Berry Gordy

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Berry Gordy was born on 28 November 1929 in Detroit, the seventh of eight children. His parents had moved north from Georgia in 1922. As a boy he wanted to be a boxer, and he boxed until he was drafted for the Korean War in 1951. Back in Detroit he opened a jazz record shop, which failed, and worked in a car factory. In the meantime he wrote songs.

Music and breakthrough

His first success came in 1957, when Jackie Wilson recorded Reet Petite, a song Gordy had written with his sister Gwen and Billy Davis. Lonely Teardrops and Money (That's What I Want), among others, followed. With the young Smokey Robinson he founded a record label that grew into Motown, named after Motor Town, the nickname of Detroit. In his studio on West Grand Boulevard, which came to be called Hitsville USA, hits by The Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops and Stevie Wonder came into being.

Influence

Gordy worked like the car factories of Detroit: writers, producers and regular session musicians worked on the songs as if on an assembly line. He also concerned himself with the clothing, the manners and the dance steps of his artists. In this way a polished mix of soul, rhythm and blues and gospel came into being that appealed to both a Black and a white audience. For decades Motown was the highest-earning African American business. In 1988 Gordy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Listening

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 6: Fear of a Black Planet^NL Reader
• Mixtape 12: The Hit Factory^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Motown GenreIn 1959 Berry Gordy started a label in Detroit that he organised like a car factory, with regular songwriters, the house band The Funk Brothers and a weekly quality-control meeting.