Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

At 24, Stevie Wonder - Living For The City (1973)




"Living for the City", from Stevie Wonder's Innervisions album, reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart - Stevie played all the instruments on the song It was one of the first soul music songs to deal explicitly with systemic racism and to use everyday sounds of the street like traffic, voices and sirens which were combined with the music recorded in the studio.

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

At 23, The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back (1969)




Originally considered for Gladys Knight & the Pips and later for Diana Ross, as "I Wanna Be Free", "I Want You Back" explores the theme of a lover who decides that he was too hasty in dropping his partner. An unusual aspect about "I Want You Back" was that its main lead vocal was performed by a tween, Michael Jackson.

"I Want You Back" was the first Jackson 5 single to be released by Motown and the first song written and produced by The Corporation, a team comprising Motown chief Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonso Mizell, and Deke Richards. It also is the first of four Jackson 5 number-ones released in a row (the others being "ABC" – 1970, "The Love You Save" – 1970, and "I'll Be There" – 1970) and the first Jackson 5 song recorded in Los Angeles, California; the quintet had previously been recording Bobby Taylor-produced remakes of other artists' hits, including "Who's Lovin' You", the B-side to "I Want You Back", at Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit, Michigan. From late 1969 and on, nearly all of the Jackson 5's recordings were done in Los Angeles when the majority of recordings for other artists on the label were done in Detroit.

Although Gladys Knight had been the first to mention the Jacksons to Berry Gordy, and Bobby Taylor brought the Jackson brothers to Motown, Motown credited Diana Ross with discovering them. This was done not only to help promote the Jackson 5, but also to help ease Ross' transition into a solo career, which she began in 1970 soon after the Jackson 5 became a success.

At the risk of being repetetive, Michael Jackson just belts it out - natural, effortless, and untrained - gifted.

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

At 22, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't No Mountain High Enough (1966)




This song was written by Ashford and Simpson prior to joining Motown. British soul singer Dusty Springfield wanted to record the song but the duo declined, hoping it would give them access to the Detroit-based label. As Valerie Simpson later recalled, "We played that song for her (Springfield) but wouldn't give it to her, because we wanted to hold that back. We felt like that could be our entry to Motown. Nick called it the 'golden egg'." Dusty recorded a similar verse melody in 'I'm Gonna Leave You' on Dusty.

The original 1967 version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" was a top twenty hit. According to record producers, Terrell was a little nervous and intimidated during the recording sessions because she did not rehearse the lyrics. Terrell recorded her vocals alone with producers Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol, who added Gaye's vocal at a later date. "Ain't No Mountain" peaked at number nineteen on the Billboard pop charts, and went to number three on the R&B charts.

This original version of "Ain't No Mountain", produced by Fuqua and Bristol, was a care-free, danceable, and romantic love song that became the signature duet between Gaye and Terrell. Its success led to a string of more Ashford/Simpson penned duets (including "You're All I Need to Get By", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", and "Your Precious Love").

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

"We played that song for her (Springfield) but wouldn't give it to her, because we wanted to hold that back. ..."

That wasn't very nice.

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

That's what I thought ..... and Dusty, being shy, would not have made a fuss .....

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

At 21, The Miracles - You Really Got A Hold On Me (1962)




"You've Really Got a Hold On Me" was written by Smokey Robinson while in New York in 1962 on business for Motown; he heard Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me", which was in the charts at the time, and — influenced by it — wrote the song in his hotel room.

The song was recorded in Motown's Studio A on October 16, 1962 with Robinson on lead vocals, and Miracles' second tenor Bobby Rogers on harmony co-lead. Robinson was the producer, and he had Eddie Willis and Miracle Marv Tarplin share the guitar parts.

The song was released on the Tamla label on November 9, 1962 as the B side to "Happy Landing". "Happy Landing" charted regionally; however, the nation's DJs flipped the record over, because they liked "Hold On Me" better. With "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" as the A side, the single reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop chart, peaking at number eight, and was a number one smash on the Billboard R&B singles chart during the winter of 1962-63. The Miracles' original version was the group's second single to sell over a million copies, after "Shop Around".

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

At 20, The Temptations - I Wish It Would Rain (1967)




The song is one of the most melancholy in the Temptations repertoire, with lead singer David Ruffin delivering, in a pained voice, the story of a heartbroken man who wants to hide his sorrow. Accompanying Ruffin's mourning vocal are the vocals of his bandmates (Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Otis Williams) alongside the subdued instrumentation of The Funk Brothers studio band. Producer Norman Whitfield devised much of the musical structure of the song, with former Motown artist Barrett Strong composing the song's signature piano intro on a piano with only ten working keys. Motown staff writer Rodger Penzabene provided the song's lyrics.

More so than a number of other Motown songs, there is real sentiment and pain behind the song's words. Lyricist Penzabene had just found out his wife was cheating on him with another man. Unable to deal with the pain and unable to stop loving his wife, Penzabene expressed his pain in the lyrics of this song and its follow-up on the Temptations' release schedule, "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)". The distraught Penzabene committed suicide on New Year's Eve 1967, a week after the single's release.

Blimey .... How sad can a song get .....

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

You really got a hold on me

Another covered by the Beatles.
They seem to have been influenced by Motown quite a lot.

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

At 19, Four Tops - Bernadette (1967)




This song reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was The Four Tops's final Top 10 hit of the 1960s. It also reached #8 in the UK on its first release.

The Four Tops kicked off 1967 with the dramatic Top Ten smash "Standing in the Shadows of Love," which was followed by the Top Five "Bernadette." "7-Rooms of Gloom" and "You Keep Running Away" reached the Top 20, but toward the end of the year, Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown over a financial dispute, which didn't bode well for the Four Tops' impressive hit streak. Their next two hits, 1968's "Walk Away Renee" and "If I Were a Carpenter," were both covers of well-known recent songs (by the Left Banke and Tim Hardin, respectively), and while both made the Top 20, they heralded a rough couple of years when top-drawer material was in short supply.

Re: A Tamla Motown Hot 100

At 18, The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud To Beg (1966)




"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and was a number-one hit on the Billboard R&B charts for eight non-consecutive weeks. The song's success, in the wake of the relative underperformance of the previous Temptations single, "Get Ready", resulted in Norman Whitfield replacing Smokey Robinson, producer of "Get Ready", as The Temptations' main producer.

Much of the song's success, according to the Temptations themselves, is due to Whitfield's production, which was leaner and hit harder than Robinson's smoother style, and also to David Ruffin's pained lead vocal. Whitfield's tactic of having Ruffin record above his register worked well enough that Whitfield went on to use it on later Temptations records such as "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You", and also did the same to Marvin Gaye when he recorded his now-famous version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".