This earned Berry the respect of his family, and an $800 loan which led him to open the doors of a former funeral parlour as Hitsville U.S.A. Then, as a budding songwriter, he placed hits into the hands of a mass-appeal Motor City son, Jackie Wilson, who had gone solo from Billy Ward’s Dominoes. Smokey Robinson had urged Berry to set up on his own, rather than licensing recordings to other labels: “Why work for the Man? You be the Man.”Ī few years earlier, as the operator of an eclectic record store, Gordy learned the hard way that jazz might nourish the soul, but didn’t pay the bills.

He was accompanied by the leader of his most precious asset, The Miracles. The foundations were evident in winter ’59, when Gordy proudly collected boxes of his company’s first 45 from a snowbound pressing plant in Owosso, Michigan. Calling out around the world, the music and artists associated with the company empowered a generation, and influenced the sound of popular music ever since. And the iconic map of Detroit printed in the centre of so many Motown singles and albums became more than a lesson in geography. The son of a plasterer, he did that in America’s heartland, away from the traditional music capitals. On their initial success, Gordy built his business. The Miracles have pride of place, of course.

Best motown records