Editing Motown (section)

===Beginnings of Motown===
[[Berry Gordy]]'s interest in the record business began when he opened a record store called the 3D Record Mart, a shop where he hoped to "educate customers about the beauty of jazz", in [[Detroit, Michigan]]. Although the shop did not last very long, Gordy's interest in the music business did not fade. He frequented Detroit's downtown nightclubs, and in the Flame Show Bar he met bar manager Al Green (not the [[Al Green|soul singer of the same name]]), who owned a music publishing company called Pearl Music and represented Detroit-based musician [[Jackie Wilson]]. Gordy soon became part of a group of songwriters—with his sister [[Gwen Gordy Fuqua|Gwen Gordy]] and [[Billy Davis (songwriter)|Billy Davis]]—who wrote songs for Wilson. In November 1957, "[[Reet Petite]]" was released and became their first major hit.<ref>Flory, p. 24.</ref> During the next eighteen months, Gordy helped to write six more Wilson A-sides, including "[[Lonely Teardrops]]", a peak-popular hit of 1958. Between 1957 and 1958, Gordy wrote or produced over a hundred sides for various artists, with his siblings Anna, Gwen and Robert, and other collaborators in varying combinations.<ref>Flory, p. 25.</ref>

[[File:Hitsville USA.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The [[Hitsville U.S.A.]] Motown building, at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Motown's headquarters from 1959 to 1968, which became the Motown Historical Museum in 1985<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.motownmuseum.com |title=Motown Museum |publisher=Motown Museum |date=August 24, 2011 |access-date=December 12, 2011 |archive-date=October 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018222835/http://www.motownmuseum.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

In 1957, Gordy met [[Smokey Robinson]], a local seventeen-year-old singer fronting a vocal harmony group called the Matadors. Gordy was interested in the [[doo-wop]] style that Robinson sang. In 1958, Gordy recorded the group's song "Got a Job" (an answer song to "[[Get a Job (song)|Get a Job]]" by [[the Silhouettes]]), and released it as a single by leasing the record to a larger company outside Detroit called [[End Records]], based in New York. The practice was common at the time for a small-time producer. "Got a Job" was the first single by Robinson's group, now called [[the Miracles]]. Gordy recorded a number of other records by forging a similar arrangement, most significantly with [[United Artists Records|United Artists]].<ref name="Flory 26">Flory, p. 26.</ref>

In 1958, Gordy wrote and produced "[[Come to Me (Marv Johnson song)|Come to Me]]" for [[Marv Johnson]]. Seeing that the song had great crossover potential, Gordy leased it to United Artists for national distribution but also released it locally on his own startup imprint.<ref name="Flory 26" /> Needing $800 to cover his end of the deal, Gordy asked his family to borrow money from a cooperative family savings account.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=879/80}}</ref> After some debate, his family agreed, and in January 1959 "Come to Me" was released regionally on Gordy's new Tamla label.<ref name="Flory 27">Flory, p. 27.</ref> Gordy originally wanted to name the label Tammy Records, after the hit [[Tammy (song)|song]] popularized by [[Debbie Reynolds]] from the 1957 film ''[[Tammy and the Bachelor]]'', in which Reynolds also starred. When he found the name was already in use, Berry decided on Tamla instead.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} In April 1959, Gordy and his sister Gwen founded Anna Records which released about two dozen singles between 1959 and 1960. The most popular was Barrett Strong's "[[Money (That's What I Want)]]", written by Gordy and a secretary named [[Janie Bradford]], and produced by Gordy.<ref name="Flory 27" /> Many of the songs distributed locally by Anna and Tamla Records were nationally distributed by [[Chess Records]] (sometimes with Anna and Tamla imprints). Gordy's relationship with Chess fostered closer dealings with [[Harvey Fuqua]], nephew of Charlie Fuqua of [[the Ink Spots]]. Harvey Fuqua later married Gwen Gordy in 1961.<ref>Flory, p. 28.</ref>

Gordy looked toward creative self-sufficiency and established the publishing firm Jobete in June 1959 (incorporated in Michigan). He applied for copyrights on more than seventy songs before the end of 1959, including material used for the Miracles and Frances Burnett records, which were leased to Chess and [[Coral Records]]. The ''[[Michigan Chronicle]]'' of Detroit called Gordy an "independent producer of records", as his contributions to the city were beginning to attract notice. By that time, he was the president of Jobete, Tamla, and the music writing company Rayber.<ref name="Flory 29">Flory, p. 29.</ref>

Gordy worked in various Detroit-based studios during this period to produce recordings and demos, but most prominently with [[United Sound Systems]] which was considered the best studio in town. However, producing at United Sound Systems was financially taxing and not appropriate for every job, so Gordy decided it would be more cost effective to maintain his own facility.<ref name="Flory 29" /> In mid-1959, he purchased a photography studio at 2648 West Grand Boulevard and converted the main floor into a recording studio and office space. Now, rather than shopping his songs to other artists or leasing his recordings to outside companies, Gordy began using the Tamla and Motown imprints to release songs that he wrote and produced. He incorporated Motown Records in April 1960.<ref>Flory, p. 31.</ref>

Smokey Robinson became the vice president of the company (and later named his daughter "Tamla" and his son "Berry"). Several of [[Gordy family|Gordy's family members]], including his father Berry Sr., brothers Robert and George, and sister Esther, were given key roles in the company. By the middle of the decade, Gwen and Anna Gordy had joined the label in administrative positions as well. Gordy's partner at the time (and wife from 1960 to 1964), [[Ray Singleton|Raynoma Liles]], also played a key role in the early days of Motown, leading the company's first session group, The Rayber Voices, and overseeing Jobete.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}