Motown Records worked like a well-oiled machine

Several music historians have observed that Motown Records’ formula for success, beginning in 1959, was patterned after the automotive manufacturing process that was perfected in Detroit, Mich.

For an article in TIME magazine, Gilbert Cruz wrote that Motown’s founder Berry Gordy Jr. modeled his Detroit ‘hit factory’ after a car assembly line: “Make a good product, then make something similar, and make it quick.”

 Berry Gordy Jr.

Cruz painted the picture. Over here were the songwriters – Smokey Robinson and the team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland. Over there were the talented artists – Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and all the others.

“In a neglected corner were the session musicians,” Cruz said. The band became known as the Funk Brothers, the guys who played the instruments on tons of hit songs.

“Indeed, Motown had an extraordinary house band made up of some of the best nightclub and bar musicians in ‘Black Detroit,’ noted Dr. Gerald Early, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., who has written extensively on the Motown era.

Dr. Gerald Early 

“The Funk Brothers played a huge role in the development of the Motown sound,” Dr. Early commented.

The ClassicMotown website refers to the musicians as “the factory workers of the hit machine, the unsung heroes.”

Nobody kept track of all the “comings and goings” of Funk Brothers during the early years, but James Jamerson’s bass voice “was widely hailed as the heartbeat of the Motown sound.”

William “Benny” Benjamin was Motown’s first drummer, and the first keyboardist of note was Earl Van Dyke. These three musicians claimed Studio A as the “Snakepit.” Dozens would follow in their footsteps.

 

The Motown musicians weren’t credited until 1971, when Marvin Gaye listed their names on the cover of his album “What’s Going On.”

 

Motown’s move to Los Angeles in 1972 effectively broke up the Funks as a unit. “Several went west, but their Motor City heyday was history,” according to the website narrative. Their story is best told through the 2002 “Standing In The Shadows Of Motown” documentary film.

In 2013, the collection of Funk Brothers was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Former Motown producer Mickey Stevenson said: “These guys were just magic. The gifts came from upstairs, but the touch, they formed together.”

Alongside the Funks, the Andantes was an essential part of the classic Motown sound. The female trio sang background vocals on thousands of recordings, behind all the major artists. The original singers were Louvain Demps, Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow.

 

Dr. Early remarked: “Motown records were specifically mixed to sound good on car radios and were characterized by a thumping backbeat that made dancing easy for everyone. Motown sought to be…and became the ‘Sound of Young America.’”

The job of Motown choreographer Charles “Cholly” Atkins was to make the groups “look as good as they sang.”

Atkins was a fabled tap dancer and vaudeville star from Pratt City, Ala. Gordy brought him to Motown to teach his Motown artists how to move and sway in harmony for the camera.

 

During a 2003 interview with David Lyman of the Detroit Free Press, Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas said that Atkins “would analyze the songs and map-out steps for each vocal movement. Our performances had twice the value because of his input.”

Duke Fakir of The Four Tops said that Atkins “gave us more than steps. Cholly gave us wisdom. He taught us how to touch an audience and about living life. He was Motown’s father figure.”

The beat goes on.