Baby, Baby, It’s Berry Gordy’s Birthday
🍾Berry Gordy, born November 28, 1929, is best known as the founder of Motown Records. A proud native son of Detroit, Berry (actually Berry III) is one of eight children.
He is more than just Mr. Motown: he’s written several hit records, produced hit tunes and movies, and along the way has become one of the highest profile African-American business moguls. Musical performers and millions of music fans can all thank him for his contributions.
But before his rise in the music world, he was a pro boxer, and then served in the US Army during the Korean War.
Key to his early musical rise was his co-writing songs for the singer Jackie Wilson, some of which became sizable hits such as “Reet Petite.”
Using an $800 loan, Berry bought the house that he’d turn into Hitsville USA. The recording studio he built inside it would record hits by the Miracles, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Mary Wells, Junior Walker, the Supremes, the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and so many others.
In the 1970s Gordy moved Motown and its subsidiary labels to Los Angeles.
Gordy also produced four films, including Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany. He helped produce Broadway’s Motown: The Musical.
Pop music and popular culture has been shaped immensely by this man, and we still sing his songs around the globe.
Look at this fantastic video — An Evening With Berry Gordy (Chicago 2012): An Evening With Berry Gordy was a must see, live-to-tape one-on-one interview with Berry Gordy conducted by the late award-winning journalist Gwen Ifill. The program includes performances by Valerie Simpson, KEM, and Janelle Monae as well as Brandon Dixon and Valisia Lekae from Motown: The Musical. Gordy’s son, Stefan Gordy, known to the music world as Redfoo, one-half of the hip-hop musical group, LMFAO, was in attendance.
Photo: Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
