- Sep 16, 2012
- 60,936
- 54,886
- 3,605
Motown Turns 60?! What?? | AARP
Looking Back at Motown’s 60 Year History
The Detroit sound that changed America — and the world
Honoring the Musical Legacy of Motown Records
Steve Kagan/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
Motown founder Berry Gordy plays the piano while a group of his record label employees, including Smokey Robinson (rear) and Stevie Wonder (right), clap and sing along.
"How could they ever have imagined what astonishments lay ahead for them? It was all so very unlikely.
No, make that impossible.
On a cold October day in 1962, 45 Motown Records singers, musicians and chaperones stood shivering with excitement and nerves. They crowded together inside Studio A, the converted garage of a bungalow-style house that 32-year-old Motown founder Berry Gordy had bought, at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. His neighbors were respectable strivers: Sykes Hernia Control Service and Phelps Funeral Parlor. Gordy, the great-grandson of a Georgia slave, had started his label in early 1959, the same year that Mattel’s plastic dream girl Barbie minced onto the scene.
Leni Sinclair/Getty Images
Gordy’s troupe had mustered for the kickoff of the Motortown Revue, the company’s first extensive tour. A snapshot of the moment still hangs in the house on West Grand, which now serves as the Motown Museum. They stand clutching bulging purses and boxy cameras, tucked into tight chicken slacks and mohair sweaters, freshly barbered, manicured and beehived. The Supremes — Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Diane (later Diana) Ross — had just graduated from high school. The trio were thrilled to be going but worried that they hadn’t truly earned their seats on the bus. “Understand, we were favorites of Berry’s, little special girls,” recalls Wilson, now 74 and living in Los Angeles. “But unless you had a hit record, you were nobody at Motown. Nearly everyone else on the tour already had a hit.”
Rob Verhorst/Redferns/Getty Images
Marvin Gaye performs in 1980.
Those hit makers included Marvin Gaye, the Marvelettes, the Miracles, the Contours and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. They were joined by newly signed 12-year-old phenom Stevland Hardaway Judkins — rechristened a more showbiz-sounding Little Stevie Wonder. . . . "
Chris Ware/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty
Mary Wells visits London before touring with the Beatles in 1964, marking the first time a Motown artist was to perform in the United Kingdom.
Everett Collection/Alamy
The Temptations (clockwise from left) Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, David Ruffin and Melvin Franklin.
Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit is now a Motown Museum.
James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
The Marvelettes (from left): Wanda Young-Rogers, Georgeanna Tillman-Gordon, Katherine Anderson and Gladys Horton
RB/Redferns/Getty Images
Left to right: Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard of the Supremes.
Pictorial Press/Alamy
Clockwise from top left: William Guest, Merald “Bubba” Knight, Gladys Knight and Edward Patten.
POPSIE RANDOLPH/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY
Berry Gordy founded Motown Records in 1959
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The Jackson 5 in 1971 (clockwise from bottom left): Michael, Tito, Jackie, Jermaine and Marlon.
Looking Back at Motown’s 60 Year History
The Detroit sound that changed America — and the world
Honoring the Musical Legacy of Motown Records
Steve Kagan/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
Motown founder Berry Gordy plays the piano while a group of his record label employees, including Smokey Robinson (rear) and Stevie Wonder (right), clap and sing along.
"How could they ever have imagined what astonishments lay ahead for them? It was all so very unlikely.
No, make that impossible.
On a cold October day in 1962, 45 Motown Records singers, musicians and chaperones stood shivering with excitement and nerves. They crowded together inside Studio A, the converted garage of a bungalow-style house that 32-year-old Motown founder Berry Gordy had bought, at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. His neighbors were respectable strivers: Sykes Hernia Control Service and Phelps Funeral Parlor. Gordy, the great-grandson of a Georgia slave, had started his label in early 1959, the same year that Mattel’s plastic dream girl Barbie minced onto the scene.
Leni Sinclair/Getty Images
Gordy’s troupe had mustered for the kickoff of the Motortown Revue, the company’s first extensive tour. A snapshot of the moment still hangs in the house on West Grand, which now serves as the Motown Museum. They stand clutching bulging purses and boxy cameras, tucked into tight chicken slacks and mohair sweaters, freshly barbered, manicured and beehived. The Supremes — Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Diane (later Diana) Ross — had just graduated from high school. The trio were thrilled to be going but worried that they hadn’t truly earned their seats on the bus. “Understand, we were favorites of Berry’s, little special girls,” recalls Wilson, now 74 and living in Los Angeles. “But unless you had a hit record, you were nobody at Motown. Nearly everyone else on the tour already had a hit.”
Rob Verhorst/Redferns/Getty Images
Marvin Gaye performs in 1980.
Those hit makers included Marvin Gaye, the Marvelettes, the Miracles, the Contours and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. They were joined by newly signed 12-year-old phenom Stevland Hardaway Judkins — rechristened a more showbiz-sounding Little Stevie Wonder. . . . "
Chris Ware/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty
Mary Wells visits London before touring with the Beatles in 1964, marking the first time a Motown artist was to perform in the United Kingdom.
Everett Collection/Alamy
The Temptations (clockwise from left) Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, David Ruffin and Melvin Franklin.
Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit is now a Motown Museum.
James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
The Marvelettes (from left): Wanda Young-Rogers, Georgeanna Tillman-Gordon, Katherine Anderson and Gladys Horton
RB/Redferns/Getty Images
Left to right: Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard of the Supremes.
Pictorial Press/Alamy
Clockwise from top left: William Guest, Merald “Bubba” Knight, Gladys Knight and Edward Patten.
POPSIE RANDOLPH/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY
Berry Gordy founded Motown Records in 1959
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The Jackson 5 in 1971 (clockwise from bottom left): Michael, Tito, Jackie, Jermaine and Marlon.