Posted on 08/30/2024 5:51:17 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The 1964 Motown classic joins an elite group of megahits on Spotify.
“My Girl,” the 1964 hit from The Temptations, has just crossed a major streaming milestone. Today, the track hit one billion listens on Spotify. By far the group’s most-streamed song, “My Girl” joins the elite group of less than 1,000 high-streamers, and becomes one of the oldest songs on the list.
“My Girl” was the first number-one hit from The Temptations, though many more would follow throughout the 1960s and 70s. Written by Smokey Robinson, a beloved artist in his own right, and singer Ronnie White, “My Girl” was first released as a single before being included on their 1965 album The Temptations Sing Smokey. Within a month of the song’s debut, it topped both the pop and the R&B charts. In 1997, more than three decades after the song was first released, it was certified platinum, having sold more than 1 million copies in the United States.
In 2000, Robinson explained to NPR that he created the song because he wanted to tailor something to lead singer David Ruffin’s voice. “And all I needed was the right song for his voice and I felt like I would have a smash hit record,” Robinson recalled. “So I wanted to make it something that he could belt out, but yet make it melodic and sweet.” The hit proved so popular that founding member Otis Williams recalled in the same interview that when the group grew tired of performing it and tried to leave it out of their sets, the audiences grew furious. “We would never do that again.”
Of course, the popularity of “My Girl” continued throughout the years. A 1991 film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd named itself after the track, and it was memorably performed as “My God” by a group of nuns in the 1992 film Sister Act, starring Whoopi Goldberg.
Sister Act is unwatchable today. Has not aged well.
And what does Spotify pay in royalties to the copyright holder(s)? $43 bucks?
And they were paid $63.48 in royalties.
How do they know “My girl” is about a girl? Are they biologists?
But for me, The Temptations greatest achievement is Just My Imagination, which is a work of genius.
That’s what I was hoping they would talk about. These music apps today get away with murder, same with Google and Youtube. They make billions off these songs and they pay a ridiculously low percentage in royalties. I assume they get away with it because of pirating, using the excuse “you can take a fraction of a cent or get nothing through pirating”.
Otis Williams gets all the money. He’s the only one left.
Whoever owns the distribution channel makes the money.
That’s why Netflix has become a major force in content creation.
That’s why major utility systems have sold off their generating capacity. The hold on to the wires, the transformers and switchgear, and the electric meters that generate the customer bills.
That’s why major food brands pay grocery stores for shelf space.
Smokey Robinson gets the money, he wrote the song.
That’s why Chnina pays the cartels?
somebody’s making money off of it.
Oh, that’s right, thanks!
Sam Armstrong must be AI name.....the nuns sing “My God”...to the tune of the song “My Guy”...originally sung by Mary Wells...NOT “My Girl”....a perfect example of today’s brain dead journalists and peeps....
The same man wrote both songs.
For fun...try “Ball of Confusion”, “Cloud Nine”, and Psychedelic Shack”...by the temps...in their “R&B goes hippie” days...
You are right...just my imagination is great...I do like “poppa was a rolling stone”
I didn't know that, but if it's true, yes.
One of the things they teach in business school is "always try to be as close as possible to where the money actually changes hands."
The distribution channel includes the step where the money is physically handed over, from the end customer.
There is typically a songwriter’s royalty, a performer’s royalty, a producer royalty.
Sometimes those are the same person, but often not.
Depends, but they do get paid per play.
When you look at a report of royalty for a period of time, there are amounts coming in from so many countries it is hard to follow. Various sources including streaming platforms, you tube, etc.
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