Motown – Page 4 – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

HIS TIME-OUT ENDS; [DAVID] RUFFIN SOLOS AGAIN . . . NOVEMBER 16, 1974

Identified with The Temptations, Ruffin Wants To Be Known ‘As Myself’

LOS ANGELES — When David Ruffin left his lead singer slot with the Temptations in 1968 following a string of hits, including six top 10 disks in four years, many considered the move a risky one at best for a man who was in a R&B group that basically never missed the charts.

Yet Ruffin’s first solo effort, “My Whole World Ended,” was also a top 10 hit. He followed with several more chart records over the next few years, before taking a hiatus from the business of pop, R&B.

Now, back with a new LP (“Me ‘n’ Rock And Roll Are Here To Stay”) and set to perform again, the man many feel is the most important and most popular R&B vocalist is looking forward to a beginning of a brand new career.

With the Temptations, Ruffin was lead singer for one of the first black groups to break the “soul” category barrier. The hits were universal hits. “We were singing universal songs,” he says today, “produced by good people and written by good people. And the masses were ready for it.

“As for leaving the group, he says, “I had been a solo artist before joining and I wanted to be solo again. There were some conflict and some jealousy within the Temps,but most groups are that way. I’m not taking anything away from my days with the group, because they were some of the most beautiful times I had. Still, in a group you are obligated to give your all to that group. It didn’t bother me to the extent it affected my singing, but it did affect me. So, while it was beautiful to have been lead singer of the Temps for four years, it may have been the most important thing that happened to me when I decided to leave them.”

As mentioned, Ruffin’s first effort was a solid hit. Then he began to take things a bit slower. “I wanted to be identified with the Temptations in a way,” he says, “plus I wanted to be known as myself. And you really cannot change your voice.”

During this hiatus, Rod Stewart began stating in interviews that Ruffin was the greatest R&B singer he’d ever heard, and cut such Temptations classic as “Losing You,” and “I Wish It Would Rain,” on his LPs. The Rolling Stones recently cut “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,” and Stewart once called upon Ruffin from the audience to join him on stage.

“I thought the things Rod said were great,” Ruffin says, “because I admire him and also because so few take time to acknowledge others. He used to come to my house when he was in Detroit, and we’ve still got three songs we wrote together.”

Ruffin says his time over the past few years were spent “trying to take a look at myself. I didn’t make much money but I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot by listening and watching. And I think that more than everything else, good rock is now good rock. The barriers between music are breaking, and the black artists has a better overall opportunity.

“But it’s the rock scene I like. That’s why my LP is called what it is and that’s why there are things we hope will appeal to everyone on it. It’s the most relaxed thing I’ve ever done. I took my time; I took the songs home and I had fun. And I found how to get the most from my voice.

“Norman Whitfield produced most of it and wrote most of it. And the LP is more planned than anything I’ve ever done and I think that, along with aiming the LP at everyone, it has become a growing trend in black music.”

As for touring, Ruffin opened at the Whisky Au Go-Go here last week with a new band (two guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, alto and tenor saxophones) and will decide on his “road” future after the engagement.

One thing Ruffin will do is one-nighters. “I happen to like them,” he says, “I’m not 24 anymore, but I still like to sing to people, and the more places you go, the more singing you do and more people you meet. And you can always learn.” END

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Credit source information: Billboard, November 16, 1974

RECORD WORLD | DOZIER, HOLLANDS: THEY’RE THE TOP . . . JANUARY 15, 1966

Three Years in the Making, Holland, Dozier, Holland, Established Top Hit Makers at Motown Records Today

The team of Lamont Dozier-Brian and Eddie Holland produced nine releases in 1965 and “8-eight-8,” I said eight of these records, made the Top 10, both pop and R&B.

In the last three years, they have produced (and written) a minimum of “15 fifteen-15 Top 10″ pop and R&B” records. The sales on “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops are over one million, four hundred thousand; sales on “Where Did Our Love Go” by the Supremes are over one million-two hundred thousand. Berry Gordy himself, who scored in the poll, did one hit on his own last year – “Shotgun.” So now Motown made Brian Holland a Vice President – to me, it’s all three together. I just went out to Detroit and they told me how they do it.

Brian and Lamont sit down at a piano to riffle a taste. They keep thinking and thinking, and reaching and searching for a definite melody line – the “handle.” They usually work together this way for about a half an hour. They will discard quite a few ideas, and then will take out anything that they feel is extraneous. Their goal is always naked simplicity, and when they achieve that, then they strip that down even more, if possible. The basic criterion is always “pleasantness to the ear.” Then they turn the melody and a “working title” over to Holland. Different situations will vary from time to time.

The soul emanates from within them as they write. The soul is the quintessence of all they ever were and are. They draw upon a “Soul Fund” that includes: familiarity with ALL classical and semi-classical music; their cultural heritage as Negroes; and much of the Hebraic-Judaic musical literature.

As children, they sang in church choirs, and thus know almost all the spirituals and work and folk song of their people. They benefited from a cultural enrichment program that has existed in the Detroit school system for years. Their teachers took them to many classical concerts.

I was reminded of the great autobiographical play by the Welsh actor, Emlyn Williams, “The Corn Is Green,” when Eddie Holland said to me, “Kal, the first time I heard Brahms and Beethoven, I felt as if a giant force had lifted me up from the poverty and misery around me, up a steep wall, until I could see stretching out in front of me an expanse of green grass and a whole new world of beauty.”

They will thrill all their lives to the greatness and genius of these music titans of centuries past. They cannot pinpoint any particular melody of theirs to any one source. However, the emotional mainspring that drives their creativity is evolved from the “most hurtin’, tore-up peoples that the world has ever known.” I asked VP Brian Holland which of their songs move them the most. He told me that he is still moved to tears by: “I Can’t Help Myself”; “Stop In The Name Of Love”; and especially “I Hear A Symphony.”

I asked them who is their favorite writing team. I knew before they answered that they would say “Music by Burt Bacharach and words by Hal David.“

KAL RUDMAN’S ‘MONEY MUSIC‘

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Information, credit and news source: Record World, January 15, 1966

**THE MOTOWN HIT MAKERS, 1965**: L-R Eddie Holland, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, and Florence Ballard. Standing: Berry Gordy, Jr. *(Click on image 2x for largest detailed PC view, tap and ‘stretch’ across image for digitized Mobile device view)*

SUPREMES ARE NUMBER ONE ON BILLBOARD–THIRD DISK IN ROW . . . DECEMBER 19, 1964

Motor City Girl Group’s latest, ‘Come See About Me’, Ascends to Top of Chart This Week

NEW YORK — Motown’s Supremes are living up to their title. The gals captured the first place position on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart with their waxing of “Come See About Me.” This is the third No. 1 record in a row for the gals and represents the first femme group to achieve this status.

To add to it all, Diana, Flo and Mary have staged a turn-about on the British by invading the No. 1 position on their charts with “Baby Love,” the first American gal group to do so. The record also registers big here, having reached the No. 8 position on Billboard’s singles listing and holding 15th place this week.

Their Motown albums have had the same response from record buyers. “Where Did Our Love Go,” formerly occupying the No. 1 position is No. 7 this week on Billboard’s LP chart with 14 weeks as a chart entry. Their most recent album release, “A Bit of Liverpool,” has reached 92 this week after only a month on the chart. Indications are that it should do as well as its predecessor.

“Baby Love,” also reached the chart pinnacle for four consecutive weeks. The Supremes have recently returned from a much-heralded tour of England and Europe. END

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Credit, information and news source: Billboard, December 19, 1964

**The Supremes**, photographed in 1965. (L-R) Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. *(Photo by King Collection/Avalon/Getty Images)*

TURNING TWENTY! ‘STANDING IN THE SHADOWS of MOTOWN’, RECALLED

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The film covers the Funk Brothers’ career via interviews with surviving band members, archival footage and still photos, dramatized re-enactments, and narration by actor Andre Braugher. The film also features new live performances of several Motown hit songs, with the Funk Brothers backing up Gerald Levert, Me’shell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan, and Montell Jordan.

The impetus behind making the film was to bring these influential players out of anonymity. In addition to bassist James Jamerson, The Funk Brothers consisted of the following musicians: Jack Ashford (percussion); Bob Babbitt (bass); Joe Hunter (keyboards); Uriel Jones (drums); Joe Messina (guitar); Eddie Willis (guitar); Richard “Pistol” Allen (drums); Benny “Papa Zita” Benjamin (drums); Eddie “Bongo” Brown (percussion); Johnny Griffith (keyboards); Earl Van Dyke (keyboards); and Robert White (guitar).

The Funk Brothers (with Motown from 1959 thru 1973) produced more hits than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley combined.

‘Standing In The Shadows of Motown’, released today, November 2002.

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Source: Standing In The Shadow Of Motown (film); Wikipedia

Sung by Montell Jordan and Chaka Kahn. Introduction by Jay Butler

MUSIC BUSINESS | “WE’RE HAVING A BALL!”, THE SUPREMES . . . OCTOBER 10, 1964

It’s fun being a success,” say the Motown stars. But success hasn’t changed them too much. They still live at home, date old boyfriends, and like to talk about clothes.

**Diane, Mary, and Florence** *(Photo: Music Business, October 10, 1964)*

TIGHT PANTS. Should a girl wear tight, tight pants, like some of the fashions seem to dictate these days?” I think it’s all in how a girl acts when she gets them on,” says Mary Wilson, of the smash-hit Detroit group, the Supremes. Mary made the observation during a break in the group’s recent appearance at the Brooklyn Fox Theater, with jockey Murray “The K” Kaufman.

“For one thing,” Mary continued, “Those tight-fitting pants are particularly good when you’re on the road, because you don’t have to press them so much. But we’re all quite petite and we like flare-outs (dresses) too and we often wear
them in our shows. But really, it seems to be that the tight things are the favorites and we often have to wear them, sort of by demand, if you know what I mean.

“Like with Dick Clark. We were out on his tour for 48 days this past summer. We had silver pants for our act on that show, and I must say, he just loved them. In fact, he just about insisted that we wear them all the time. He would getup- set when we would try something else. We’re getting a lot more clothes for our wardrobe now and we plan them all ourselves too.”

Want more than rock. Obviously, the Supremes are interested in more things than clothes-musical styles for instance. “Nobody seems to get anywhere these days without a hit record,” Mary continued.” We started singing over seven years ago. For most of that time, we’ve been making records, on a lot of different labels. Then with a good rock and roll sound, after all these years, we get a hit and things start to happen. People notice us. The trouble is that they think rock and roll is all we can or want to do, and that isn’t true. We hope to do an album soon with songs like ‘People’ and ‘I Am Woman’. ‘Those ballads are a long way from ‘Where Did Our Love Go.’

“We hope to get into the nightclub field and we’re working at it right now. We just appeared for a while in the20 Grand Club in Detroit and we tried out our new act recently in a Bermuda Club called the Clay House. We seemed to go over real big there but I know there’s a lot more work left to do before we’re really ready for the big time.

“In a way we’re old-timers already. We’re all about 21 now, but we started singing when we were all in school at 14. We knew the fellows in the Temptations and we got to be like a sister act to them, doing shows with them. We were all from the same neighborhood.

STILL LIVE HOME. “We still live in the same neighborhood at home with our Moms. One of them usually goes on tour with us. When we’re home, between tours and one-nighters and record dates, we sometimes still go out with old friends on dates. We all like to go bowling and Diane (Ross) loves to swim. She won some prizes when she was on her high school team.” (The third member of the trio is Florence Ballard).

It’s no secret that such Britishers as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones have openly dug the artists from the Tamla- Motown group, and the Supremes have often been mentioned as among the top favorites. But it’s really a mutual admiration society, trans-Atlantic style, since the Supremes have just recorded a new album of Beatles and other British group hits.

LIKE BRITISH ACTS. “When those fellows first got started here in America, we all just asked, who are they and what have they got. Now I think the Beatles, and the Dave Clark Five, especially, get better with each record. I like their songs. The other night, a couple of us saw the Animals and I can tell you that they were a terrific group too. “We’re having a ball right now our- selves. It’s fun being a success and it’s even fun going on tour. It means a lot of bus riding but the groups are all swell and we have a lot of fun flirting, in a nice way, on the bus with all the fellows. I know we’re going to have great fun in England too (the group was due to appear on British TV Sunday, October11). I hope they’ll like us, even though we haven’t had a chance to take Berry Gordy upon his offer to send us to drama school yet. He thought we had a lot of promise and wanted us to get that training for TV work. I guess things have just been too good for us. We haven’t had time to study. We’ve been too busy working.” END

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Information, credit and news source: Music Business, October 10, 1964

RECORD WORLD | MOTOWN EXECUTIVES HEAD TO EUROPE . . . . OCTOBER 10, 1964

Motown Founder Berry Gordy, Esther Edwards, Barney Ales Head to UK and Europe to Set Up the Tamla-Motown Label

DETROIT — Berry Gordy, Jr., President of Motown Record Corporation, will fly to London, England, Oct. 5 to meet with officials of EMI Records and to arrange for overseas exploitation and distribution for the diskery’s product on a Tamla-Motown label. He will be accompanied by Mrs. Esther Edwards, Vice–President-Director of the firm’s International operations; Barney Ales, Exec Vice-President and Sales Director, and George Schiffer, Motown Legal Counsel.

The foursome will spend two to three weeks abroad visiting other licensees distributing Motown’s products. A sharp up-swing in popularity in Europe of Motown’s disks is currently evidenced by top chart position of America’s The Supremes, recipients of the coveted Shooting Star Award from England for their recording of “Where Did Our Love Go,” plus strong airplays on Radio Caroline, England and Radio Veronica, Holland.

Records by such other Motown Artists as Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, Martha and The Vandellas, The Four Tops, The Marvelettes, The Temptations, Mary Wells, The Contours, Kim Weston and Brenda Holloway have been registering solid reaction overseas, label reports. More than half the aforementioned are currently represented on national charts in the United States.

The Supremes, who currently have two hit singles on the Motown label, the most recent, “Baby Love,” and also an album entitled, “Where Did Our Love Go,” will arrive at London Airport, England, 8 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6 for a one-week whirlwind tour of radio and TV engagements. Should time permit, The Supremes will visit Holland, Germany and France for a day in each country.

Mrs. Edwards plans, while overseas, to setup TV, theater and nightclub engagements, as well as personal appearance and promotion tours for the artists.
Motown, in the record business less than six years, has experienced a meteoric rise under Gordy’s direction. Last year the company had 32 hits on the major charts. Now in an expansion pro gram, Motown is increasing its album output and plans to place heavier emphasis on jazz, country and folk, states VP Ales.

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Information, credit and news source: Record World, October 10, 1964

**MOTOWN** Berry Gordy and Esther Edwards, Barney Ales (background), the Supremes and Motown legal counsel George Schiffer (right) arrive at London Airport, October 6,1964.

MOTOWN MUSEUM: HITSVILLE! THE PAST and THE PRESENT

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** July 19, 2021 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 3:39:36 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** July 19, 2021 *[Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 3:41:48 p.m.]*

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** July 19, 2021 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 3:42:41 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** July 19, 2021 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 3:41:30 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** July 19, 2021 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 3:40:23 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** July 19, 2021 *[Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 3:40:54 p.m.]*

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:49:47 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:50:04 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:51:02 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 *[Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:51:11 p.m.]*

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The Motown Museum is currently undergoing a 50 million dollar renovation and museum expansion.

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press (October 10, 2021), Phase I of the project will consist of construction of a new concrete and granite plaza that will stretch across the front grounds of the museum, spanning across four adjoining houses. It will include a pop-up performance space structuring the front door of the new 50,000 square foot building expansion.

Phase I and Phase II has been completed, according to this Yahoo! News (August 8, 2022) article here. Phase III — adding a new 50,000 square feet expansion facility behind the museum — has yet to get off the ground.

The Motown Museum temporarily closed in July 2021 for the projected renovations. But according to The Detroit News, a partial tour of the museum and its campus was slated to resume, Sunday, August 14, 2022.

The Motown Museum was founded by Berry Gordy’s sister, Esther Gordy, in 1985.

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NOTE I: Recently, there has been some comments critical on social media outlets as to the removal of the lawn turf that was part of the Hitsville landscape since Berry Gordy first acquired the property in 1959. What do you think?

Share your comments here with us.

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NOTE II: All photos featured here were taken by Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) in 2021 and 2022, as dated. The added March 1966 Hitsville U. S. A. photograph (black and white) is courtesy of the Motown Museum Facebook page.

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**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:51:58 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 [Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:54:03 p.m.]

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 *[Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:52:19 p.m.]*

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 *[Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:50:23 p.m.]*

**MOTOWN MUSEUM** August 10, 2022 *[Photo credit: Jim Feliciano (Motor City Radio Flashbacks) 5:54:57 p.m.]*

MOTOWN LEGENDS: SPOTLIGHTS ON! THE MIRACLES

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The Miracles (also known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965 to 1972) were an American rhythm and blues vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy’s Motown Records, and one of the most important and influential groups in pop, rock and roll, soul and R&B music history.

The group that later became the Miracles was formed in 1955 by five teenage friends from Detroit, Michigan, under the name the Five Chimes. Three of the founding members, Smokey Robinson, Warren “Pete” Moore, and Ronnie White, had been singing together since they each were around the age of eleven. The group, influenced by acts such as Billy Ward and His Dominoes and Nolan Strong & the Diablos, featured Clarence Dawson and James Grice in the original lineup.

All of the group’s original members attended Northern High School in Detroit. After Dawson quit the group and Grice dropped out to get married, they were replaced by Emerson “Sonny” Rogers and his cousin Bobby and changed their name to the Matadors.

Coincidentally, both Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers were born in the same hospital on the same date (February 19, 1940), despite not actually meeting each other until they were fifteen. In 1957, Sonny Rogers left to join the United States Army and Claudette Rogers, his sister, who had been singing with the sister group the Matadorettes, joined them shortly afterwards, and in 1958, the group became the Miracles. Following two years of courtship, Smokey and Claudette married in November 1959.

The group’s extensive work with Berry Gordy and Tamla Records gave the parent label Motown Record Corporation its first million-selling hit record with the 1960 Grammy Hall of Fame smash, “Shop Around”, and further established themselves as one of Motown’s top acts with the hit singles “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me“, “What’s So Good About Goodbye”, “Way Over There”, “I’ll Try Something New”, “Mickey’s Monkey”, “Going To A Go-Go”, “(Come ‘Round Here) I’m the One You Need”, “Just A Mirage”, “If You Can Want”, “More Love”, “I Don’t Blame You At All”, “Ooo Baby Baby”, the multi-award-winning “The Tracks of My Tears”,”My Girl Has Gone’ “Special Occasion”, “I Second That Emotion”, “Baby Baby Don’t Cry”, the number-one Pop smashes “The Tears of a Clown” and “Love Machine”, “Do It Baby”, and “That’s What Love Is Made Of”, among numerous other hits

Referred to as Motown’s “soul supergroup”, the Miracles recorded 26 Top 40 Pop hits, sixteen of which reached the Billboard Top 20, seven top 10 singles, and a number one single, “The Tears of a Clown”, while the Robinsons and Tarplin were members.

Following the departure of Tarplin and the Robinsons, the rest of the group continued with singer Billy Griffin and managed by Martin Pichinson who helped rebuild the Miracles, they scored two final top 20 singles, “Do It Baby” and “Love Machine”, a second No. 1 hit, which topped the charts before the group departed for Columbia Records in 1977, recording as a quintet with Billy’s brother Donald Griffin replacing Marv Tarplin, where after a few releases, they disbanded in 1978. In all, the group had over fifty charted hits by the time they disbanded.

On the R&B charts, the Miracles scored 26 Top 10 Billboard R&B hits, with 4 R&B No. 1’s, and 11 U.S. R&B Top 10 Albums, including two No.1’s.

Bobby Rogers and Ronald White revived the group as a touring ensemble sporadically during the 1980s and again in the 1990s. Following White’s death in 1995, Rogers continued to tour with different members until he was forced into retirement due to health issues in 2011, dying less than two years later. Bobby Rogers died in March 2013, 2 weeks after his 73rd birthday. Pete Moore died November 19, 2017, on his 79th birthday. Former members Carl Cotton, Marv Tarplin and Donald Griffin are also deceased (in 2003, 2011, and 2015 respectively).

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Information and credit source: “The Miracles” Wikipedia

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Smokey Robinson (acapella)

MOTOWN MONDAYS! A RECORD FLASHBACK: THE MIRACLES, 1962

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Released December 29 1962, “You’ve Really Got A Hold Of Me” peaked at #1 (charted 14 total weeks R&B overall) on the Billboard R&B chart in 1963. B-side: “Happy Landing”

TAMLA 54073 (Source: Billboard Top R&B Singles)