VIOLIN PLAYS
DOOR SLAMS - BERRY GORDY: Hi, Mr McLean.
Uh, you're not joining the meeting, are you?
MR MCLEAN: Uh... that's what I came here for.
BERRY GORDY: The door is locked at a certain time and, you know, no-one comes in.
MR MCLEAN: I didn't know that. I heard a rumour about...
something about locking people out, but I never...
LAUGHTER
BERRY GORDY: Yeah, well, you know, I'm sorry.
MR MCLEAN: I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm late.
BERRY GORDY: No, but so am I, but you're gonna be able to stay.
I'd 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,
cos if the records are not created properly, then we have a bad image out there.
Luckily for us we, have one record in the top ten this week
which is always good, which is the Marvin and Tammi record.
The artists that are wide open for releases are Diana Ross and the Supremes,
which we're working on heavily.
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.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and The Pips.
Edwin Starr, we're gonna release his thing.
Martha was just sort of cleared up here, we're gonna release her thing.
Jr. Walker has a couple of things... - PAGE TURNS
And then we have this thing on the Isley Brothers.
We will not compromise on quality.
I hear many producers talking about, you know,
they don't get releases and this and that.
A person can stay here ten years
and if 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.
MUSIC: "Get Ready" by The Temptations ♪ One, two, three, four ♪
BERRY GORDY: 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 alright ♪
♪ Whenever I'm asked who makes my dreams real ♪
♪ I say that 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, so get ready ♪
♪ I'm gonna try to make love to you So get ready, so get ready, here I come ♪
BERRY GORDY: I was always the hustler,
trying to make money, trying to better myself.
Somehow, I was fascinated by everybody being the same, you know?
White and black, they stubbed their toe, they hurt.
There's 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 could make a lot more money if I sell it to white people, too.
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
One day, I decided to go downtown,
take my little black papers in the white neighbourhood
and I sold more papers than I'd ever sold before.
And I took my brother down the next week.
I said, "We're gonna get rich, baby."
We went down to the white neighbourhood and we sold nothing.
You know, it was my first lesson.
One black kid is cute, two were a threat to the neighbourhood.
HE LAUGHS
REPORTER: 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 fulfiiment.
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.
BERRY GORDY: My starting in the music business was an evolution.
Of course, this was over a period of years.
I was the shoeshine boy, a boxer, I was writing songs.
But if I had just right away made money,
I don't know what might have 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 realise 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, "Look, if you want Muddy Waters, go down to Hay Street."
They sell Muddy Waters. I ain't got it and 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."
ll mean, how many times can you say that in how many different ways?
But the people in Detroit who worked at the factories,
they wanted the blues, and so I realised it was that simplicity in the music
that people understood and people felt good about.
So, I did get the blues,
but it was too late for the change on 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.
MACHINERY WHIRS
INTRO TO "YOU KEEP ME HANGING' ON" PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: The factory had this assembly line...
INTRO TO "YOU KEEP ME HANGING' ON" PLAYS - MACHINERY WHIRS
And I would see the cars start out a bare metal frame and go around in a circle
and different stations would put things on there
and they would go out another door a brand new car.
I said, "My goodness, I can do that through people."
Of course, everybody laughed at me and said, "No, that's ridiculous."
You can't take human beings and treat them like cars. ""
I said "No, I'm not gonna do that."
Everybody's gonna have their own personality, but I got this idea.
One station here, producers 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 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.
SLOW JAZZ PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: There are so many unsung heroes
and people that were just part of the team, part of the effort
but there was no bond 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 Smoke.
You know, just Berry and Smoke.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: 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.
Coming back to Detroit, you know,
getting these thoughts and memories and reflections
is just incredible, you know?
SMOKEY ROBINSON: And you know something else I think about, man?
I used to be riding with you when they first got the record players in the car.
Yeah, yeah.
And you'd be driving and you'd be ducking your head under it.
"Where's that new Supremes record, man?" - BERRY LAUGHS
"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," you know?
And he said, "Yeah," he said, “I'm Berry Gordy."
What?
"The Berry Gordy who wrote Reet Petite?"
MUSIC: "Reet Petite" by Jackie Wilson ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Reet petite, the finest girl you ever want to meet ♪
"You're Berry Gordy?"
I said, "Yeah. The 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 got to be like a short story"
with the beginning and the middle and the ending tying together."
He said, "You rhyme stuff really well,"
he said, "but your songs are just rambling, you know?"
Which they were. And so he started to mentor me.
♪ Walked all day till my feet were tired ♪
The first record that we ever recorded was a song called "Got A Job"
and Berry would produce records on us and put 'em with other record companies
cos Berry hadn't started Motown yet.
"Got A Job" was in the top five of the R&B charts
so we know that he sold some records.
♪ 1 got a job ♪ - When it came time to pay the royalties,
this guy sent Berry a check for $3.19 cents.
Back in those days, man, they paid you if they wanted to.
If they didn't, they didn't pay you. Especially if you were black.
BERRY GORDY: So, Smoky said, "If this is the kind of money you're gonna get",
you might as well be in business for yourself."
So, shortly after that, he started Motown, and, um...
the rest is history, man. HE LAUGHS
PIANO PLAYS
♪ Ooooh ♪
BERRY GORDY: Every family needs a home,
and it was my then assistant and future wife Raynoma
who found the two-storey house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard.
And the fact that it was in the neighbourhood,
it was on West Grand Boulevard at 12th Street.
You don't get more hood than that.
BERRY GORDY: 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 Sr and Bertha Ida Gordy.
They raised their children in an entrepreneurial environment.
BERRY GORDY: 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.
BERRY GORDY: She was tough with money. - ROBIN TERRY: Yes.
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.
BERRY GORDY: Yeah, this was the magic room.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: We started off with one track.
Everything was on one track, then we got two tracks
we thought we were the most innovative people in the world.
We could put our lead singer in there, have them separate.
Always looking for magic, always looking for that magical sound, you know?
Or to be with him doing the mix. You know, he'd mix it.
He'd do, like, 327 mixes on one tune...
and use number two.
THEY LAUGH - He was notorious for that.
"Oh, Berry's gonna mix it." "No, no, please!
Please, don't let Berry mix the tune."
Sometimes you have it perfect and you want to just get it better.
You want to get it better.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: They said we want the Motown.
No-one can duplicate our sound, because even though I didn't think it was that good
you know, he thought it was great.
SMOKEY: There was arguments about that, man.
Like, man, are you kidding? New York is trying to get our sound.
They're sending people here to record in Detroit
thinking they're gonna get our sound.
But they couldn't get our sound, because our echo chamber
was the bathroom upstairs.
BERRY GORDY: 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. HE LAUGHS
SMOKEY ROBINSON: This is it.
SMOKEY: I remember "Shop Around," which was the first million-seller for Motown.
Took 20 minutes to write. It just flowed out.
So I ran to Berry's office, I said, "I've got it, Berry."
He said, "Let me hear it, man." So, we go down to the piano room.
SMOKEY SINGS: ♪ Just because you've become a young man now ♪
♪ There's still 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, you know?
Three o'clock in the morning, one morning, my phone rings.
PHONE RINGS
"Hello."
"Smoke?" I said, "Yeah?"
He said, "It's me, Berry, man." I said, "I know, man. I recognised your voice."
He said, "What's happening?"
I said, "What do you think is happening, man?" I say...
"I'm asleep. What's happening with you?"
"Shop Around won't let me sleep, man."
See, well, I just didn't feel right about the record, man.
We didn't have the magic.
He said, "Well, I'm gonna change everything about it."
I'm gonna change the beat, I'm gonna change the sound.
"I'm gonna change the feeling. I'm changing everything."
And I said, "OK man, that's cool."
I said, "I'll see you tomorrow." He said, "No, no, no. I mean right now."
THEY LAUGH Three o'clock in the morning.
So, we came over here and everybody showed up, like I told you
.
And "Shop Around" then went to number one.
The first million seller was his redo of it, after the record had been out.
SMOKEY: Now I want you to get ready. - CROWD CHEERS
DRUMS PLAY
♪ 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 mama told me, you'd better shop around ♪
♪ Oh yeah, you'd better shop around ♪
But that's how we did stuff, we didn't care, he didn't care
cos 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
you know what I mean?
♪ Before you take a girl and say I do, now ♪
♪ Make sure she's in love with-a you now ♪
♪ My mama told me, tell 'em, you'd better shop around ♪
♪ Feel alright ♪
♪ Woo! ♪
♪ Oh, oh ♪
Motown was able to accomplish everything that they accomplished
because they were self-sufficient.
When you can just do what you want without somebody breathing over your neck
telling you what you should or shouldn't do,
that's when the real magic starts to happen.
SOUL MUSIC PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: To be successful in the music business,
you've got to have hit records.
I'm a producer, I'm a writer, I'm a this, I'm a 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 on the top of the totem pole.
I was, like, "the man" because I wrote the songs, I produced 'em,
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 I had a little genius on my hands, you know?
HE SINGS ALONG: ♪ / would build you a castle with a tower so high ♪
♪ It reaches the moon ♪
MUSIC: "I'll Try Something New" by The Miracles
"Give you lovin' warm as Mama'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 I was... my throne is... - SMOKEY LAUGHS
Here's a guy that's writing a song that I could not ever think of
and I was a songwriter, I was the 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,
- Oh, please! - You know?
But that was out of the question.
You're hearing this story from Casanova himself.
No, no. "You're hearing this story from Casanova himself,"
- you know? I mean... - Exactly!
THEY LAUGH
You know, Bob Dylan's called him America's greatest poet
and he really did write poetry.
He was so honest, so straightforward.
I mean, the lyrics don't take a lot to decipher
but then you realise 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. - THEY LAUGH
My key writing team was Smokey Robinson and Holland-Dozier-Holland.
EDDIE 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.
LAMONT DOZIER: 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 sitting there waiting.
"You know, shoot 'em to me and I'll jump on the lyrics."
And that became Holland-Dozier-Holland, you know,
it became a factory within a factory.
JAMIE FOXX: There was somebody in every corner writing a song
and they were young, and these guys were coming up 17, 18, 19.
They were young, so Berry was like a coach, you know?
With a great, young, talented team
and everybody was trying to play their best game.
NORMAN WHITFIELD: Berry was very patient with me.
At the time, I think I was a secretary
and that was in order to justify the $30 a week I was getting.
Norman hung around here for years
before he even got a chance to get in the studio to do any records.
BERRY GORDY: 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 writer and producer team out of New York.
VALERIE SIMPSON: When we landed, we were, like, so excited.
Motown, we've arrived. As songwriters, this is a dream come true.
And we got in a taxi. We said "Well, take us to Motown"
and we got down to the two little buildings on West Grand Boulevard.
NICK ASHFORD: I said, "Hey, look, we want to go to the main office."
He said, "This is the only Motown I know.” - That little "Hitsville U.S.A."
But the hits were coming out of that little building.
Norman Whitfield, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey, they were all the greatest.
They were coming up with songs that you say... 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.
MUSIC: "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes
BERRY GORDY: Being a teacher
also means finding ways to unlock people's true potential
and at Motown, we took that very seriously.
STEVIE WONDER: 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 realised.
Marvin wanted to be another Frank Sinatra
but that really wasn't his style, but he is so good looking.
SHE LAUGHS
It's a little difficult trying to sing behind him
and look at him at the same time.
BERRY GORDY: He wanted to change his career many times, you know?
One time he wanted to be a football player. - WHISTLE BLOWS
A boxer, you know. - BOXING BELL RINGS
He wanted to be an astronaut... - COMMS CHATTER
You know, and I'm saying, "Marvin, you know, you're a singer."
MARVIN GAYE: You know, I started at Motown as a jazz singer.
I couldn't sell a bean.
I was sitting at the piano all night in a very depressed mood.
So anyway, Berry blase-d in.
So, he stopped me, he said, "Listen, what are you doing?
What are you singing there?" So, I said "It's a song I'm writing."
It was a jazz version, I would say.
HE SINGS
You know, very jazzy, you know.
He said, "Yeah, but that's not gonna sell any records."
I said, "Oh, well, you know, I thought I'd give it the old try."
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.
MARVIN GAYE: So anyway, Berry said...
I said "Oh, man, that's killing my jazz, man."
So then, he sings...
So ll said, "Oh, well, for Heaven's sakes."
He said, "Now, right here a group can say..."
CROWD CHEERS
He finished it up and I said, "Listen, it'll never sell a thing."
And as it turned out, it was a great big smash.
MUSIC: "Stubborn Kind Of Fellow" by Marvin Gaye
♪ Qooohhhhh, hey, hey ♪
♪ 1 try to put my arms around you All because I want to hold you tight ♪
♪ Hold you tight ♪
♪ Every time I reach for you, baby Try to kiss you, you jump ♪
♪ Ooh! ♪ ♪ Out of sight (Out of sight) ♪
♪ Hey now, I've got news for you Don't you know I've made plans for two ♪
♪ 1 guess I'm a stubborn kind of fellow Got my mind made up to love you ♪
♪ Oooh ♪
♪ Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
VALERIE SIMPSON: Berry made us great.
I can't think of no other record company where the head could sit down
and write a song as well as he could.
HE SINGS: ♪ Mmm, mm mm mm ♪
♪ Say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Say yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
HE GRUNTS THE TUNE Y'know?
SOUL MUSIC PLAYS
So, I came to Berry to be an artist, you know?
I was saying to myself, I'm gonna be the next Jackie Wilson.
So, Berry said, "I heard you write songs and everything.
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 out of here. I'm done with this.
BERRY GORDY: He was so fast talking. Slick, you know, from the street.
And so, I said, "Well, Mickey, what else can you do?"
Can you do ARR?"
MICKEY: You know, artist and repertoire.
You handle the artists and the music and all that.
And he says, "Whatever it is, I can do it."
If it's anything to do with music, man, I'm all over it, man."
MICKEY STEVENSON: I say, "I record anybody I wanna record?"
"Anybody you wanna record."
I said, "Can I record myself?" HE LAUGHS
Berry told Mickey he wanted a house band.
BERRY GORDY: What we're missing is a band who can play funky.
And he said, "I've got a session coming up." I said, "Don't worry about it."
"know guys that are so funky they out-funk themselves."
MICKEY STEVENSON: And the best musicians were the jazz musicians
and the brothers in Detroit, they weren't making any money
cos they weren't getting the respect for what they were doing
but they were still great.
BERRY GORDY: It's hard to define just how important Detroit was to Motown.
SUZANNE DE PASSE: 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.
I mean, between the church and the clubs and the corner,
there was a lot going on.
The groups that we had and 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 out of here."
"And get off the corner."
BOYS SING
BERRY GORDY: They were so smart.
He said something about "my mama", that was called the Dozens.
And I said, "Wait a minute. I don't want you talking about my mama. I don't play that."
"Oh, you don't play that? Well, then pat your foot while I play it."
You know, then he would do the hambone on me.
You don't do the hambone, man? I didn't think you could hambone.
I hambone, I...
SMOKEY LAUGHS
Boy, that used to be the thing, the hambone. I'm telling you.
Yeah, and I'd do that and then I would make up a song, yeah.
"Me and your momma." THEY LAUGH
ROBIN TERRY: 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.
MICKEY STEVENSON: So, I would pick 'em.
I finally put together a great unit of guys.
And they became the Funk Brothers and they became our house band.
We hired the jazz musicians cos they were smarter than normal musicians.
They could do all this stuff.
But Jamerson, who was always doing up beats and down beats and jazzy things,
he would get off the beat.
I'd look around, 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.
Da da da da da da da da! Doom, doom, doom, doom-doom.
You know, and he was right on the... and I would get him and I'd get there
and he was sounding so good, I said, "That's pretty good."
Can you do that riff again?"
STEVIE WONDER: When I think of Benny Benjamin and James Jamerson,
and Robert White and Earl Van Dyke, Thomasina and on and on and on,
you've got to 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 out of high school.
PAUL RISER: 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 programme 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 see the Detroit Symphony.
I saw them playing violins, French horns and oboes and bassoons...
SYMPHONY PLAYS
I thought that was the greatest sound ever, you know what I mean?
So that's what got me going.
Was something about what was in that soil in Detroit, you know,
that just sort of... folks came up.
JOHN LEGEND: 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 actually playing real instruments back then too,
like, they actually could play the piano and play the drums
and no machines needed. HE LAUGHS
R&B MUSIC PLAYS
I didn't know much about Hitsville U.S.A. because I lived on the east side.
Anyway, I dared take that coach and go to 2648 West Grand Boulevard,
and what a world I walked into.
MICKEY STEVENSON: She came to audition a few times.
I would find nice ways of saying, "Martha, you know, come back later."
And I must have 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.
MICKEY STEVENSON: I walk in my office, and before I could speak, she says,
"You've got an important call from such and such and so and so,
and this one right here, and I think you ought to answer this line right here."
So I said, "Martha, how would you like to work as my secretary?"
She says, "OK."
MARTHA REEVES: It was just everybody working in the same spirit,
everybody with 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, saying,
"Well, you're doing a session in there and the Union guy is coming."
You know, "The Union guy is coming!"
We told Mickey, "Man, we've got to put somebody on the mic."
His secretary overheard it. "I'll do it!"
That was the chance she was waiting for all this time.
MUSIC: "Dancing In The Street" by Martha & The Vandellas
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 have a preacher.
He 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 kind of 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 ♪
♪ There'll be dancing... ♪
MARY WILSON: And these were exciting times
because it's the first time you're hearing, you know, rock and roll
in our city and people that we knew.
♪ Across the nation ♪
MARTHA REEVES: I witnessed Stevie Wonder
coming to Hitsville.
STEVIE WONDER: I was, what, 11 years old when I went to Motown.
That particular day, Smokey was at Motown, and he said, you know,
"I heard you can sing." I said, "Yeah, I can sing even better than you."
I was like, you know, a little smart-mouthed kid.
Everything Stevie played looked genius.
MARY WILSON: But we didn't know what a genius was, right?
STEVIE WONDER: For me, it was like going into a candy shop.
A place where all these instruments were around.
MARTHA REEVES: So, he sat down at that big, long grand piano
and he played it as if he had known Liberace himself.
I said, "My, this baby's talented."
He went to the full set of drums. He was so good.
When he jumped on the organ, played the organ.
Sat him on a stool and gave him the bongos.
Next, he stood up and he took a little harmonica out of his pocket.
He could play everything.
And we were like, OK, that's what a 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."
HE HUMS A TUNE
I think until I got to Diana Ross and I heard that voice. It was like, OK, I'm in love.
You know, goodbye instruments.
HARMONICA PLAYS
BAND PLAYS - CROWD CHEERS
How about it, ladies and gentlemen? A cheer for the young man, Stevie Wonder.
BERRY: He even wrote a song at the Apollo. - SMOKEY: Yeah.
Called "Fingertips," which went to number one, I believe.
BERRY GORDY: Because he wanted to get more excitement,
so he came out for his bow.
Instead of taking a bow,
he told the audience, "Clap your hands just a little bit louder.
Clap your hands just a little bit louder!"
STEVIE SINGS: ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Clap your hands just a little bit louder ♪
BERRY SINGS: ♪ Clap your hands just a little... ♪
You know, and everybody started getting up going and everything
and it got good to him,
and the people was clapping their hands and he wrote a song.
♪ Everybody say yeah! ♪ - CROWD: Yeah!
♪ Say yeah! ♪ - CROWD: Yeah!
♪ Yeah ♪ - CROWD: Yeah!
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
HARMONICA PLAYS
STEVIE WONDER: That particular night was an amazing night.
The girls were screaming and all this kind of 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.
We blew the house out.
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Now goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye ♪
♪ Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye ♪
MARY WILSON: 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 the piano over in the corner.
You would see the Holland Brothers running down with their music
saying, "Man, I think it should be like this."
LAMONT DOZIER: It was upstairs in the hallway of the house
and I was just banging... HE HUMS
SMOKEY: I said, man, that's really funky, man. What's the name of that?
He looked at me and said, "I don't know yet."
LAMONT DOZIER: I said, "Man, what you gonna do with that?"
Is somebody gonna sing it or what?" I said, "You want it?"
SMOKEY: I said yeah! - LAMONT: By the following Monday,
we had everybody come in and putting background.
MARTHA REEVES: Smokey, coming into the reception area,
I think the Supremes were sitting there too.
And he said, "I want everybody to come in the studio!"
Just like that, in his pretty voice.
He said, "Repeat after me."
"Come on, is everybody ready? Yeah!"
SMOKEY ROBINSON: Alright, is everybody ready? - ALL: Yeah!
SMOKEY ROBINSON: "Mickey's Monkey," singing on that, of course, is the Miracles.
LAMONT DOZIER: Martha and the Vandellas.
SMOKEY: Two of the Temptations. - LAMONT: The Marvelettes.
SMOKEY: Mary Wilson.
LAMONT: Probably had more artists on it than any other song that I could remember.
MARTHA REEVES: He said "OK, start the music, come on!"
SHE SINGS ♪ Lum di lum di lie ♪
MUSIC: "Mickey's Monkey" by The Miracles ♪ Lum di lum di lie ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Alright ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ This cat named Mickey came from out of town, yeah ♪
♪ He was spreading a new dance all around ♪
♪ In just a matter of a few days, yeah ♪
SMOKEY ROBINSON: It was the young people making music, getting our feet wet.
I think that the way we had Motown was a once in a lifetime musical event.
JAMIE FOXX: You can never get the amount of talent
that was in one room in Motown.
Stevland, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, the Supremes.
Oh, 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 Give me baby, baby ♪
♪ Give me baby, baby Give me baby ♪
ROCK N ROLL MUSIC PLAYS
SHELLY BERGER: I got a telephone call from Mr Gordy one night.
"Listen, we just signed this group called the Jackson Five.
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 Loving You."
There is talent and there is talent
and there is talent, and then there's a genius.
And then he said... ♪ When I... ♪
♪ When I had you ♪
♪ [ Treated you bad ♪
♪ And wrong, my dear ♪
♪ And ever since you've been away ♪
♪ Don't ya know [ sit around with my head hanging down ♪
♪ And I wonder ♪
♪ Who's loving you ♪
And the only songs we learned back in those days was the Motown songs,
cos they were the biggest songs on the radio
and actually, you know, we were in the recording studio after that.
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 Loving You,"
especially young people, they go to me, "Why'd you sing Michael Jackson's song?"
"Oh, Michael Jackson's song? I wrote this song before Michael Jackson was born."
THEY LAUGH He has... That's his song now.
"Who's Loving You" is Michael Jackson's song
and all the people that you hear singing it now, sing it like him.
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: As the company grew, so did the challenges of managing a team.
I realised 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 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 the competition get in the way of the love.
If you were 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 they become successful,
everybody has an opportunity to work with that artist as well.
So, artists would love that.
You take love out the picture - it's ego, jealousy.
Stuff that can kill any organisation.
MELVIN FRANKLIN: I always asked...
But he couldn't, he was writing material for the Miracles and for Mary Wells.
The best thing that happened for the Temptations
was when Mary Wells left the company.
That opened him up for us.
The Temptations, we were trying to get some hits on them.
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' voice to sing lead vocal.
♪ You got a smile so bright ♪
♪ You know you could've been a candle ♪
OTIS WILLIAMS: So I looked at the lyrics, I said,
"Got a smile so bright, you could've been a candle.
That's some hokey sh... Mm, yeah, Smokey would just laugh and say, "Yeah."
♪ Swept me off my feet ♪
SMOKEY ROBINSON: My greatest competitor
for getting music out on the Temptations was Normal Whitfield.
They had a contest to see who could 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 and he said,
"If he will write the lyric for me, then get this, the release on them."”
I said, "Man, leave the Temptations alone."
Now you know darn well, trying to beat Smokey out, you've got problems."
He said, "Ed, Ed. I think this is it."
MUSIC: "Girl, Why You Wanna Make Me Blue" by The Temptations
BERRY GORDY: 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 ♪
SMOKEY ROBINSON: And they were all using Eddie Kendricks to sing the lead
cos that was the first hit they ever had.
Heck, I knew Paul Williams and David Ruff in were in that group, man,
who were awesome singers, so I wanted to write something for them.
♪ Girl, girl, girl ♪
BERRY GORDY: Everybody was bragging about Norman knocking him out,
so when he said, "I've got a new record on the Temptations to follow up My Guy..."
♪ Nothing you can say could tear me away from my guy ♪
BERRY GORDY: 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 the most ridiculous thing we ever heard.
THEY LAUGH
ll mean, you come up with "My Guy,” you can't come up with "My Girl.”
What you gonna do, "My Mother-in-Law" you know, "My Wife"?
SMOKEY ROBINSON: I was actually writing "My Girl"
because I thought that David Ruff in had such a great voice.
He had this unique voice and I just wanted it to be kind of, like, isolated.
So, we were recording it,
you know, we were running it down and I had Jamerson play...
HE PLAYS RIFF
So, we were just still running it down.
We hadn't even started to record it yet and Robert White,
you know, he was the lead guitarist for the Funk Brothers,
Robert stood up and started walking around the studio with his guitar
and he was just playing, bom, bom-bom bom-bom bom, bom,
just walking around.
And he started laughing, "Oh no, no, no, no, man. No, no, no."
And I said "No, no, no, no? Are you kidding?"
BERRY LAUGHS - That's in the record! That's on the thing.
And it became one of the most famous guitar riffs ever
and he was just kidding around.
MUSIC: "My Girl" by The Temptations
OTIS WILLIAMS: We were appearing at the 20 Grand...
CROWD CHEERS 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 I think will be a smash."
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'd say What can make me feel this way? ♪
♪ My girl (My girl, my girl) ♪
♪ Talking about 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 "My Girl" as you hear it today.
MUSIC: "My Girl" by the Temptations
♪ My girl (My girl, my girl) ♪
♪ Talking about my girl (My girl) ♪
♪ Ooooh-ooh ♪
NORMAN WHITFIELD: Smokey Robinson sent a record up there called "My Girl."
I refused to go in the studio. I was just totally wiped out.
OTIS WILLIAMS: February 1965, Mr Gordy sent us a congratulation telegram.
It 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. HE LAUGHS
♪ I don't need no money, fortune or fame ♪
♪ I've got all the riches, baby One man can claim ♪
SMOKEY ROBINSON: 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 and David Ruff in and Norman Whitfield,
I probably would have never even written "My Girl."
Berry wanted us to be competitive.
We were fiercely competitive against each other, but we helped each other.
The Motown family.
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: 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, it was to get hits.
So, if somebody's record was better than yours,
you're looking at the company as a whole.
Those quality control meetings were beautiful and loving, but vicious.
BERRY GORDY ON TAPE: OK, can we finish our meeting here? It's afternoon now.
BARNEY ALES: We're getting to the conclusions of assignments,
a decision will be made on the Temptations record, which side is it?
SMOKEY ROBINSON: "My Girl." - BARNEY: "My Girl"?
BERRY: How many think that's not a hit? How many think it is a hit?
How many's undecided?
OK, what are your comments?
THEY LAUGH - BARNEY: No, you can't pass.
HAY FALE: That's not fair!
BARNEY: You think it's a hit record?
To be in there with a bunch of guys that you're competing with
and yet they're constructively giving you some information
that they think will make your product better.
LITTLE RICHARD: You could tell that the writers had been sit down
and talked to and trained. The beat was solid.
Old Jamerson had that base out there, you understand me?
It was way out there. They didn't just throw a record out.
You could tell that record was docked on, it was nourished, it was beat.
You're talking about some whoop, you know? It was whooped.
"Tracks Of My Tears" was one of those songs.
The first time I took it in there, you know, they listened to it and they said,
"Oh yeah, man, that's a good song.
That's really good, man, but you ended it up wrong."
MUSIC: "The Tracks of my Tears" ♪ So take a good look at my face ♪
♪ You'll see my smile.. ♪
SMOKEY ROBINSON: Cos I didn't end it up with the chorus.
It wasn't ending up with "Take a good look at my face," it wasn't ending with that.
I was ending it up with that lil groove thing, "I need you, need you"
and they all looked at me and say, "Are you crazy?"
As strong as the chorus is, you're gonna end that with that?"
♪ ll need you (Need you) ♪
"You've got to back and change that," so I did.
♪ Yeah, just look closer and it's easy to trace
♪ Oh, the tracks of my tears ♪
♪ Baby, baby, baby, baby ♪
♪ Take a good look at... ♪
♪ Oh yeah, you'll see my smile looks out of place ♪
♪ Look a little bit closer ♪
And so, they were cutthroat, but they were constructive.
There was nothing like it.
LAMONT DOZIER: Berry had a great ear.
He was always saying if you don't get 'em in the first four to eight bars,
you've got to go back to the drawing board.
He used to say that all the time.
"We've got to get 'em in the first ten seconds."
We used to try and go for these fabulous intros.
You know, something that would catch your attention immediately.
And that's...
HE SINGS INTRO TO "I CAN'T HELP MYSELF"
♪ Sugar pie, honey bunch ♪
MUSIC: "I Can't Help Myself" by Four Tops ♪ You know that I love you ♪
HE SINGS INTRO TO "GET READY"
MUSIC: "Get Ready" by the Temptations
Boom! ♪ I know you want to leave me ♪
MUSIC: "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by the Temptations
♪ I know you want to leave me ♪
♪ But I refuse to let you go ♪
We stopped the record, probably. Because sometimes I would stop.
"OK, 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 (Don't you go) ♪
BERRY GORDY: Everybody had to speak their truth, what their truths were.
You were free in here.
Whatever you say, it will never be held against you.
I challenge anybody, including me.
They save that for when Smokey had a song up against mine
and we had two songs, yeah? - SMOKEY LAUGHS
This is true, I speak the truth.
Not that it was actually their opinion, they just did that to get at you.
Oh no, no. Because they want to test me, always.
But when I had a record called "Temptations"...
SMOKEY: "Dream Come True." - "Dream Come True," that was it.
♪ Dream come true, da da da da, dream come true ♪
ll mean, it was phenomenal. - SMOKEY: It's a great record.
You know, his song was, compared to mine, you know, mediocre.
That was, you know... - SMOKEY LAUGHS
When I said, "How many people liked my song" and there was no hands went up
and Smokey, I saw him looking at people, you know?
SMOKEY LAUGHS - 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.
PIANO PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: 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.
It's nice to get the talent picture of what goes on behind the company,
there could be none better than Berry, naturally, who started it out.
And, of course, 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.
BERRY GORDY: 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.
BARNEY ALES: Him and I used to hang out together
and one night, I saw they got a great new restaurant
I'd just been going to the last month called the Chop House.
BERRY GORDY: We came in and they saw me with him
and they said, "I'm sorry, we don't serve black people here."
I said, "Easy, that's fantastic, cos I don't eat 'em."
And they looked at him and said, you know... and he... you know.
Then I got a little Sicilian.
BERRY GORDY: And we sat down and, of course,
people were staring at us and all that, but the point is that Barney didn't care.
BARNEY ALES: 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 won't like your music?"
You know, I said "I want all the people."
It's not black music. It's music by a black artist.
I can 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 gonna 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 kinda lent to the folklore of it
and, yeah, Barney looked like that Italian Mafioso guy.
BERRY GORDY: I mean, he got me in so much trouble.
"He's being run by the Mafia. You see that guy in there?
He can't even leave Detroit."
Remember when I told you that?
You know, I said, "Barney, you know",
you look like you could be the Mafia or something."
He said, "Yeah, well, that's served me well."
THEY LAUGH
Many times it gets your records played, you know?
And I was criticised by a lot of black people for having the white people there.
"He's a traitor! He won't hire black people."
It's like, "What do you mean? Come and look and see."
I've got a lot of black people, but I also got white people.”
It's not about whether you're black or white. I want to win.
In some cases the best person was white, other cases the best person was a woman.
The fact that there were women in key positions at Motown
seemed natural to me.
We drove her crazy. We got on her nerves.
MARLON JACKSON: I didn't realise, she was only 21.
JACKIE JACKSON: But at an early age she was very, very smart.
SUZANNE DE PASSE: I didn't realise how forward thinking it was
until I saw many other organisations
where there was not a reciprocal kind of picture.
All of 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,
Tsch, no woman in no key position making no decisions,
but he had 'em at Motown and he had black, white and Jews working at Motown,
so he wasn't stuck on a thing of, you know,
well, this is a black company, it's got to be all black.
The colour of business is green.
BERRY GORDY: You know, I got a lot of credit for all that
and sure, 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 WW? 2
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 and brand became that important.
If it's on Motown, that's the shit, you know?
You know, I'm buying it. I got to listen to it.
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
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 going to be as important as it was.
All of us were just, if an idea sounded good, we'd try it, you know?
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.
Then we had signed with Motown
and so we had to go through what everybody else at Motown 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 we knew we were a challenge.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: I don't care who you became, who you were, whatever.
Two days a week, when you were in Detroit,
you had to go down to this building, so we'd go over there.
You used to do stuff, and then sometimes you'd try to dance,
but you couldn't dance that well.
Wait a minute. What do you mean, man? I taught Michael, man.
MUSIC: "I Want You Back" by Jackson 5
THEY LAUGH
SMOKEY ROBINSON: Charlie Atkins was our choreographer
and he would stop and say, "Boy, I am so glad you're the lead singer,"
so I don't really have to try to show you these steps.
"You just stand over there and sing." THEY LAUGH
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 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.
And she said, "I don't teach you how to use a spoon or a fork."
You've got to learn that at home.
You know, I'll 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.
MARTHA REEVES: She was making us have self-confidence
and building our self-esteem.
Letting us know that we have to be socially accepted in order to do this.
To represent not only a kind of music, but the culture and spirit of a people.
Now, some black folks would be like,
"Man, why I got to do that?" You know what I'm saying?
"Why I got to 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? What happens to the art?"
Because Berry was like, the art is colourless.
The music has no colour. 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.
By the time we got to Motown, I didn't want to go to college,
you know, I'm like, "I want to make records."
MAXINE POWELL: 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 to me."
EDDIE HOLLAND: Who in the hell would have thought
all those different artists, the Supremes and people...
Oh my God, you should have seen those girls when they first came there!
You would have never believed it.
The fabulous Supremes. How about it, yeah?
CROWD CHEERS
MARTHA REEVES: So, they were waiting around
and they were being called the no-hit Supremes.
♪ Stop hurting me Hurting me (Hurting me) ♪
♪ Ooooh Now don't you think you're all... ♪
BERRY GORDY: I would tell the producers,
whatever it takes to get them a hit, we just 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.
And then Berry cut about three records on them, nothing happened.
♪ But my heart can't take it no more ♪
And then finally, Holland-Dozier-Holland,
who had actually written "Where Did Our Love Go" for the Marvelettes.
♪ Oh yes, wait a minute, Mr Postman ♪
♪ (Wait!) Wait, Mr Postman ♪
The Marvelettes didn't like it. They didn't wanna sing it.
I was talking to Gladys Horton and when she said,
"No, baby. We don't do stuff like that,"
I said, "What did you say?" HE LAUGHS
♪ You'd better wait a minute, wait a minute ♪
That was a first for me,
and so I said, "Man, I've got to find somebody to do this song."
I saw Mary Wilson one day. I said, "Mary, Mary, baby",
I've got this song I just finished for you guys!"
And she was like, "Yeah. Is this the song that you gave to Gladys?"
I said... "What are you talking about?"
MARY WILSON: I told Eddie Holland, I said, "Eddie, we need a hit",
cos 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, you know.
MUSIC: "Where Did Our Love Go" by the Supremes
I can't forget that name. It's like a nightmare.
MUSIC STOPS - THEY CHATTER
Ooh, man, Diana was upset and everything. She was gonna talk to Berry about it.
Berry came down and listened and he said,
"Well, wait a minute. This sounds like it could be something, you know?"
♪ Baby, baby ♪
♪ Baby, don't leave me ♪
♪ Ooh, please don't leave me All by myself ♪
♪ You came into my heart ♪
SMOKEY ROBINSON: When the record came out,
they were actually 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.
Phew!
Number one before you could say Jackie Robinson, you know?
♪ You were a perfect guy ♪
MARY WILSON: Then everybody at Motown was at our feet.
Now, we were no longer the no-hit Supremes.
EDDIE HOLLAND: And I was standing outside Motown,
Berry Gordy said to me, "Listen, concentrate on the girls."
This group will carry the company.”
MARY WILSON: I think we were the only girl group
to have five consecutive number ones.
Of course, Holland-Dozier-Holland did all these songs.
VALERIE SIMPSON: Holland-Dozier-Holland were the gods at Motown.
They were, like, right under Berry as far as I was concerned,
you know, 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.
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
COMPERE: From New York City,
the Apollo Theatre proudly presents the Motortown Revue!
We had written a song, we'd produced it, and we're now selling it.
We got this idea of taking the artist on the road with our own band.
Smokey always closed the shows, as 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 kind of stuff to move back in the show.
Whoever went on first would just do the best they could be.
You know, like, make the stage so hot, then it was, like, 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 loved the Miracles,
but I swear on the Bible when it comes to singing,
we tried to out-sing them suckers every time.
We loved the Tops, but when they would go out there
they'd talk about trying to kick our ass, so... pshh, "Brer, please."
You'd better back up before we act up, you know?"
When we brought that and started going through all that choreography
and throwing the microphone up and all that razzmatazz they was doing, please!
We baptised that ass in fire.
It's like chickens come out fighting. HE LAUGHS
The Tops made it hard for us because Levi Stubbs...
MUSIC: "Reach Out I'll Be There" by Four Tops - Levi Stubbs was no joke.
♪ Now if 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 falling down Darling... ♪
♪ Reach on out to me ♪
♪ I'll be there, to love and shelter you ♪
♪ I'll be there, to always see you through ♪
♪ When you feel lost and about to give up ♪
DUKE FAKIR: Now one thing we couldn't do, we couldn't outdance 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 Revue 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 against a seating partner.
CLAUDETTE ROBINSON: 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.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: When we first started going, especially to the Deep South,
Mississippi and all round in there, the gigs were very separated, man.
MARY WILSON: Living in Detroit, we had ethnic neighbourhoods,
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 hotels,
we weren't allowed to use the bathroom on the highway,
and to 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.
DUKE FAKIR: 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 out of here."
Now, I didn't know I was in a white waiting room.
I didn't know nothing about that, then. It scared the hell out of me, man.
I still feel that. Put that cold steel against my head, he scared the hell out of me.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: It was rough out there, man.
I mean, we've been shot at for wanting to go to the toilet.
You know, it's just crazy stuff.
We had a major problem in Northfork, Virginia.
We did a gig there and the whites were trying to start some crap.
The Temps was on the stage.
Tops and their crew were standing on the side of the stage
and then, when the Tops would go on, the Temps would re-position ourselves.
Even in our competition and trying to be flash and all that,
when push come to shove, we're still just working together.
OTIS WILLIAMS: So, we finished the show,
loading up the bus, cos we have to go to the next city,
and the next thing I heard, pow, pow, pow!
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.
MICKEY STEVENSON: We had assassinations, murders, race riots, kids being burned.
Burnt... kids being burnt. I mean, how do you...
You know, schools burned up.
Where is this coming from? Where are these people coming from?
The places that we played during the '60s, oh yeah, it was rough.
We played Columbia, South Carolina.
The first time we went there, there was a rope right down the centre 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 one 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
and all the kids were dancing together, they were mingling and having fun.
Blacks and whites, side-by-side, enjoying the music.
EDDIE HOLLAND: ll 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 just like God walking in.
HE LAUGHS
The time I met Dr King when he came,
um, when he realised our music was helping him and his movement,
this guy who I admired so much and who 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 dancing to our music and it was, like, positive,
and he said, you know, "I would like to be connected with your company, you know?"
And I'm saying, "Oh my God!"
A whole lot of stuff that they were trying to do legally or spiritually
or how they were trying to do it,
we were just doing it with music.
ORCHESTRA PLAYS
ANNOUNCER: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Tonight, live from New York, the Ed Sullivan Show.
FANFARE PLAYS - APPLAUSE
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" as sung by these girls here, the Supremes.
Three youngsters from Detroit. Let's hear it for them.
APPLAUSE
MUSIC: "Come See About Me" by The Supremes
♪ I've been crying (Boo hoo) ♪
♪ Because I'm lonely, for you ♪
To do the Ed Sullivan Show meant that you had arrived.
Of course, we ended up being on there 14 times.
♪ That you're never ever gonna return To ease this fire that within me burns ♪
♪ It keeps crying, baby, for you It keeps me sighing, baby, for you ♪
♪ So won't you hurry, come on, boy And see about me ♪
♪ Come see about me See about you, 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 "coloured" at the time,
or anywhere for that matter, who conveyed such glamour and such grace.
And nobody was used to seeing us portrayed the way I saw the Supremes.
That's why I missed most of the first song, calling everybody I knew
saying, "Coloured people on! Coloured people! Coloured people on TV!"
Have a fine welcome for the Supremes. - CROWD CHEERS
MUSIC: "You Can't Hurry Love" ♪ I need love, love to ease my mind ♪
JAMIE FOXX: 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 really saw black people
there was something terrible going on, you know?
MARY WILSON: We were in an era now
where TV has opened up the borders of the world
and now they were 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, yeah, it's almost gone ♪
♪ I remember Mama said ♪
- Are you the Supremes? - APPLAUSE
ADVERTISER: Step into 15,000 watts of lights
wearing $6,000 worth of silk and sequins and their sound sets the world on fire.
That's why Diana Ross and the Supremes count on this new deodorant.
Arrid Extra Dry.
ROBIN TERRY: 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 little bit of you in me and a little 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.
MUSIC: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" ♪ Ain't no mountain high ♪
♪ Ain't no valley low ♪
♪ Ain't no river wide enough, baby ♪
MARY WILSON: We had come from poverty, and now we bought our parents homes.
This is like, "My daughter is a Supreme." So happy, so proud.
There were so many artists made famous at Motown.
All of the talented people would line up and wanted to be a part of Hitsville U.S.A.
MICHAEL LOVESMITH: The energy at the one building was just so great.
They would buy one building, then buy another.
They went from marketing and sales, artist development. It was a win-win.
♪ To keep from getting to you, babe ♪
BERRY GORDY: And the brand got bigger and bigger,
and the business got bigger and bigger, and then it went around the world.
ADAM WHITE: I was 16 years old and there are the Supremes,
and Martha and the Vandellas and 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 it in Britain and then fed into the mainstream.
PAUL MCCARTNEY: Tamla Motown artists are our favourites.
The Miracles, Marvin Gaye... - GEORGE: And Mary Wells.
JOHN LENNON: To name but 80.
ADAM WHITE: As the '60s unfolded,
that generation realised they potentially had the power to change everything.
♪ Baby, baby, where did our love go? ♪
♪ Ooh, don't... ♪ - RADAR BEEPS
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
MILLER LONDON: I spoke to one of our accountants in Atlanta
and he says, "You know, we don't sell any nigger records down here."
And I said, "Excuse me? Did you sell Diana Ross and the Supremes?"
"Yeah, they're a big song for us."
"You sell Smokey Robinson and the Miracles?"
"Yeah, we sell a lot of that." "What about Stevie Wonder?"
"Yeah." I says, "Well, surprise! You're selling nigger records.”
WHITNEY HOUSTON: And 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 with it.
Now, 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. HE LAUGHS
BERRY GORDY: When our production line really started working, it was phenomenal.
In 1968, we had five records out of the top ten on the Billboard charts
with the number one record being "I Heard It Through The Grapevine."
I knew if we recorded songs over and over again
on different artists, then they would always be hits.
The first people to ever record " Heard It Through The Grapevine"
was the Miracles and me.
However, the sales department felt it was too bluesy for us.
They didn't want us to sing that kind of song, so we said, "OK, fine."
And then he cut it on Gladys Knight and the Pips.
And it was a smash hit. Even after that.
No, no. He cut it on Marvin. - No, Marvin was last.
He recorded it on Marvin after it had been a huge hit on Gladys Knight and the Pips.
No, no, no. No, that's not true.
- Want a bet? - Yeah.
How much? - 1007
1007 It's a bet. Have you guys got this on tape?
What happened is, Marvin had recorded it. It had been turned down.
No. No, not before Gladys Knight and the Pips.
OK. Where's the phone? Who's got the phone?
Yeah, not before Gladys Knight and the Pips.
OK. I need to make a long-distance call.
♪ Oooooh ♪
NORMAN WHITFIELD: I recorded this song on Marvin Gaye first.
Like, I brought it in the meeting and I submitted it,
when, consequently, I lost out.
♪ Ooooooh ♪
NORMAN WHITFIELD: 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 until he was very, very angry with me.
So ll said...
So he says...
CROWD CHEERS
♪ I bet you're wonderin' how I knew Baby, baby, baby ♪
♪ 'Bout 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 through the grapevine ♪
♪ [ Heard it through the grapevine ♪
♪ Not much longer would you be mine Not much longer would you be mine ♪
♪ Don't you know that I heard it through the grapevine ♪
♪ [ Heard it through the grapevine ♪
♪ Because I'm just about, just about, just about to lose my mind ♪
♪ Oh, yes [ am Oh, yes, oh, yes ♪
♪ Baby, won't you listen to me? ♪
NORMAN WHITFIELD: It went to number one on the pop charts
and Berry looked at me and says, "I don't know what you've 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 wonderin' 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, like, clever production work as far as I'm concerned,
because good is good, and great is even better.
Brenda?
Alright, look, I'm here with Smokey.
Tell me, "The Grapevine" record and who recorded it first and what happened?
I mean, Marvin recorded it after Gladys. That's what I said.
BRENDA:
Hey, that's a drag like a dog. That's really a drag, I mean, I hate that.
BERRY GORDY: I know. OK, Brenda, thank you.
No, I don't thank you nothing.
Get off the phone! THEY LAUGH
MUSIC: "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" by Four Tops
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 their 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.
DIANA ROSS: We had an interesting relationship, Berry and I,
because I think 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. - INDISTINCT CHATTER
Then, when she went to Manchester,
it's when she tried the first time, "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You."
♪ You're nobody till somebody loves you ♪
♪ You're nobody til somebody cares ♪
BERRY GORDY: And she did it, and I thought it was good, you know?
The crowd didn't like it like they did "Baby Love,"
but they gave nice applause. And so, I came back,
she said, "I'm not doing it anymore. The audience hated it and so did ll."
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 the 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 or nobody."
THEY LAUGH
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. It's my biggest star in the world.
What am I gonna do with the rest of my life?
CROWD CHEERS IN THE DISTANCE
COMPERE: And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Supremes.
CROWD SCREAMS
BERRY GORDY: And as she goes out in the 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.
DIANA ROSS' VOICE ECHOES: ♪ Till somebody loves you ♪
♪ You're nobody... ♪
BERRY GORDY: I'm looking and I'm saying, "Oh, that's what I'd like for her to say."
ll mean, it was just this kind of surreal feeling,
and then she was singing it in full blast.
♪ Whilst you're growing old The world is still the same ♪
♪ You'll never change it ♪
And then, you know, my life was back.
SMOKEY LAUGHS - No, my life had left.
♪ You're nobody till somebody loves you ♪
♪ So, find yourself somebody to love ♪
♪ You're nobody... ♪
And as she came out of the thing,
the other girls went by and I congratulated them,
but Diana just kept walking.
I said, "But Diana, I'm really so happy"
because 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, you know...
♪ The world is still is the same You'll never change it ♪
♪ Never never change it ♪
BERRY: I was stuck there, and she did it for me.
Golly, you know, she did it for me.
It was in that moment that I realised
our relationship had changed to something... different.
♪ To love ♪
♪ The world's the same, we'll always remain And you'll never change it ♪
♪ Qoooh, find yourself... ♪
BERRY GORDY: 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.
COACH K: 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, you know?
They're coming from everywhere, man.
There's a lot of smoke being blown.
It's wild, because this is a very wild business, you know?
It's like the wild, wild west.
BERRY GORDY: Now, Holland and 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 know what it was,
some label or something, whatever.
He told it 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, "Yes, you will. I know you."
You know, and sometimes it's just about principle.
It's wrong and I can't deal with it, you know?
I may lose money, I may lose this and that, but I can't deal with the principle.
EDDIE HOLLAND: Berry told me,
"You go look and check it out and see if you're more valuable to me"
than you would be to 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.
Oh, we made $4 million last year.
That was great. You should have made ten.
EDDIE HOLLAND: And then the lawyers get involved, you might as well forget it.
BERRY GORDY: 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.
MARY WILSON: We were worried,
because we had only really worked with Holland-Dozier-Holland at that point.
So it was a big loss for us.
DUKE FAKIR: 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 of a 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 realise the talents of the artist.
BERRY GORDY: 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 re-organise his whole deal with me.
MUSIC: "All In Love Is Fair" by Stevie Wonder
♪ All is fair in love ♪
He was saying, like, "Why, why did you do this?"
And I said, "You know, I want to do it the way I want to, I'm gonna do it,"
and I felt, musically, I didn't want to stay in a particular kind of box.
BERRY GORDY: And I said, "Oh my goodness," you know?
Other artists had left. I was petrified.
There comes a time in life
when you've got to do what you've got to do.
♪ All is fair in love ♪
♪ 1 had to go away ♪
♪ A writer takes his pen ♪
We'd gone to a few different companies,
but I think because of the love and the respect that we had for each other,
meaning Berry and myself, that it felt home.
BERRY GORDY: But when I talked 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've made,
I can't say that was the best, but it was certainly up there.
MUSIC: "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
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, writing's on the wall ♪
♪ Very superstitious... ♪ - Stevie Wonder!
CROWD CHEERS ♪ Ladder's about to fall ♪
Stevie Wonder, Stevie Wonder!
Stevie Wonder.
CROWD CHEERS
I believe that Stevie is the greatest solo artist of all time.
In any genre, I think Stevie is the one. He's the greatest.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: 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 ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey ♪
STEVIE WONDER: Berry wanted the best for the artist.
You know, the challenge is...
obviously is in proving himself right or us proving him wrong.
But at the end of the day, we all win.
MUSIC: "You Keep Me Hanging On" by The Supremes
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 want to sign you up.
CROWD CHEERS
[MUSIC: "] Want You Back" by Jackson 5
♪ Uh-oh, oh-oh Let me tell you now ♪
♪ Uh huh ♪
♪ 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
and all the kids around our neighbourhood in Gary, Indiana,
they didn't believe us, cos it took a while for us to make our first record.
When it came out, it was like a machine. Boom!
♪ Oh, darling, all I need is one more chance To 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 ♪
VALERIE SIMPSON: It was the first time that black kids
had a young group that was fabulous, you know?
They had, you know, screaming little girls in 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 Five.
Can you think of a black group who had their own cartoon series?
That's mind boggling.
♪ Following the girl ♪
SUZANNE DE PASSE: I think he saw the power of television early.
Berry Gordy realised if he wanted his artists to become global superstars,
then television was the way to do that.
BERRY GORDY: 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 want to take them to Hollywood.
He always was pushing that envelope.
I mean, soon after that it was "Lady Sings The Blues" with Diana Ross.
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: 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.
SHELLY BERGER: 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 anymore.
That was the big factor.
Heck, man, I started sending Berry books on earthquakes and smog.
I did. I really did! You know what? 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?
BLUES MUSIC PLAYS
BERRY GORDY: The world was changing, the music business was changing,
the artists were changing, they all had their own ideas,
and then you have to make a decision as to how you want to 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.
BERRY GORDY: You know what we came up with...
- Cloud nine. - Cloud nine,
and I said, wait a minute. "I'm getting high. I mean, I'm doing fine..."
Up here on cloud nine." - 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 doin' fine ♪
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?"
You know, and I was the only one to raise my hand.
THEY LAUGH
It was the first Grammy.
Got a gold record for it, and then we go on "Psychedelic Soul."
It's like culture shock.
Wait, what the hell are the Temps doing now, you know?
BERRY GORDY: And that also told me something,
well, society is going in a very strange direction.
I don't want to glamourise getting high,
but obviously the public wanted it and they made me seem wrong.
But I didn't like compromising my values on that particular record.
Things were moving fast and changing, and so maybe he had a kind of vision.
It 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 was time to move forward and encourage the world to be better.
INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that entertainers such as yourself
should become more involved in the black man's problems today?
SMOKEY ROBINSON: Well, we are involved because we're black men,
so we're involved automatically, whether or not we want to be, we're involved,
and I think that it's a good thing if you get in that position to speak out...
INTERVIEWER: This is what I was gonna say. - And just say what you think of it.
BERRY GORDY: The Black Power organisations 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 really going on.
We wanted somebody to tell us about that.
OTIS WILLIAMS: Coming from "The Sound of Young America" to "Psychedelic Soul,"
it was indicative of the times that we were living
and we were just singing about what was happening in the world.
MUSIC: "Ball of Confusion" by The Temptations
♪ Well, the only person talking about love my brother is the preacher ♪
It was a horrific time. Detroit was on fire.
♪ Nobody's interested in learning but the teacher ♪
SHELLY BERGER: ll remember a line of tanks
coming down West Grand Boulevard, it was like I was in a different country.
♪ Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation ♪
♪ Ball of confusion ♪
♪ That's what the world is today ♪
JAMIE FOXX: That's a hard time for people who's 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 realise the power of your voice
and what it means to the world.
Not just to blacks, but to whites and to anybody that's listening to you.
MARVIN GAYE: I think it was around 1969 or 1970
when I stopped thinking so much about my erotic fantasies
and I just started to think about the war in Vietnam and my brother.
I became quite affected by it and, at the same time,
there was a great deal of unrest in America.
ADAM WHITE: 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 mean, I'm not gonna tell you anything that you're gonna do between here and here,
but when you get past there, I've got to stop you.
I had to fight for my creative freedom,
you know, my artistic freedom, my right to produce, my right to write.
Marvin was working on something. I didn't know what he was working on.
I talk with him in the understanding 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.
MUSIC: "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye
♪ 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 ♪
♪ To bring some loving here today ♪
♪ Yeah, father, father ♪
♪ We don't need to escalate ♪
♪ 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 ♪
♪ Picket lines and picket signs ♪
♪ Don't punish me with brutality ♪
♪ Talk to me, so you can see Oh, what's going on ♪
♪ What's going on ♪
♪ What's going on What's going on ♪
♪ Hell, what's going on, what's going on Oh, what's going on, what's going on ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Right on, baby ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Woo! Right on, baby, right on ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Bip, bip, bip, boop ♪
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, Vietnam and this and that and so forth.
I said, "Well, we can't do that."
VALERIE SIMPSON: 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 all those issues, you know?
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 is one case where Marvin came back and threw it in my face,
you know, that, "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, man, 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?"
So I'm saying, "Well, you know... yeah, well, I can't really disagree with you on that."
♪ Mother, mother, everybody thinks we're wrong, they do ♪
♪ Oh, but who are they to judge us Simply because 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 Don't punish me with brutality ♪
♪ Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me So you can see ♪
♪ What's going on What's going on ♪
♪ Hell, what's going on I want to know what's going on ♪
Alright.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: I could not possibly tell you what my favourite song is.
My favourite album is "What's Going On." It's my favourite album of all time.
I haven't heard anything before that or since then
that takes the place of that being my favourite album.
Marvin was correct. God did write it. His prophesy.
It's more poignant today than it was when it came out.
JAMIE FOXX: Well, you could play that here on the streets
when we're having all of the shootings.
You could play that song right now, it's needed.
You know, maybe that'll make us, like, you know,
take a couple of steps back and treat people a little better.
LEE DANIELS: 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.
STEVIE WONDER: They saw, say, my career or Marvin's career
in a certain kind of way and we said, "No, we don't see that."
We want to 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 have felt that the idea of reflecting the world was not a bad idea at all.
NELSON MANDELA: When we were in prison,
we appreciated and avidly listened to the sound of Detroit Motortown.
CROWD CHEERS
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.
Can't seem to agree on what we all want to hear anymore,
and we don't realise that we need music that speaks to our hearts,
SO we can say, "Ah yeah, that's the way I feel."
BARACK OBAMA: Now, 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 us 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
that ends up being internationally something.
Yes, it's... Motown is a great example of the American dream.
NEIL YOUNG: I think the Motown legacy is 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.
MICKEY STEVENSON: It was all a divine movement for a purpose,
to let other kinds of people know you don't have to suffer under the system,
create for yourself, and so Motown became a model.
ROBIN TERRY: People come from all over this planet
to visit this little house, Hitsville U.S.A. 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.
STEVIE WONDER: 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 can endure past my lifetime is 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.
BRIAN HOLLAND: Mm-hm.
SMOKEY ROBINSON: Every city, every town, every place probably on Earth,
ratio-wise, with the talent that we had, has that same amount of talent,
they just don't have a Berry Gordy.
They don't have somebody who could pull that off.
Yeah, I think the secret, you know... - You're the secret, brother.
Oh, 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 is to make some money,
make some music and get some girls. THEY LAUGH
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 for 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.
HE LAUGHS I wasn't too good with the...
Cos we used to watch their mouths and see if they could remember it.
And they would say, "No, that..."
You know, "We are..."
No, 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 singing company ♪ That's all I know.
Swinging company?
♪ Working hard from day-to-day ♪
Though-I won't do this. I will not do it! SHE LAUGHS
Now you've got me all mixed up. I've known that song really well.
♪ No one has more energy ♪
♪ No one... can you find more unity ♪
♪ Than at Hitsville, U.S.A. ♪ SHE LAUGHS
You... I can see it, I can see the lyrics.
THEY SING: ♪ Our employees must be neat and clean ♪
♪ And really have something on the ball Dun dun dun ♪
♪ Honesty is our only policy ♪
♪ We're all for one and one for all ♪
♪ Ooooh ♪
♪ 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!
♪ [ Sard Hitsville, U.S. Al ♪
THEY LAUGH - And then we'd say, "One more time!"
Yeah, one more...! - ♪ I said Hitsville ♪
Bang! - ♪ I said Hitsville ♪
Bang! - ♪ Than at Hitsville, U.S.A! ♪
.