![marvin gaye anthology vinyl value marvin gaye anthology vinyl value](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/aDEAAOSwrc9c7EWI/s-l300.jpg)
Where Did Our Love Go (1964), their second album, is a good document of their ambitious climb to stardom as it is a hodge-podge of recordings made between 1962-’64. From their time as teenagers hanging around Hitsville begging and cajoling anyone to give them a chance or singing backup when needed, the Supremes became one of the best pop acts of all time. Perhaps no other act represents the Motown sound better than the Supremes.
![marvin gaye anthology vinyl value marvin gaye anthology vinyl value](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0560/7764/8044/products/Marvin-Gaye-I-Heard-It-Through-The-Grapevine-Purple-LP_9YAJ9_520x.jpg)
This list will focus on the classic era in the ’60s when artists like Mary Wells and the Temptations reigned supreme (see what I did there?). The changing of the guard happened again in the late ’60s and early ’70s when artists like the Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonder took over as standard bearers. But Motown’s eye to the future was clearly on the youth market and when singles from the Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Marvelettes started taking hold in radio, Mabel John et al. In the beginning the label relied on recordings from more bluesy artists like Mabel John and the irreverent Amos Milburn to stay afloat. There are some clearly divided eras in the life of Motown Records. Motown was small, but it was a juggernaut, and as the name of their original main headquarters and studio, Hitsville, U.S.A., makes clear, the goal was to make hit songs that didn’t just appeal to black audiences but that would also cross over to the mainstream. Motown set up a Quality Control team that would decide which songs were good enough to be released as singles. He also created a management company (ITM) to manage the careers of the artists he signed and a publishing entity to maintain ownership of copyrights to Motown’s catalogue (Jobete Music)-which is why so many Motown songs got cycled through and recorded by multiple acts. After realizing he wasn’t going to make very much money as a songwriter alone, at the suggestion of friend Smokey Robinson, he decided to form his own record company. Motown inspires images of sharply dressed performers, carefully cultivated public personas and a desire from all involved (from the songwriters to the session musicians like the Funk Brothers to the backing vocalists like the Andantes or the Originals) for pop perfection.įounder Berry Gordy Jr. Driving rhythms, heavy bass, the near ever-present tambourine that makes you wonder whether that thing had a special place on the wall of the recording studio. Motown’s pop version of soul music defined the Detroit sound. Labels like Chess, Stax and Motown Records all had this. There are some record labels closely identified with a sound-when you hear a song you know without naming the artist where it came from.