Motown Classics

It was billed as "The Sound of Young America," but the growing Motown label was being modest: in truth, the imprint's output was the sound of all America, with sparkly soul hits that appealed to black and white, young and old. Anchored by founder Berry Gordy's vision, and by songwriters Smokey Robinson and Holland/Dozier/Holland, Motown unleashed a steady stream of soul-pop landmarks — from its first hit, Barrett Strong's fierce ode to coin, "Money (That's What I Want)," to Marvin Gaye's indelible signature haunter, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," to Smokey's twin #1 classics, "My Guy" for Mary Wells and "My Girl" for the Temptations.

Motown didn't just feed its artists great songs; it carefully groomed its stars for success. Martha Reeves joined the company as a secretary before leading the Vandellas to chart-scorchers like "(Love Is Like A) Heatwave" and "Nowhere to Run." Lifetime Motown legend Stevie Wonder was still using the "Little" when his album Little Stevie Wonder/The 12-Year-Old Genius, with its can't-sit-still live single "Fingertips, Pt. 2," hit #1. And the Supremes, with their down-to-the-smallest-sequin attention to costume and choreography, were such a dictionary-picture-perfect crossover act, they appeared on that bastion of middle-American TV, The Ed Sullivan Show, no less than 20 times.

You could say that one of Motown's secrets for success was its knack for keeping it all in the family, regularly recycling songs and cross-pollinating acts. Consider Martha Reeves, who backed Marvin Gaye on "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" before igniting on her own with "Jimmy Mack." And in a crazy case of "say what?" the Undisputed Truth had a massive hit with "Smiling Faces Sometimes," a number that hadn't done too well for the Temptations. The following year, '72, the Undisputed Truth released "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," which went nowhere…until the Temptations waxed it soon after and hit #1 (see Basics).

In January of 1960, Berry Gordy, who'd quit his day job as an upholstery trimmer after pocketing some money writing songs for Jackie Wilson, hung up a sign over the front of a two-story Detroit house that read "Hitsville U.S.A." He told his friends, "If I ever get this house and get it paid for, I'll have it made." Chances are, Berry couldn't even have imagined that having it made would, soon enough, translate into world domination. The first label owned by an African-American, Motown helped blur the line between black and white in pop music, creating crossover stars out of Smokey, Stevie, Marvin, Diana, and the Jacksons, while birthing a dizzying number of soul standards that have infiltrated the far reaches of American culture, from fashion to the movies to the ever-lovin' California Raisins.