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The song was a musical tour de force by the 23-year-old Motown genius, who survived a serious accident just after its release.The song was a musical tour de force by the 23-year-old Motown genius, who survived a serious accident just after its release. Stevie Wonder always did make his songwriting genius sound easy. On August 18, 1973, “Higher Ground,” from the uniformly brilliant album Innervisions, entered the Hot 100. On September 29, it topped the Billboard R&B chart and had fans and fellow artists In awe. As for Stevie himself? “I did the whole thing in three hours,” he later...

The group’s dramatic delivery and the peerlessly plaintive lead vocals of Levi Stubbs became their most famous calling card.Motown 1098 may not sound like a particularly significant catalog number, but the track it denoted remains one of the defining moments of the company’s collective brilliance. The classic in question is the Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” released on August 18, 1966. It was a US pop No.1 on October 15, and repeated the feat two weeks later in the UK. Written by Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier and produced by Brian and Lamont, the song came...

John Edwards, a former lead singer for legendary R&B and soul group The Spinners, died Sunday. He was 80. Edwards, who stepped into the spotlight after Philippé Wynne’s departure, carried the group’s legacy forward with grace and soul, according to a post on The Spinners’ official Instagram page. A cause of death has not been revealed. Edwards, who was with the group from 1977 to 2000, was praised in the post for not only meeting expectations but elevating the group’s sound during a new era. He was the group’s last founding member to still be alive. “We mourn the loss...

‘Shop Around’ is an absolutely vital part of the early development of Motown, and on February 12, 1961 it became their first million-seller.It was one of the first collaborations between Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, not just as flagship artist and label boss, but credited as co-writers. “Shop Around” is an absolutely vital part of the early development of Motown, and on February 12, 1961, it sent the message that they really meant business, when it became their first million-seller. Robinson really did use his mother’s time-honored advice as the lyrical inspiration for the song. He had originally intended to...

Berry Gordy’s record label used the ‘sound of young America’ to bring people togetherOn January 12, 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. started Tamla Records with the help of an $800 loan from his family, starting a journey that would forever change the music industry. The following year, it merged into Motown Record Corporation. For Gordy, starting his own label was the product of a longtime love of music. When he returned from Army service in 1953, he opened a short-lived record store in Detroit. Later, to amuse himself on the Ford assembly line, Gordy would make up songs. Eventually, he found...

AI is getting scary. Some YouTuber used AI to create a Motown versions of the Beatle's Rubber Soul and Revolver, and it's much, much better than you might expect. You could listen to it over and over. They use the same words, but they really revamp the music. I would say some of it sounds more like Sam Cooke, or other soul music, than specifically Motown, but it stands on it's own. How is this possible?

With The Smokey Robinson-penned ‘My Girl,’ The Temptations created a keystone soul song that put the group on the map, adding to Motown’s winning streak.With The Smokey Robinson-penned ‘My Girl,’ The Temptations created a keystone soul song that put the group on the map, adding to Motown’s winning streak. Dub der-nern, dub der-nern… That little guitar lick is not remotely emphatic. It’s not loud, not heavy. There is nothing about it that is gimmicky, and it uses just two notes of a major scale. Yet the moment you hear it, you just know what the song is. It’s “My Girl”...

The founder of Motown Records was born in the city he helped make synonymous with soulfulness, DetroitA company that was started with a loan of $800 went on to help shape the sound of the 20th century. We could only be talking about Motown Records, founded on January 12, 1959 by Berry Gordy Jr, who was born in the city he helped make synonymous with soulfulness, Detroit, on November 28, 1929. Unfailingly spritely, just ahead of his 90th birthday, Gordy announced his retirement at the Hitsville Honours ceremony, safe in the knowledge that his achievements will last forever. Gordy built...

The Temptations -- Papa Was A Rolling Stone

Richard Street, for nearly three decades a member of The Temptations, has died. He is the second former member of the fabled Motown group to pass away in two weeks; last week former Tempations tenor Damon Harris died. Both singers can be heard on the 1972 hit "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." Street and Harris joined the band at the tail end of its heyday. Harris was only with the group for four years. Street was being treated for blood clots at Saint Rose Dominican Hospital in Las Vegas, where he died Wednesday morning. He was 70 years old.

Damon Harris, who sang with the Temptations on many of their hits of the 1970s, died here on Feb. 18. He was 62. The cause was prostate cancer, said Chuck Woodson, his cousin and a family spokesman. Mr. Harris was a decade younger than anyone else in the Temptations when he joined in 1971, replacing Eddie Kendricks. He was the lead singer on “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” the group’s last No. 1 single, and was also heard on “Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are),” “Masterpiece” and other hits. He left in 1975.

Bruce Williamson Jr., the lead singer of the Temptations, has died from the coronavirus. He was 49. The soul singer died Sunday night at his home in Las Vegas, TMZ reported. Williamson, who was not an original member, joined the Temptations in 2006 and sang with the group until 2015.

There is a wonderful musical, Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, on stage in Los Angeles. It is a superb theatrical production. For those of us of a certain age, the music of the Temptations was the soundtrack of our youth. From "My Girl" of 1964 to "Papa was a Rolling Stone" in 1972, the Temptations made their indelible musical mark on the 1960s. There were countless hits in between and many later. The Temptations differed from the surf and car songs of the Beach Boys and of course sounded nothing like the Beatles. They were...

A train pulls into the station roughly 3/4s of the way through video but leaves in time for the nice finish.

The Grammy-winning song is a revered example of the group’s fruitful relationship with producer Norman Whitfield and his co-writer Barrett StrongThe Temptations’ soulful staple, “Cloud Nine,” released on October 25, 1968, is much celebrated as the first Motown song to win a Grammy. It’s also a revered exemplar of the group’s fruitful relationship with producer Norman Whitfield and his co-writer Barrett Strong. Recorded with a new-look Funk Brothers band featuring the wah-wah guitar of Dennis Coffey, it was also the marker of the taut, tense new sound the combined talents would create together from that point on. But as...

The powerful song was the second single from the group’s ‘Puzzle People’ album.It’s October 18, 1969. The Russian Soyuz 8 spacecraft returns to Earth with cosmonauts Shatalov and Yeliseyev. Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner is arrested for marijuana possession. Wyclef Jean and golfer Ernie Els are each one day old; Led Zeppelin are preparing to release their second album. Gas costs 35c a gallon in America and 6s 2d (31p) in Britain. And America’s new favorite pop single is “I Can’t Get Next To You” by the Temptations. Another triumph in the ongoing collaboration between the vocal group, producer Norman...

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...

The beloved singer was 88 years old.‘Duke’ Fakir, the last original member of Motown greats The Four Tops, has passed away. The Four Tops were quintessential figureheads of the golden era of Motown’s first decade-plus, winning induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. They went on to record with distinction at ABC/Dunhill and Casablanca Records before returning to Motown in 1983, and then moving on to Arista. They epitomized the undervalued principle that the group was bigger than any individual member, never recording in their own names despite the Tops’ millions of record sales and singing...

Full of artistry and soul, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ is a pinnacle of pop music that cannot be surpassed.It was one of the most glorious achievements in 60s music, rising from a delicate opening to a shattering climax. If the 60s gave us the love generation, here was an anthem full of love. If soul was about physical passion in a gospel context, this song is its apex. Full of artistry, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is, fittingly, a pop pinnacle. Though its roots lie in gospel, the song...

As the Detroit Free Press reports, Williams shared stories from the group’s 61-year history. With the latter-day Temptations and Four Tops back in the city where both groups were born, for a double bill show at Detroit’s Fox Theatre tonight (6), the Tempts’ surviving co-founder Otis Williams paid a visit to the Motown Museum yesterday. Shop the best of the Temptations’ discography on vinyl and more. As the Detroit Free Press reports, Williams shared stories from the group’s 61-year history, imparting his wisdom to an audience including 13 aspiring artists from the museum’s Hitsville Next programs. The event was hosted...