Town Review!
We had written a song, we produced it,
and we are now selling it,
We got this idea of taking the artists
on the road with our own band,
Smokey always closed the shows, cos he was the star
and the one everybody respected,
But everybody was trying to get to that ending spot,
and so they'd do all kinds of stuff
to move back in the show,
Whoever went on first
would just do the best that they could be,
make the stage so hot, "OK, beat that,"
How do we really get the people screaming?
How do we get Marvin Gaye? How do we get him, you know?
We loved the Temps, we love the Miracles,
but I swear on the Bible,
we'd try to out-sing them suckers every time,
We loved the Tops, but when they went out there,
they'd talk about kicking our ass,
Please, Back up before you act up,
When we started going through all that choreography
and throwing the microphone up
and all that the razzmatazz that we done, please!
We baptized that ass in fire,
It's like, come out fighting,
The Tops made it hard for us,
because Levi Stubbs?
Levi Stubbs was no joke,
♪ When you feel that you can't go on ♪
♪ Because all of your hope is gone ♪
♪ And your life is filled with much confusion ♪
♪ Until happiness is just an illusion ♪
♪ And your world around is crumbling down ♪
♪ Darling,,, ♪
♪ Reach on out for me ♪
♪ And I will be ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ To love and shelter you ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ To always see you through ♪
♪ When you're lost and about to give up,,, ♪
Now, one thing we couldn't do,
we couldn't out-dance nobody,
but we had a way of doing our own
that looked like we was doing a whole lot,
We weren't doing shit,
We took off so big in the Detroit area,
Berry decided he had to get us on the road,
And that opened up a whole new world for us,
Our first Motown Review was 94 one-nighters,
Berry waved to us as we left Detroit
in this broken-down Trailway that didn't have a toilet,
That's three months of travelling,
Two hotel visits in the whole three months,
So, most of the time, we were sleeping
with our head up against the window
or just our seating partner,
Travelling was really hard,
but I think working together, also being young,
made a great deal of difference,
Every day, it was a new adventure,
When we started going to the Deep South,
Mississippi and all round there,
the gigs were very separated, man,
Living in Detroit, we had ethnic neighborhoods,
but we didn't call it segregated, cos,,,
it didn't have that same feeling as the South,
We weren't allowed to stay in the hotels,
We weren't allowed to use the bathroom on the highway,
And actually see a water fountain
that only black people could use,
it was like,,, "Hmm,"
There was a fear in me where I wanted to go home,
I was ready to go back home,
I remember the first time we went to Atlanta,
So, I got off the bus first and went into the waiting room,
As soon as I walked in the waiting room,
I felt this thing against my head,
I looked up, The sheriff had put a gun to my head
and said, "Nigger, get outta here,"
Now, I didn't know I was in a white waiting room,
I didn't know nothing about that then,
Scared the hell outta me, I still feel that,
Put that cold steel against my head
and he scared the hell out of me,
They was rough out there,
We'd been shot at for going to the toilet,
You know, it's just crazy stuff,
We had a major problem in Norfolk, Virginia,
We did a gig there and whites was trying to start some crap,
The Temps was on stage,
Tops and their crew were standing
on the side of the stage,
When Tops would go on, the Temps would reposition ourselves,
Even then, our competition in trying to be last on,
when push came to shove,
we're still just working together,
So, we finished the show,
we're loading up the bus to go to the next city,
The next thing I heard,,,
I dived on the floor,
Cos I know gunshots when I hear 'em,
They missed the gas tank by inches,
Scary stuff,
At that point, I was really ready to go home,
We had assassinations, murders,
race riots, kids being burned,,,
Kids being burned? How do you,,,
You know, schools burned up?
Where are these people coming from?
The places that we played in the '60s, yeah, it was rough,
We played Columbia, South Carolina,
First time we went there, there was a rope
right down the center of the theatre,
Blacks on one side, whites sitting on the other,
And all that's going on,,,
and yet the music of Motown was growing
in the hearts of everyone,
At of the concerts, actually, Smokey had said,,,
We were on tour,
and he told the promoter we were not going to perform
if they kept that rope down the middle,
After a while, man, we started going back to those same places,
All the kids were dancing together
and they were mingling and having fun,
Blacks and whites, side by side, enjoying the music,
I can remember when I was at Motown,
Berry was in the studio,
and Martin Luther King walked in,
Man, that was the shock of my life,
Honest to goodness!
I mean, you know, it was like God walking in,
Mm-hm, mm-hm,
The time I met Dr, King when he came,
when he realized our music was helping him in his movement,
this guy, who I admired so much
and was doing so much and out there fighting,
was saying that I was bringing
emotional integration to a lot of people,
He was seeing them dance to our music,
and it was positive, and he said,
you know, "I would like to be connected with your company,"
And I said, "Oh, my God!"
A whole of stuff that they were trying to do legally
or spiritually or however they were trying to do it,
we were just doing it with music,
Good evening, Tonight, live from New York,
"The Ed Sullivan Show",
Growing up, everyone would surround the TV
and watch The Ed Sullivan Show,
So, for us to be on it, the first time was big,
It was December 27th, 1964, I was ten years old,
and it was a moment that changed my life,
Come See About Me is sung by these girls here,
the Supremes, three youngsters from Detroit,
Let's hear it for them,
♪ I've been crying ♪
♪ Ooh-ooh ♪
♪ Cos I'm lonely ♪
♪ For you,,, ♪
To do The Ed Sullivan Show meant that you had arrived,
Of course, we ended up being on there, what, 14 times?
♪ That you're never ever gonna return ♪
♪ To ease the fire that within me burns ♪
♪ It keeps me crying, baby, for you ♪
♪ It keeps me sighin', baby, for you ♪
♪ So won't you hurry? ♪
♪ Come on, boy, and see about me ♪
♪ Come see about me ♪
♪ See about me, baby,,, ♪
♪ Come see about me ♪
When I saw the Supremes on TV that night,
it was magical to me,
because I had never seen black women on television,
although we were called "colored" at the time,
or anywhere, for that matter,
who conveyed such glamour and such grace,
And nobody was used to seeing us portrayed
in the way I saw the Supremes,
I missed most of the first song calling everybody I knew saying,
"Colored people on! Colored people!
Colored people on TV!"
Let's have a fine welcome for the Supremes,
♪ I need love, love ♪
♪ Oh to ease my mind,,, ♪
You put her on those white shows,
they could see this black girl
coming into white folks' TV screens
when that wasn't happening,
Any time you saw black people, something terrible was going on,
We were at an era now
where TV has opened up the borders
of the world, and now they're looking at
glamorous, beautiful black faces,
You know, we were able to understand a culture
that had never been seen before,
And Mr Gordy put that fairy dust on it
that made it palatable to white America,
He made black chic,
♪ That keeps me hanging on ♪
♪ When I feel my strength ♪
♪ Is almost gone I remember Momma said,,, ♪
Could you be the Supremes?
Yes,
Step into 15,000 watts of light
wearing $6,000 worth of silk and sequins
and their sound sets the room on fire,
That's why Diana Ross and the Supremes
count on this new deodorant,
Arrid Extra Dry,
The impact that their image
had on the black community was profound,
and that was everything from how they dressed,
how they performed
to where they were allowed to do these things,
those doors that they were able to get into,
It forced white people and black people
to look at each other and say,
"There's a bit of you in me and a bit of me in you,"
It was so exciting to hear people talk about
their hopes, wishes and dreams
and to actually see it come true,
♪ Ain't no mountain high ♪
♪ Ain't no valley low ♪
♪ Ain't no river wide enough, baby,,, ♪
We had come from poverty,
and now we bought our parents homes,
It's like, "My daughter is a Supreme,
So happy, so proud,"
There were so many artists made famous in Motown,
All of the talented people would line up
and want to be a part of Hitsville USA,
The energy at the one building was just so great,
They would buy one building, then buy another,
They went from Market and Sales,
Artist Development, it was a win-win,
♪ To keep me from getting to you, baby,,, ♪
And the brand got bigger and bigger
and the business got bigger and bigger,
and then it went around the world,
I was 16 years old, and there were the Supremes
Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie, and the Miracles
on stage in front of you,
You'd die and go to heaven,
Motown represented the next generation of American music
in the way the Beatles did in Britain
and then fed into the mainstream,
Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites,
The Miracles, Marvin Gaye,,,
-Mary Wells, -To name but 80,
As the '60s unfolded, that generation realized
that they potentially had the power to change everything,
♪ Baby, baby ♪
♪ Where did our love go? ♪
-♪ Ooh,,, ♪
I spoke to one of our accounts in Atlanta,
and he says, "We don't sell any nigger records down here,"
I said, "Excuse me? You sell Diana Ross and the Supremes,"
"They're a big seller for us,"
"You sell Smokey Robinson and the Miracles,"
"We sell a lot of that," "Stevie Wonder?"
"Yeah," I said, "Well, surprise, you're selling nigger records,"
Diana, I just thought, set a pathway for
women like me to walk through, you know?
-I do,
Berry Gordy did inspire me,
especially when I decided I wanted
to start a record company with my friends,
We just took that model and did our own thing,
Could it ever be as big?
No, but this is who we looked up to,
I'm a 25-year-old white, gay Londoner,
and Motown music has affected me so hugely,
And I couldn't be any further from Detroit,
When our production line
really started working, it was phenomenal,
In 1968, we had five records in the top ten
on the Billboard charts,
with the number-one record being
I Heard It Through the Grapevine,
Norman Whitfield would record his songs over and over again
with different artists and they'd always be hits,
The first people to record I Heard It Through the Grapevine
was the Miracles and me,
But the sales department felt it was too bluesy for us,
They didn't want us to sing that kind of song,
So, he said OK, fine,
He cut it on Gladys Knight and the Pips,
It was a smash hit, And after that,,,
No, no, he cut it on, uh,,, on Marvin,
No, Marvin was last, He recorded Marvin
after it had been a huge hit on Gladys Knight and the Pips,
No, no, no, that's not true,
-Wanna bet? -Yeah,
How much?
-A hundred, -Hundred? It's a bet,
You got this on tape?
Marvin had recorded it and it had been turned down,
No, no, no, Not before Gladys Knight and the Pips,
OK, where's the phone? Who's got,,,
Not before Gladys Knight and the Pips,
OK, I need to make a long-distance call,
I recorded this song on Marvin Gaye first,
I brought it in the meeting and I submitted it,
Well, consequently, I lost out,
But this particular song I would not let die,
I went to many clubs
with Berry, even though I wasn't invited,
And I hounded him till he was very, very angry with me,
So, I said,,,
So, he says,,,
♪ Ooh, I bet you're wondering how I knew ♪
♪ Baby, baby, baby ♪
♪ About your plans to make me blue ♪
♪ With some other girl you knew before ♪
♪ Between the two of us girls you know I love you more ♪
♪ It took me by surprise I must say ♪
♪ When I found out yesterday ♪
♪ Don't you know that I heard it to the grapevine? ♪
♪ Not much longer would you be mine ♪
♪ Don't you know that I heard it through the grapevine? ♪
♪ And I'm just about just about, just about ♪
♪ To lose my mind ♪
♪ Oh, yes, I am ♪
♪ Baby, won't you listen to me,,, ♪
It went to number one on the pop charts,
and Berry looked at me, he says,
"I don't know what you got, son, but,,,"
Now, it was time to put out a Marvin Gaye album,
so I, in fact, started my campaign once again,
They said, "Well, I guess he's right,
We'll just go ahead and put it in the album,"
And lo and behold, this record was picked out of the album
and it went on to be the largest song
in the history of Motown,
♪ Ooh, I bet you're wondering how I knew ♪
♪ About your plans to make me blue ♪
♪ With some other guy you knew before ♪
♪ Between the two of us guys you know I love you more ♪
♪ It took me by surprise I must say ♪
♪ When I found out yesterday ♪
♪ Don't you know that I heard it through the grapevine? ♪
♪ Not much longer would you be mine,,, ♪
Two bona fide different versions of the same song,
It was clever production work, as far as I'm concerned,
Cos good is good, and great is even better,
Brenda?
Look, I'm here with Smokey, Tell me the,,,
the Grapevine record
and who recorded it first and what happened,
Marvin recorded after Gladys, that's what I said,
Damn it, that's a drag like a dog,
That's really a drag, I mean, I hate that,
I know but,,, OK, Brenda, Thank you,
No, don't thank you nothing!
Just get off the phone!
It's very hard
for anybody to go through the cycle of success,
People treat you differently, You treat people differently,
My problem was, as a manager, I had to tell them the truth,
and that was not always easy,
And love means building other people,
even when they don't know they need to be built,
And it's the most thankless task
that one can endure,
We had an interesting relationship, Berry and I,
because we were so very much alike,
I was much younger, and I needed to
have my independence and to spread my wings,
I had figured out
that I wanted the Supremes
to move from the pop R&B class to standards,
And I wanted them to be
in the class of Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr,
and all those people,
Then, when she went to Manchester
is when she tried the first time
You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You,
♪ You're nobody ♪
♪ Till somebody loves you ♪
♪ You're nobody ♪
♪ Till somebody cares,,, ♪
And she did it, And I thought it was good,
The crowd didn't like it like Baby Love,
but it got a nice applause, And so I came back, she said,
"I'm not doing it anymore,
The audience hated it and so did I,"
I said, "But I loved it! It was the first time,"
"Well, I hated it and I'm not doing it on the second show,"
Oh, man, Now, that was a big deal,
"I'm not doing it, I'm defying you on the second show,"
So, I'm saying all this stuff
that I'd built up with her to this point, it crumbled,
Because I knew me,
And I knew that I could never work with her again
if she violated our agreement after one show,
And then when she said,
"I'm not gonna let you ruin my career, You are nobody,"
What? Me?
She said, "I'm just not doing it,"
I said, "OK, You decide who you want to satisfy,"
"Me or those 700 people out there,
Just make up your mind,"
I was very strong, and I was proud of myself,
"You make up your mind,"
She looked at me and said, "OK,"
And I walked out,
When I got outside, it hit me,
All of a sudden, I don't have this star,
that's my biggest star in the world,
What am I gonna do with the rest of my life?
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Supremes!
And then she goes out in that unique Diana Ross style,
She went through most of the show,
And I was there, and all of a sudden, I hear
something that sounds like the middle of the song,
And I think I'm dreaming,
♪ Somebody loves you ♪
♪ You're nobody,,, ♪
I'm saying,
"That's what I had to fight with her to say,"
I mean, it was just this kind of surreal feeling,
And then, she was singing it in full-blast,
♪ The world is still is the same ♪
♪ You'll never change it,,, ♪
And,,, you know,,,
my life was back,
No, my life was back,
♪ You're nobody ♪
♪ Till somebody loves you ♪
♪ So find yourself somebody ♪
♪ To love ♪
♪ You're nobody ♪
And when she came out of the thing,
the other girls went by, and I congratulated them,
but Diana just kept walking,
And I said, "But, Diana, I'm really so happy,"
Cos I know she had to do some thinking, too,
And she just stopped for a moment and said,
"I did it for you,"
and she walked on,
And uh,,, You know,
♪ The world is still the same ♪
♪ You'll never change it ♪
♪ You'll never, never change it,,, ♪
I was stuck there, She did it for me,
Golly! You know? She did it for me,
It was in that moment that I realized
our relationship had changed to something,,, different,
♪ The world's the same, we'll always remain ♪
♪ And you'll never change it ♪
♪ Ooh, find yourself,,, ♪
When people say Motown was a family,
they have no idea that Motown was really a family,
You know, we had close relationships,
You know, Diana and I had a love affair,
Marvin married my sister,
The love and family atmosphere at Motown
defined the company,
but it made things,,, at times, very complicated,
When you first start, it's a passion thing, right?
And then once you start having some success
or you get famous,
then all this other stuff comes with it,
Sharks is coming all the time,
they coming from everywhere, man,
There's a lot of smoke being blown,
It's wild, cos this is a very wild business,
it's like the Wild, Wild West,
Holland-Dozier leaving Motown
was not a major surprise to me,
I saw it coming,
because they were so great, they had so many hits,
The friction with Holland-Dozier-Holland
was personal, Berry always found himself,,,
trying to give me that which I wanted,
I wanted more of this, I wanted a higher royalty,
"OK, give him that,"
So, when I came to him with,,,
I don't do what it was,
some label or something, whatever,
he felt this way,
"If I give you that label,
you'll stop working for Motown and start working on that label,
cos that's the way that you are,"
I said, "No, we won't," He said, "You will, I know you,"
You know, and sometimes it's just about principle,
You say it's just wrong and I can't deal with it,
I may lose money, I may lose this and that,
but I can't deal with the principle,
Berry told me, "You go check it out
and see that you're more valuable to me
than another company,"
What the other company did end up offering me
I knew he couldn't meet,
It's easy to make anybody feel
that they deserve more than they're getting,
"We made $4 million last year," "You should've made ten,"
And then, when lawyers get involved,
you might as well forget it,
We lost three of our best writers
at the peak of their success,
And many people thought we would not make it
without Holland-Dozier-Holland,
We were worried because we had only really worked
with Holland-Dozier-Holland at that point,
so it was a big loss for us,
That was like breaking up with your old lady,
I mean, that's the way we felt,
What happens is when you depend so much
upon a particular writer or writers in your company,
you begin to get a particular thing
just from these writers, and when the writers split
and feel they can do better somewhere else,
I think that then you have to realize
the talents of the artist,
On Stevie's 21st birthday,
I had this big party for him, Everything was so great,
And the next day, I got this letter from his attorney
saying that he had turned 21
and he wanted to reorganize his whole deal with me,
♪ All is fair in love,,, ♪
He was saying, "Why did you do this?"
And I said, "I wanna do it the way I wanna do it,"
And I felt musically
that I didn't want to stay in a particular kind of box,
And I said, "Oh, my goodness!"
Other artists had left,
I was petrified,
There comes a time in life
when you gotta do what you gots to do,
♪ All is fair in love ♪
♪ I had to go away ♪
♪ A writer takes his pen,,, ♪
We'd gone to a few different companies,
but I think because of the love that,,,
and respect that we had for each other,
meaning Berry and myself,
that it felt,,, it felt home,
And when I talk to Stevie, he wanted changes,
and he wanted full control of everything,
I felt that he had grown
and he was one of the greatest artists around,
And so I was forced to relent to his demands,
There was a lot of decisions that I made,
I can't say that was the best but it was certainly up there,
He came out under these new arrangements
with some of the most brilliant music of his whole career,
and I was extremely proud of Stevie, his loyalty,
and his ability to take Motown to even greater heights,
♪ Very superstitious ♪
♪ The writing's on the wall ♪
♪ Very superstitious,,, ♪
Stevie Wonder!
Stevie Wonder! Stevie Wonder!
Stevie Wonder,
I believe Stevie is the greatest solo artist of all time
in any genre,
I think Stevie is the one, He's the greatest,
If you listen to his music,
it's jazz, it's gospel, it's pop,
It's everything,
Stevie Wonder is one of the most talented people ever,
and I mean for all of life,
♪ That you don't understand then you suffer ♪
♪ Superstition ain't the way ♪
♪ Yeah hey-hey-hey,,, ♪
Berry wanted the best of the artist,
And the challenge is,,, obviously is,,,
him proving himself right or us proving him wrong,
But at the end of the day, we all win,
I always had the feeling if you don't keep up with the times,
if you don't innovate, you stagnate,
There was always in him
the appreciation of the next step,
Wait! Wait! Boys, I wanna sign you up!
♪ Ooh-ooh ♪
♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪
♪ Let me tell you now, ah-ah-ooh-hoo ♪
♪ When I had you to myself I didn't want you around ♪
♪ Those pretty faces always made you ♪
♪ Stand out in a crowd,,, ♪
I remember signing with Motown,
All the kids round our neighborhood in Gary, Indiana,
they didn't believe us
because it took a while to make our first record,
When it came out, it was like a machine, Boom!
♪ Oh, darling, all I need is one more chance ♪
♪ Show you that I love you ♪
♪ Won't you please let me ♪
♪ Back in your heart? ♪
♪ Oh, darling, I was blind to let you go ♪
♪ Let you go, baby ♪
♪ But now since I see you,,, ♪
It was the first time that black kids
had a young group that was fabulous, you know,
They had a screaming little girls, pigtails and Afros,
Just when we thought we understood something
with the Supremes and the Temptations,
Mr Gordy took us to another level
with the Jackson 5,
You think of a black group had their own cartoon series?
That's mind-boggling,
I think he thought the power of television early,
Berry Gordy realized if he wanted his artists
to become global superstars,
then television was the way to do that,
We wanted movies, television, Broadway,
I wanted everything for the artist that they could do,
Now that they're as big as they can be in Detroit,
I wanna take them to Hollywood,
He always was pushing that envelope,
I mean, soon after that,
it was Lady Sings the Blues with Diana Ross,
I moved out of Detroit
because I wanted to be in the movie business,
and I wanted to make strides
in areas that Detroit couldn't offer me,
My creative talents could be wide open,
There was nothing that I couldn't do,
So we became a totally different company,
We went from a record company
to an entertainment conglomerate,
I was the biggest protestor about moving to LA, man,
I told Berry, "No, we cannot move to LA, man,
Detroit is our home,"
There was no in-house studio any more,
That was the big factor,
Heck, man, I started sending Berry books on earthquakes
and smog and,,, I did, I really did!
But we did, we moved out there
cos he's innovative and he saw what I didn't see,
It was a dream, a dream has no limits, you know,
And we used to always say the sky is not the limit,
the sky is the first stop, You know?
The world was changing,
The music business was changing, The artists were changing,
They all have their own ideas,
And you have to make a decision
as to how you wanna deal with it,
We came from this time of "Wow, black is beautiful!
We can go out and be on stage and look fabulous,"
And then you got into that social climate change,
And we came up with,,,
-Cloud Nine, -Cloud Nine,
I said, "Wait a minute! I'm getting high,,,
I mean, "I'm doing fine,,, up here on cloud nine,"
You thought it was promoting drugs,
Yeah,
♪ I'm doing fine ♪
♪ Up here on cloud nine ♪
♪ Listen, one more time ♪
♪ I'm doing fine,,, ♪
And I said, "No, we can't be a company that promotes drugs,
We can't have that,"
And so I said, you know, "How many say it's not a hit?"
And I was the only one to raise my hand,
It was the first Grammy, got a gold record for it,
And then we're going psychedelic soul,
It was like a culture shock,
Wait, what the hell are the Temps doing now?"
And that also told me something,
Society is going in a very strange direction,
I don't want to glamorize getting high,
but obviously, the public wanted it,
and they made me seem wrong,
But I didn't like compromising, uh,,,
my values on that particular record,
Things are moving fast and changing,
and so maybe he had a kind of vision that was a safe one,
but the talent of these different artists
and the songs they wrote,
they were looking at what was going on,
and they felt it's time to move forward
and encourage the world to be better,
Do you feel that entertainers such as yourselves
should become more involved
in the black man's problems today?
Well, we are involved because we're black men,
so we're involved automatically whether or not we want to be,
and I think that it's a good thing,
if you get in that position, to speak out
and to say what you think of it,
The Black Power organizations were proud of me
but yet against me, because I was this company
that only did love songs
and songs of faith and hope and duty,
So, we didn't cross the line, in my opinion,
The songs just changed because the world was changing,
We changed, We had a different understanding
of what was going on,
We wanted somebody to tell us about that,
Coming from the sound of Young America to psychedelic soul,
that was indicative of the times we were living in,
We were just singing about what was happening in the world,
♪ Well, the only person ♪
♪ Talkin' 'bout love thy brother is the preacher,,, ♪
It was an horrific time, Detroit was on fire,
♪ Nobody's interested in learning ♪
♪ But the teacher,,, ♪
I remember a line of tanks
coming down West Grand Boulevard,
It was like a different country,
♪ Obligation to our nation ♪
♪ Ball of confusion ♪
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
♪ That's what the world is today,,, ♪
That's a hard time for people doing music
when there's blood on the streets,
when there's civil unrest,
When you believe in something very strongly,
and you feel in your soul that it's time for that to be said,
how can you not want to break through and make that happen?
And so, you realize the power of your voice
and what it means it to,,, to the world,
not just to blacks, but to whites
and to anybody that's listening,
I think it was, uh, around 1969 or 1970
when I stopped thinking so much about my erotic fantasies,
and I started to
think about the war in Vietnam and my brother,
I became quite affected by it, and, um,
at the same time,
there was a great deal of unrest in America,
Marvin was a good-looking guy,
He was a ladies man,
Being a protest singer was not Berry's idea
of a good thing for Marvin,
We created stuff in Motown where we would say,
you have freedom within restriction, you know?
I'm not gonna tell you anything that you're gonna do
between here and here,
But when you get past there, I gotta stop you,
I had to fight for my, um,,,
my,,, creative freedom, you know, my artistic freedom,
my right to produce, my right to,,, to write,
Marvin was working on something,
I didn't know what he was working on,
I talked with him in understanding
that that there were boundaries,
but he said, "No, I'm gonna do this the way that I see it,"
Him doing all of those vocals
and the layering and the sound of it,
he had found the place in himself,
One, two, three, four,
♪ Oh, mother, mother ♪
♪ There's too many of you crying ♪
♪ Brother, brother, brother ♪
♪ There's far too many of you dying ♪
♪ You know we've got to find a way ♪
♪ Got to find a way ♪
♪ To bring some loving here today ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Father, father ♪
♪ We don't need to escalate ♪
♪ You see, war is not the answer ♪
♪ For only love can conquer hate ♪
♪ You know we've got to find a way ♪
♪ To bring some loving here today ♪
♪ Oh-oh-ho ♪
-♪ Picket lines ♪ -♪ Sister
-♪ And picket signs ♪ -♪ Sister ♪
-♪ Don't punish me ♪ -♪ Sister ♪
-♪ With brutality ♪ -♪ Sister ♪
-♪ Talk to me ♪ -♪ Sister ♪
-♪ So you can see ♪ -♪ Sister ♪
-♪ Oh what's going on ♪ -♪ What's going on ♪
-♪ What's going on ♪
-♪ Yeah, what's going on ♪ -♪ What's going on ♪
-♪ Oh, what's going on ♪ -♪ What's going on ♪
♪ Oh, now ♪
Whoo! Right on, baby,
Right on,
The value
of what he was writing was so,,, artistic,
His production was brilliant,
And he would sing with himself,
And we recorded Marvin on top of Marvin
on top of Marvin,
But I was against him writing about trigger-happy police
and stuff about the world with Vietnam
and this and that and so forth,
I said, "Well, we can't do that,"
I couldn't believe that sat on a shelf
because Motown was kind of afraid of it,
They didn't think people could deal with those issues,
They wanted to keep it light and fluffy, but,,,,
he had hit the vein, he had hit the real thing,
I was just concerned about
getting off-track with the Motown brand,
And I was not always right, and this was one case where
Marvin came back and threw it in my face, you know,
"Hey, you taught us this, you told us, you know,
look at what's happening, write what you feel,
And I got a brother in Vietnam, You don't understand,
And the pollution out there, you know, and that's the truth,
And you've always said to do that,
so what are you talking about?"
I said, "Well, uh,,, you know, um,,,
Yeah, well, I can't really disagree with you on that,"
♪ Mother, mother ♪
♪ Everybody thinks we're wrong, yes, they do ♪
♪ Mamma, who are they to judge us ♪
♪ Simply cos our hair is long? ♪
♪ People you, you, you know ♪
♪ We've got to find a way ♪
♪ To bring some understanding here today ♪
♪ Picket lines ♪
♪ And picket signs ♪
♪ People, don't punish me ♪
♪ With brutality ♪
♪ Talk to me, talk to me ♪
♪ Talk to me so you can see ♪
♪ What's going on ♪
♪ Yeah, what's going on ♪
♪ I wanna know what's going on ♪
♪ All right,,, ♪
I could not possibly tell you
what my favorite song is,
My favorite album is What's Going On,
It is my favorite album,
I haven't heard anything before that or since then
that takes the place of that being my favorite album,
Marvin was correct,
God did write it,
It's prophecy,
It's more poignant today than it was when it came out,
Well, you could play that here on the streets
when we're having all of the shootings,
Play that song right now, It's needed,
You know, maybe that'll make us, like,
take a couple of steps back
and treat people a little better,
Mr Gordy had a very specific vision,
We weren't gonna talk politics,
cos we were gonna keep it commercial,
and then it becomes out of your control,
These artists that he created
were developing and growing his company
into places that he didn't even think that he could take it,
You can have the greatest assembly line in the world,
but people are not cars,
And eventually, they are going to express themselves
outside of the system,
They saw, say, my career or Marvin's career
in a certain kinda way,
and we said, "No, we don't see that,
We wanna do it differently,"
And as far as me and my life,
it was just evolving from one step to the next
and learning and not being stuck
on any idea that didn't make sense,
I now had felt that the idea of reflecting the world
was not a bad idea at all,
When we were in prison, we appreciated
and avidly listened to the sound of Detroit,
Motor Town,
Today, in a time where things
are sort of turbulent in the world,
the challenge is to again
be the loudest bell that you hear ringing
that will encourage people to do and be better,
We can't seem to agree on what we all wanna hear any more,
And we don't realize that we need
music that speaks to our hearts,
so we can say, "Ah, yeah, that's the way I feel,"
Over the years, this room has hosted
some of the most talented musicians in the world,
from classical to country,
But Motown is different,
Born at a time of so much struggle,
so much strife, it taught as that what unites us
will always be stronger than what divides us,
So, today, more than 50 years later,
that's the Motown legacy,
You could start something with nothing,
and it ends up being internationally something,
Yes, it's,,, it's,,,
Motown is a great example of the American dream,
I think the Motown legacy's just the culture,
it's part of the culture of the United States,
It's not just black culture,
it's the country, it's everybody,
It was all a divine movement for a purpose,
To let other talented people know
you don't have to suffer under the system,
Create for yourself,
And so Motown became a model,
People come from all over this planet
to visit this little house Hitsville USA in Detroit,
because this music made its way across the globe,
and this music represented the fabric of their lives,
in the same way it did for those of us in Detroit,
I celebrate a time in space as a little kid,
who didn't really understand it, but the older I got,
the more I can appreciate how it is a stamp on society
that will never, ever be forgotten,
I can't sum up Motown
but I sure am glad to have been a part of it,
To produce music that will endure past my lifetime,
it's special,
I would never change it in a million years,
I would have done one thing,
I would have done it a little slower
so I would have enjoyed it more,
The more and more I think about it,
I don't know how the hell it happened in the first place,
It was magnetic,
All that stuff there in one city called Detroit,
Mm-hm,
Every city, every town, every,,, every place
probably on earth, ratio-wise, with the talent we had
has the same amount of talent,
They just don't have a Berry Gordy to pull that off,
Yeah, I think the secret, you know,,,
You the secret, brother,
Thank you, that's great, That's wonderful, man,
But I'm just saying my thing was to bring
the best out of other people,
Cos I couldn't do what you did,
I couldn't write as well as you or sing as well as you,
but if I make them the best they could be,
then I could reach my potential in some way,
But all I wanted to do in those days
was make some money, make some music,
and get some girls,
-You know,,, -And you did all that,
♪ Ain't no mountain high enough ♪
♪ Ain't no valley low enough ♪
♪ Ain't no river wide enough ♪
♪ To keep me from you ♪
♪ Ain't no mountain high enough ♪
♪ Ain't no valley low enough ♪
♪ Ain't no river wide enough ♪
♪ To keep me from you ♪
♪ Ain't no mountain high enough ♪
♪ Nothing can keep me ♪
♪ Keep me from you,,, ♪
One of the key points that kind of pulled us together,
which was very unusual,
is we had a company song,
Don't ask me to sing it,
I wasn't too good with the comments,
We watched their mouths
to see if they could remember it,
And they would say, "No,,,"
"We are,,," I'm not gonna sing it,
♪ We are a very swinging company ♪
♪ We are a very famous company ♪
♪ We're a very happy family ♪
♪ Oh, we are,,, ♪
♪ We are a happy swinging company ♪
That's all I know,
"Swinging,,, company,,,"
♪ Workin' hard from day to day ♪
No, I won't do this, I will not do it!
Now you got me mixed up,
I've known that song really well,
♪ No one has more energy ♪
♪ No one,,, can you find more unity ♪
♪ Than at Hitsville ♪
♪ USA! ♪
I can see it, I can see the, um,,, the lyrics,
♪ Our employees must be neat and clean ♪
♪ And really have something on the ball ♪
♪ Da-da-da ♪
♪ Honesty is our only policy ♪
♪ We're all for one ♪
♪ And one for all ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ We have a very swinging company ♪
♪ Working hard from day to day ♪
♪ Nowhere will you find more unity ♪
-♪ Than at Hitsville ♪ -Bang!
-♪ I said Hitsville ♪ -Bang!
♪ Than at Hitsville USA! ♪
And then we say, "One more time!"
-♪ I said Hitsville ♪ -Bang!
♪ Than at Hitsville USA! ♪
♪ Whenever I'm with him ♪
♪ Something inside ♪
♪ Starts to burning ♪
♪ And I'm filled with desire ♪
♪ Could it be a devil in me ♪
♪ Or is this the way love's supposed to be? ♪
♪ It's like a heat wave ♪
♪ Burning in my heart ♪
♪ I can't keep from crying ♪
♪ It's tearing me apart ♪
♪ Whenever he calls my name ♪
♪ Soft, low, sweet and plain ♪
♪ Right then, right there ♪
♪ I feel that burning flame ♪
♪ Has high blood pressure got a hold on me ♪
♪ Or is this the way love's supposed to be? ♪
♪ It's like a heat wave ♪
♪ Burning in my heart ♪
♪ I can't keep from crying ♪
♪ It's tearing me apart ♪
♪ Heat wave! ♪
♪ Sometimes I stare in space ♪
♪ Tears all over my face ♪
♪ I can't explain it, don't understand it ♪
♪ I ain't never felt like this before ♪
♪ Now that funny feeling has me amazed ♪
♪ Don't know what to do, my head's in a haze ♪
♪ It's like a heat wave ♪
♪ Burning in my heart ♪
♪ I can't keep from crying ♪
♪ It's tearing me apart,,, ♪