There’s No Sound Like Motown Music

There is no sound like Motown. The Motor City (Detroit) was the place to be in the early 60s for an artist to be discovered. If Berry Gordy had not quit his boxing career and stated the Motown Label, who knows what we would be been listening to now? Here (in our humble opinion) are the greatest Motown songs of all time…

1. Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
2. My Girl – Temptations
3. Reach Out I’ll Be There – Four Tops
4. Where Did Our Love Go? – Supremes
5. What’s Goin’ On? – Marvin Gaye
6. Dancing in the Street – Martha & The Vandellas
7. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg – The Temptations
8. Superstition – Stevie Wonder
9. Please Mr. Postman – Marvelettes
10. My Guy – Mary Wells
11. (Love Is Like a) Heat Wave – Martha & The Vandellas
12. I Want You Back – Jackson 5
13. Baby Love – The Supremes
14. Shotgun – Jr. Walker and the All Stars
15. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell
16. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – Aretha Franklin

Conclusions: Songwriting (Holland, Dozier, Holland) and rich harmonies were the keys to Motown’s success. The other ingredient was the house band known as the ‘Funk Brothers.’ Very few of the stars on this list are still with us, but their music lives on.

Did you know that Motown became a Fortune 500 company in the 60s? By 1966 the company had over 450 employees and a net worth of $22 million dollars!

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