The Year Was 1965: A Significant Events In Motown's History Pt.4

Marvin Gaye

While the main production teams were enjoying spectacular success, other producers at the label were coming up with hits such as “Ain’t That Peculiar” released on Tamla Records and performed by Marvin Gaye, produced and co-written by Smokey Robinson. The song peaked at number one week-ending 27^th November 1965 (1 week) on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles Chart. The development of the song benefited from the expert help of several creative masterminds, including Willie Shorter who was doing the majority of the rhythm charts for Smokey Robinson and his song-writing team, working in conjunction with Robinson’s key creative partner Marv Tarplin during that period, with Paul Riser taking care of string arrangements. Tarplin’s brilliant guitar skills were vitally important to the overall success of the song.  He and Robinson collaborated on songs such as “I’ll Be Doggone” and “The Tracks Of My Tears.”

By the end of 1965 Motown Records had dominated the number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart for a total of eight weeks during the year with three different acts. Motown Records also controlled the number one position on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles for a total of twenty-five weeks
. 
While Marvin Gaye was enjoying great success with Smokey Robinson, he also recorded his first major duet with Kim Weston, called “It Takes Two”. The album from which the single was taken, also entitled “It Takes Two”, was co-produced by William “Mickey” Stevenson and Harvey Fuqua. The hit song was co-written by female song-writer Sylvia Moy and William “Mickey” Stevenson. The song charted the following year in May 1966 and reached number four on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles Chart, peaking at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. This was soon to be followed by his successful duets with the late Tammi Terrell, starting in 1966.

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The Year Was 1965: Significant Events in Motown’s History Pt. 3

The Four Tops
 performing live

The next all-black male vocal group to top the charts was The Four Tops who knocked The Supremes off the top position with their thunderous performance of the single “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).” The track exploded with a bang when it was released by Motown Records. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart week-ending 19^th June 1965 (2 weeks). It is one of those songs that define “The Sound Of Young America,” all within two minutes and 43 seconds! Before the group had their first number one, Holland-Dozier-Holland had produced a song entitled “Baby I Need Your Loving” which was The Four Top’s first Top Twenty single which peaked at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It has become another classic.




Holland-Dozier and Holland in
the studio with The Supremes

The Supremes

Holland-Dozier-Holland were certainly on a roll when they surprised everyone with a sixth consecutive number one for The Supremes with “I Hear a Symphony.” The song displaced The Rolling Stones single “Get Off Of My Cloud” week-ending 20^th November 1965 (2 weeks). That very same week Chess Records’ “Soul Queen” Fontella Bass was at number four with “Rescue Me.” Another song was released from the album “I Hear a Symphony” entitled “My World Is Empty Without You.” It was the first single by The Supremes not to peak at number one on any singles chart listings in America. The recording style of the single was completely different from its predecessor with musical instrumentation sounding extremely gothic from a bygone era sometime in the 1500s in Europe. Earl Van Dyke’s Hammond organ sound configuration was made to sound like a liturgical pipe organ and reflected the trend towards baroque pop music during the mid-1960s. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart for two weeks in February 1965 and reached number ten on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles Chart.





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The Year Was 1968: Significant Events in Motown’s History

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
were Motown Record's 
most successful duo.

1968 was the year that Marvin Gaye cracked the winning formula with Tammi Terrell, with the creative assistance of Ashford and Simpson, who became both their song writers and music producers for their next two number one singles on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles Chart, starting with the single released on March 28^th 1968 “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” which achieved the number one position week-ending 8^th June 1968 (1 week) and also peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. The next number one song followed in late summer with “You’re All I Need to Get By”, at the top week-ending 31^st August 1968 (5 weeks). These two songs performed extremely well in the UK and in other European music markets, selling hundreds of thousands of copies across Europe. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell became the most successful duo in the history of the label during this period.

Ashford and Simpson.
The song writing and
 music production team behind
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell success.

The performances of Gaye and Terrell were of top quality, delivered with class and sophistication. Their voices flowed smoothly like milk and honey, graced with beauty and poetic yet filled with sexual passion from start to finish, unmatched by anyone at the time. They became a trade-mark brand for Motown and were certainly perfect for each other in terms of the blend of voices and harmonisation, making the most of the beautiful melodies developed by Ashford and Simpson. 

The original roots and feelings of the majority of these songs written by Ashford and Simpson were developed by Valerie Simpson playing the piano, as they worked chord structures for each song. Each track was underpinned by soulful, gospel-tinged musical themes, which were strongly influenced by the composers’ experiences back in the city of New York, where they performed in the Baptist church choir. This experience impacted their musical intelligence and approach to composing and producing songs and helped them create brilliant songs, with the skilful support of The Funk Brothers under the leadership of Earl Van Dyke. 

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Significant Achievements in the Detroit Sound Pt.3

Motown Records first compilation
gold certified album in the UK. 

In addition Motown had tremendous success with two more compilation albums starting in 1969 and also 1970 following their previous success on the UK Official Pop Albums Chart in 1968 with new titles starting with “Motown Chartbusters Volume 3” at number one week-ending 25^th October 1969 (1 week). The compilation album was on the chart for a total of 93 weeks! The album obtained gold certification for the label according to BPI for 100,000 copies sold in the UK. This was followed in 1970 with “Motown Chartbuster Volume 4” that peaked at number one week-ending 24^th October 1970 (1 week).

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
first UK Pop number one hit.

The next monster single to return to the top was originally recorded in Detroit in Studio A in 1966 entitled “The Tears of a Clown” performed by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. It was released in 1967 on the studio album “Make It Happen.” It re-released in the United Kingdom as single during September 1970 and raced up the UK Official Pop Singles Chart to peak at number one week-ending 12^th September 1970 (1 week) It became a major trans-Atlantic hit since Marvin Gaye’s classic hit “I Heard Through The Grapevine” reaching top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart week-ending 12^th December 1970 (2 weeks); Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles Chart week-ending 5^th December 1970 (3 weeks) at number one; Cash Box Pop Singles Chart week-ending 12^th December 1970 (1 week). The single potential was discovered by a staff member at EMI Records UK operation by the name of Karen Spreadbury who John Reid a manager at EMI Records UK operations responsible for marketing Motown Tamla recording projects, took her advice and released the single in the UK and within two weeks it was number one on the UK Official Pop Singles Chart.

Freda Payne only Pop
number one hit in the UK and
Trans-Atlantic million seller.

At the same time that “Ball Of Confusion (That’s What World Is Today)” was in the Top Five on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles week-ending 11^th July 1970, they was another single produced in Detroit and performed by Freda Payne entitled “Band of Gold” at number five. The song eventually peaked at number three week-ending 25^th July 1970 (1 week). The song became the first Trans-Atlantic hit to go to number one on the UK Official Pop Singles Chart for the then newly established Invictus Records label founded by Holland-Dozier-Holland in 1968 in Detroit after the they departure form Motown. The single peaked at number one week-ending 19^th September 1970 (6 weeks). The instrumentation on the track were provided by members of The Funk Brothers: Bob Babbitt (bass), Dennis Coffey, Eddie Willis, Ray Monette and Ray Parker, Jr. (guitars), Johnny Griffith (keyboards), Uriel Jones (drums), Jack Ashford (percussion) with backing vocals by Scherrie Payne, Telma Hopkins, Joyce Vincent Wilson and Pamela Vincent.

Another single came out of Invictus Records during the same period which was gold certified single in America called “Give Me Just A Little More Time” performed by the Chairmen Of The Board. The track peaked at number eight on the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles Chart in 1970; Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart at number three; UK Official Pop Singles Chart at number three the same year.  Both these first two gold certified singles obtained by the label were recorded at the Holland Sound Studios, Inc by Chief engineer Lawrence Horn and mastered by Bob Dennis.




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