Fans of Motown,
"In Performance at the White House: A tribute to the
classic Motown
Sound," aired on Tuesday, March 1, on PBS. This was a
fantastic tribute to Mr. Berry Gordy and the legendary Motown Record
Corporation.
Here is a clip of
Natasha
Bedingfield, Jordin Sparks, and Ledisi rehearsing,
"Stop in the Name of Love," for this show. It is great hearing
how
Diana Ross and Motown affected their lives. Enjoy this
vignette!
It all began on
January 12, 1959, when Mr. Berry Gordy, Jr. opened Motown Records,
a.k.a. "Hitsville USA," with a dream using an $800.00
family loan.
Mr. Gordy is a genius who applied his knowledge of the assembly line
formula to the record industry from his experiences while working at
Ford Motors, and
history was made! Mr. Gordy also relied on his skills from
being a trained
boxer and his expertise from owning a record shop prior to Motown.
Berry Gordy knew what the kids wanted to hear, but artists weren't
recording
this type of music yet, and he could not sell it to them in his
shop. Motown provided this new type of music to the teens all
across the United States and
the world, and Motown truly became "The Sound of Young America."
Mr. Gordy is an
incredible visionary who was able to see all of this in the
future when he had this dream of Motown Record Corporation and
opened the company on this day in 1959.
I would personally
like to thank you Mr. Gordy for all of the years, the music,
the magic, and the memories of Motown Records. This music has
provided the soundtrack to my life and the lives of so many, many
people.
Congratulations, Mr.
Gordy, on this wonderful honor!!!!
Motown is 50 years
young today, and this music
will always be alive in our hearts
and on our Lps, tapes, CDs, MP3s, iPods, and
whatever format we will have in the future...!!!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------- American Idol
Mr. Berry Gordy was on American Idol on Wednesday, March 25,
2009 - FOX TV
(8:00-10:00 PM ET). The TOP 10 finalists returned to the
IDOL stage to celebrate
and pay tribute "50 Years of Motown" & they performed Motown
Songs.
Congratulations, Mr. Gordy!!
Smokey Robinson & Stevie Wonder performed on
the show the following night on Thursday, March 26, from 8:00 - 9:00
PM ET.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Back to Vinyl **
In celebration of "Motown 50,"
a few original Motown albums
will be rereleased on vinyl this month (May, 2009).
The Motown album covers were always so beautiful! (That is one
thing that CDs do not offer us.) In a sense, LPs are a lost
art. From the way it appears on the bottom of the album, it is
great that one can purchase the original LP today plus receive a
voucher to download an MP3 version of the album. Maybe record
companies will begin to bring back this lost art utilizing this
approach?? It is certainly something to consider!
Two of these albums include "Diana Ross" and "The Supremes: I Hear a
Symphony".
