It would be hard to overestimate the impact of Motown hits in the 1960s. I found these two CD compilations which collect 32 Number One Motown songs from that decade. The Temptations and The Supremes led the way with multiple Number One hits. But, other Motown performers and groups found their way to the top of the charts, too. The Motown Sound was the sound of money!
Do you remember these Number One hits from the Sixties? Any favorites? GRADE: A (for both)
TRACK LIST:
| Smokey Robinson & The Miracles*– | Shop Around | ||
| The Marvelettes– | Please Mr. Postman | ||
| The Contours– | Do You Love Me | ||
| Smokey Robinson & The Miracles*– | You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me | ||
| Stevie Wonder– | Fingertips (Part II) | ||
| Martha And The Vandellas*– | Love Is Like A (Heat Wave) | ||
| Mary Wells– | My Guy | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Where Did Our Love Go | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Baby Love | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Come See About Me | ||
| The Temptations– | My Girl | ||
| Jr. Walker & The All Stars*– | Shotgun | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Stop! In The Name Of Love | ||
| The Four Tops*– | I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Back In My Arms Again | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | I Hear A Symphony |
TRACK LIST:
| The Supremes– | You Can’t Hurry Love | ||
| Stevie Wonder– | Uptight (Everything’s Alright) | ||
| The Temptations– | Get Ready | ||
| The Temptations– | Ain’t Too Proud To Beg | ||
| Four Tops– | Reach Out I’ll Be There | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | You Keep Me Hangin’ On | ||
| The Temptations– | (I Know) I’m Losing You | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | The Happening | ||
| Stevie Wonder– | I Was Made To Love Her | ||
| Smokey Robinson & The Miracles– | I Second That Emotion | ||
| The Temptations– | I Wish It Would Rain | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | Love Child | ||
| Gladys Knight & The Pips*– | I Heard It Through The Grapevine | ||
| The Temptations– | I Can’t Get Next To You | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | Someday We’ll Be Together |
I remember all of them. I’m from a Detroit suburb so I probably heard Motown songs played even more than elsewhere. Good tracks but a few too many Diana Ross & the Supremes who are my least favorite Motown artists. Well, maybe least favorite after Rare earth.
Steve, The Supremes were a hit generating machine in the Sixties. Berry Gordy managed to get The Supremes on TV every chance he could and that paid off Big Time!
Gordy gave them undue attention, or at least Ross undue attention and resources. Ross was not the best singer in the Supremes, much less on the roster, but apparently Gordy dug anotexia.
Todd, Gordy finagled THE SUPREMES and THE TEMPTATIONS onto every TV production he could knowing that would result in increased record sales. And, he was right!
Anotexia being when one refuses to answer cellphone text messages, clearly.
I could live without Shotgun but the rest are either good or great.
Bob, Motown managed to sell tons of records despite rampant racism.
And accomodated to racist resistance, but not putting the choruses on the covers of the records originally.
Todd, the covers of the records was all about marketing.
Of course. Gordy had his faults, but as far as I know, he didn’t hate black people. Just maybe Florence Ballard.
Maybe it wasn’t as rampant as you think.
Bob, you have a point.
During the 60s I was much more into the British Invasion and folk rock than Motown, but there’s no denying that there’s lots of great stuff here and I remember nearly all of these.
Michael, I marvel that Berry Gordy gained radio airplay on hundreds of TOP 40 stations. The British Invasion dominated the BILLBOARD charts, but Motown generated 32 NUMBER ONE hits during the 1960s…an incredible achievement.
I enjoy all of these songs—but, as Steve notes, the collections are a bit too heavy on the Supremes. I would have liked more Stevie Wonder and anything from Marvin Gaye or the Four Tops.
Deb, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and The Four Tops had hits, but few hit Number One on the charts.
“Someday we’ll be together” and “You Can’t Hurry Love” are — without doubt and beyond any serious debate — the cultural high points of western Civilization.
Dan, I totally agree with your statement.
Have to agree – too much Supremes’ stuff.
On the first record I vote for Heatwave.
On the second group I couldn’t decide between You can’t hurry love and ***Grapevine***
Wolf, all these songs are NUMBER ONE hits!
Not exactly a non-jiggered counts in these things, though. And always fun wihen CASHBOX and BILLBOARD couldn’t agree on these Objective Measures. (Not sure anyone made an open point at twisting the numbers to suit their own ends, as THE NEW YORK TIMES has done for at least 70 years or so.)
Todd, the rankings of CASHBOX and BILLBOARD were always suspect because of payola. But no one could deny MOTOWN’s record sales in normally “white” markets.
This is the music I remember most. Saw a double bill of THE SUPREMES and STEVIE WONDER in Lambertville, NJ in 1966. Steve stole the show to the point that Phil rushed backstage for an autnograph. Can you picture that? I can’t.
Patti, Phil always had a great ear for music!
More good stuff, George.
I guess I’m so familiar with these because listening to the radio was such a big part of my life back in the day.
Milwaukee kids were either WOKY (my favorite) or WRIT fans – that is, until WQFM – album rock – came along when I was in high school. There was no turning back.
I don’t know what I’d do without Sirius XM, especially given my love for road trips. It beats the pants off of searching up and down the dial for my kind of music.
Beth, we have Sirius/XM radio in our Nissan Rogue. Great music for roadtrips!
Well, as someone born in ’64, there was never too much lack of access to ’60s Motown hits. I bought at least one of the sampler LPS in the latest ’70s/early ’80s (hey, it had both HEATWAVE and DANCING IN THE STREETS!) as well as one or two of the anthologies through the years (The Miracles, possible the Vandellas, maybe another).
Another thing to note that as corrupt as the ’60s charts were, they were also more diverse than they would get again till maybe the 2000s…rock and nearby music was the most prevalent, but MOR, Country (of course) , world music/exotica and the occasional odd duck would make their ways up the charts about as regularly, even if it was rare for them to outsell the most popular rock. Even a fair amount of non-fusion jazz, the odd blues record, et al. Motown wasn’t the only essentially black label to get some traction, and certainly the Brits didn’t have the charts to themselves.
Todd, it helped that touring British music groups were open to having Motown groups open for them.
Great story, Patti! We saw “Little” Stevie Wonder at a Murray the K show at the Brooklyn Fox downtown ca. 1963 or so, and many years later at Radio City Music Hall. The highlight of the latter concert was singing singing “For Once in My Life” and stopping halfway through to bring out Tony Bennett to sing it with him!
Of course I know all those song, had most of them on 45s, the rest on Motown collections. Unlike some of you, I liked the Supremes – most of their songs anyway (You Can’t Hurry Love was probably my favorite at the time) – though not as much as The Temptations or Four Tops. But some of these were NOT #1 songs, at least not on the regular pop charts, though I suppose they might have been #1 on R&B charts. That is Shop Around (#2 Hot 100, #1 R&B) for one, You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me (a personal favorite, #8 Hot 100, #1 R&B), Heat Wave (#4 Hot 100, #1 R&B), Shotgun (#4 Hot 100, #1 R&R), DO You Love Me (#3 Hot 100, #1 R&B), I Heard It Through the Grapevine (it might surprise you that the Gladys Knight version only made it to #2 – #1 R&B – though a year & a half later when Berry Gordy finally agreed to release the Marvin Gaye version as a single, it was #1 for 7 weeks), 3 Temptations songs that made #1 R&B only – Get Ready (#29!), Ain;t Too Proud to Beg (#13) and (I Know) I’m Losing You (#8).
Jeff, my sisters were heavily into 45s, but I was an album guy all the way!
EPs were fun, when one couldn’t find the songs on LPs. I was lucky enough to start collecting vinyl just as CDs were coming into the market, and the catalog LPs were selling at lunch money prices. One of the means that I was at my least fat in Hawaiian HS/Uni years.
I didn’t hate the Supremes. They were certainly better than Diana Ross and the Supremes. Though “You Keep Me Hanging On” is mostly a good record. Vanilla Fudge didn’t improve it.
Todd, The Supremes live on…but I think Vanilla Fudge melted away.
Forgot the names of the songs and artists but I’ll never forget hearing some Motown-Style stuff on a European radio, maybe Radio Luxemburg’s English program.
And then I heard the same songs on AFN – the original versions with “black” performers.