Brenda Holloway had one genuine rival in the Motown glamour stakes. The delectable Barbara McNair from Racine, Wisconsin, even went into the annals as the…
Browsing: Motown
Berry Gordy’s family, like thousands of others, had moved from the southern states of the USA to Detroit, whose automobile industry in the years between…
Perhaps the most beautiful woman to step in front of a microphone at the studio, there was never a greater, more unfulfilled talent at Motown…
Chris Clark was a 17-year-old, 6-foot platinum blonde when she arrived at Motown’s Detroit headquarters in 1963 to audition for Berry Gordy Jnr. The Motown…
Chuck Jackson racked up a string of uptown New York soul monsters on Scepter’s subsidiary label Wand in the early 60s, but by 1967, the…
Formed in Detroit in 1958, The Contours were signed to the newly formed Gordy label on the recommendation of Jackie Wilson. Their single Whole Lotta…
David Ruffin, who Marvin Gaye characterised as “one of the true artists of Motown”, was among the most conspicuously gifted singers in all of soul…
Charles Edwin Hatcher was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1942. He and his cousins, soul singers Roger and Willie Hatcher, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where…
The Elgins were a quartet – three males (two of whom had originally signed to Motown as part of The Downbeats) and female lead vocalist,…
The Four Tops got together at high school in 1954 and had been playing the Detroit club circuit since the mid-fifties, originally as The Four…
Given the built-in obsolescence of pop stars, it is remarkable that the singer who made the biggest impact in 1970 should have still made world…
Jimmy Ruffin was born in Collinsville, Mississippi in May 1936. He sang with his family’s gospel group, led by his minister father, before moving to…
Kim Weston was born Agatha Natalie Weston on 30 December 1939, in Detroit, Michigan, and started singing in the church at the age of four.…
Martha Reeves, Rosalind Ashford and Annette Sterling started singing together at their Detroit high school as The Del-Phis. In 1962 Martha was working as a…
When Berry Gordy first started his Motor Town touring spectaculars (the precursors of the celebrated Motown revues) Marv Johnson was a headliner on an equal…
Hailing from the low-income Detroit suburb of Inkster, the 17-year-old girls who came together as The Marvelettes (originally The Casinyets – a corruption of The…
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. (inspired by Sam Cooke, he added the “e” to his surname when he began his musical career) was born in Washington DC…
Born in Detroit on 13 May 1943, Mary Wells started singing at the age of ten and actually auditioned for the Tamla Motown label in 1961, when,…
The King of Pop is a lofty title for any person to live up to, but there’s no doubt that Michael Jackson was qualified. He had…
With an $800 loan from his family and a roster of unknown young Detroit singers, former record shop owner Berry Gordy Jnr (pictured below) started what…