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Various Artists
The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 1: 1959-1961
***Partial liner notes - just a preview of the whole booklet***
Various Artists: ‘Motown Sings Motown Treasures, Vol. 1 & 2’
Summertime in Detroit, and the city is sizzling. I’m driving my boyfriend’s Roadmaster over to the corner of St. Antoine and Farnsworth, where the Gordys live. Berry’s waiting for me. I’m his driver—he doesn’t own a car—and I’m also one of the two acts he manages. The other is a group that used to be called the Matadors. Now they’re the Miracles. We’re all hoping for a miracle because, truth be told, we’re all scuffling.
The Gordy household is a beehive of activity. Pops is booking plastering jobs, Mom is selling insurance, the sisters and brothers are running a printing shop. Everyone’s working. Everyone has big plans. Everyone’s eager to score.
“Let’s go,” says Berry.
“Where to?”
“To see the jocks.”
Berry’s selling songs. His songs. His method is to get the songs to as many people as possible. The first line of
attack is the people who know the artists and actually play the songs—disc jockeys.
Driving down Woodward Avenue past the Fox Theater, where Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis played, Berry says, “You’ll be playing there. All my acts will be playing there.”
Suddenly “Fever” is playing on the radio—sung by Little Willie John, my brother.
Berry smiles and sings along. “We’re getting there,” is all he says.
A little while later, we’re at Lee’s Sensation, an east side nightclub where in the backroom the deejays are
holding a mini-convention. The jukebox is playing “The Great Pretender” by the Platters, “Let the Good Times Roll” by Shirley & Lee. Joe Howard from WCHB in Inkster is there. So is Martha Jean Steinberg—Martha Jean the Queen—a force in Detroit radio. Berry is working the room while I prepare the food.
“I got a hit,” he tells the jocks. “I got lots of hits.”
When winter hits, Berry really does have a hit. “Reet Petite,” a song he wrote for Jackie Wilson, is climbing
the charts.
Now I’m driving him to dances and high school hops. Now I’m driving him to the Brewster Center. Now he’s
meeting writers and singers at every turn.
Here’s a girl named Janie Bradford. Here’s a guy named Harvey Fuqua. Here are the Holland Brothers. Here’s Barrett Strong. Here’s Marv Johnson. Here’s a great drummer named Benny Benjamin.
Berry has more hits; the hits make him bolder.
In New York, where he takes me and Smokey Robinson, along with his parents, sisters and Raynoma, his
second wife, to a BMI dinner, he wins a songwriting award.
“Start your own label,” I say.
“Amen,” adds Smokey.
We’re eating at Gladys’, a house with a restaurant in the basement serving the best downhome cooking in
the city. Berry has spilt barbecue sauce on his otherwise clean white shirt.
“Rehearsal time,” he says.
Rehearsal is at Claudette’s house. She’s Smokey’s girlfriend and one of the Miracles. Rehearsals go great.
Berry has an idea for a new song. Berry has an idea for three new songs. Berry is still writing songs while we drive over to the Flame, the jazzy night spot where his sisters take pictures and sell cigarettes, and Maurice King is the maestro.
“Maurice is going to be your music coach,” says Berry.
Maurice is great, but the main coach is Berry. He’s coaching everyone. He’s pushing everyone in six different directions at the same time.
Riding down West Grand Boulevard he spots a plain-looking house with a ‘For Sale’ sign.
“Stop,” he says.
We stop and get out.
He walks up the stairs, peers in the window.
“That’s it.”
“What’s ‘it?’” I ask.
“Headquarters.”
“For what?”
“The operation. The music publishing company. The label. The studio. It’s all going to happen here. Can you see it?”
“I can see that you can see it—and that’s good enough for me. That’s good enough for all of us.”
A few months later the house is bought and the sign goes up:
“Hitsville, USA.”
—Mable John (as told to David Ritz)
Mable John was the first solo female recording artist on
Gordy’s first label, Tamla. Later in the Sixties she recorded
for Stax/Volt. For many years, she was Ray Charles’ lead
Raelett. Today she is Dr. Mable John, a minister of the
Joy in Jesus church in Los Angeles.
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