Early Motown Days Podcast
This podcast was first broadcast on The Rock’n’Roll Unravelled Show, Access North West – 1 October 2018.
THE BLOG of Early Motown Days to accompany this broadcast.
EARLY MOTOWN DAYS
Berry Gordy Jr set up his first label, Tamla, with a $800 loan in January 1959. The Motown label and corporation followed at the end of the year. Many of his artists learnt their trade in doo wop groups in the 1950s. Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and Four Tops all started out singing close harmony. His first female star was Mary Wells and the label’s 1st American #1, Please Mr Postman, came courtesy of The Marvelettes. The songwriting/production team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, joined the label in 1963 and was responsible for a multitude of Motown hits in the mid-1960s.
Our story here ends when Berry Gordy Jr finally established the Tamla Motown label in the UK, with the release of the Supremes’ Stop in the Name of Love on 19 March 1965.
ACCESS NORTH WEST
The Rock’n’Roll Unravelled Show is on Access North West monthly.
It’s on the first Monday of every month at 10.00am (UK). The show is repeated on the Wednesday of that week at 7.00pm (UK). It is further repeated on the other Mondays and Wednesdays at the same times.
ABOUT THE ROCK’N’ROLL UNRAVELLED SHOW
We’ll be looking at how rock’n’roll came about. It’s development into rock music in the mid-1960s the array of rock genres in the late 1960s and ‘70s. Blues, R&B, rock’n’roll, rock, prog, folk rock, country rock, psychedelia, glam, early metal, punk, new wave… they will all find their way into the shows. Plus artists and bands some well known, some more on the cult side. Stories behind classic singles and albums, record labels, venues, gigs… Not forgetting the people behind the scenes, managers, promoters, writers, Svengalis – the people who made it all happen.
If it’s relevant to the music of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s I’ll be talking about it.
There will be some great music, some you’ll recognise and some that you might well be hearing for the first time.
Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
Rock’n’Roll Unravelled – THE BOOK
Derek Shelmerdine is the author of Rock’n’Roll Unravelled.
RocknRoll Unravelled tells the story of rock’n’roll from its roots up until mid-1970s punk. Not just the story of the music but also the external events which influenced it, such as the Vietnam War and Civil Rights struggle.
TO BUY Rock’n’Roll Unravelled
FOR ALL PODCASTS
For all of Derek Shelmerdine‘s Podcasts.
