Quitting Motown. And Then...
THOSE WHO LEFT, THOSE WHO CAME BACK
Two masters of Motown remember the meeting differently.
According to Otis Williams, it occurred when the Temptations still had two years left on their recording contract with the company – thereby dating this to 1975 – and were seeking a status report, so to speak. He specifically recalled a screaming Barney Ales (“like a man possessed”) when the name of the group’s attorney, Abe Somers, was brought up.
That suggests it was towards the end of ’75, because Ales had only returned to Motown Records in September as its executive vice president. In his autobiography, Williams remembered Ales’ high-volume and candid comments about Somers: “The sooner you get rid of him, the better things will be for you all.” Faced with such intransigence, wrote the Temptation, “The five of us got up and left.”
Mary Wells in 1964: the Motown first star to leave
Many years later, Ales spoke about the attorney. “Abe and I were good friends,” he told me, noting that Somers had even helped to get one of Ales’ sons into the University of Southern California. He did not recall decrying Somers in that meeting with the Temptations, but added, “For some reason, Berry didn’t like him. He told me not to deal with him.”
On April 1, 1977, the Temptations signed the necessary paperwork and left Motown.
Bidding goodbye to the people who helped to build and advance your career can be emotional and difficult, whether for good reason or bad. And everyone’s memories of such departures will be subjective and different, especially when expressed to a third party: a biographer, for instance, or a journalist.
At one point or another, all of Motown’s superstars left the company. Some, for independence and/or better deals elsewhere, such as Diana Ross. Some, because they were disillusioned – Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Spinners, Martha Reeves – as well as attracted by business terms elsewhere. In other cases, there were family disputes (Marvin Gaye) and the indifference of company officials (the Four Tops).
The first star to quit – Mary Wells – was a shock, of course, particularly as “My Guy” in 1964 had proved to be her biggest hit to date, worldwide. Perhaps even more unnerving was the exit of Holland/Dozier/Holland. In both instances, Motown survived and grew ever more prosperous. Then there were the departures accompanied by lawsuits: not only Wells and H/D/H, but also the Isley Brothers and the Jackson 5. Later still, others quit – Jr. Walker, Smokey Robinson – and returned, briefly. Even the Tops and the Temptations came back in the 1980s, with the latter group staying into the 21st century.
Above them all was Stevie.
Not only did Motown’s greatest star decline to depart when, contractually and competitively, he could have done – at age 21, in 1971 – but he also stayed loyal through the record company’s three subsequent changes of ownership: when Berry Gordy sold it in 1988, when it was acquired by PolyGram in 1993, and by Universal Music in 1998.
‘A GOOD FIT’ FOR STEVIE
The formal moment of Wonder’s farewell came three years ago. At a virtual press conference in October 2020, while the world weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, he announced that he was joining Universal-affiliated Republic Records with his own label, So What the Fuss Music. Two fresh Wonder tracks, “Where Is Our Love Song” and “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate,” were digitally released at that point, and he also mentioned an album long in the works, Through the Eyes of Wonder.
The new pact was struck with Republic founder/CEO Monte Lipman. “Just based on where I was and what they’re doing,” Wonder said, “I thought it would be a good fit.” Those words were spoken 59 years after the first contract between Stephen Hardaway Judkins and Motown Record Corp. was signed on July 15, 1961.
And so to the detail today. Here follows a chronological listing of Motown’s major stars from its first decade who subsequently left, with an accounting of what happened to them on the Billboard charts. Also included is an attributed comment from each about the adieu, whether published at the time or later, and a postscript with other relevant information.
2020: Stevie’s first post-Motown track, for Republic
Three data lines are shown: first, the number of Top 40 crossover hits (on the Hot 100) by each act while at Motown, followed by their post-Motown totals; secondly, the number of Top 10 R&B hits by each act at Motown/post-Motown; and finally, their Top 20 Motown/post-Motown results on the main Billboard album charts.
The totals include duets where acts had equal billing, such as Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye, but excludes hits where the Motown performer was not the lead artist, such as “What Christmas Means To Me” by John Legend featuring Stevie Wonder, or “Music” by Erick Sermon featuring Marvin Gaye. The album data is confined to the main Billboard best-selling list, and excludes Christmas titles (which were assigned by the magazine to a separate seasonal chart) and the catalogue chart introduced in 1991.
Several acts with only modest Hitsville chart credentials are included to illustrate how much greater was their post-Motown popularity. Absent are artists whose initial success at the company during the 1960s only amounted to a handful of hits, and who made no greater impact thereafter.
Not every Motown exiteer sought to continue with a full-scale recording career. After Mary Wilson’s departure from the Supremes in 1977, the group effectively ceased to exist. So did the Marvelettes, an outcome compounded by Motown’s ownership of the group name. For such reasons, they are not in this listing.
Granted, there’s an element of subjectivity to all of this – but, with luck, the result is interesting, if not illuminating. Subjectivity is where we began, of course: the contrasting accounts of Otis Williams and Barney Ales about when the Temptations were at odds with the company which had made them one of the most successful recording acts of all time. “There weren’t too many people who left Motown that became successful afterwards,” Ales once claimed. “I don’t think people at other record companies knew how to handle them.
“Sometimes you had to be their father, sometimes you had to be their friend, and sometimes you had to kick them in the ass. You had to be something of a psychiatrist with these acts, too, especially as you’d known them since they were kids – and you were effectively a kid, growing up at Motown.”
That may sound patronising, or even disrespectful, but there were only a handful of Berry Gordy’s backroom believers who put in as much time as Barney Ales to elevate and sustain those artists and their careers. Plus, he once left Motown – and came back.
MARY WELLS
“[Berry] Gordy ‘practically got on his knees’ and begged her not to leave. ‘What I had done was turn the pain loose, and I threw it back on him,’ she said. ‘And the pain must have been real agony for him…When you’re young, we don’t realise these things…I probably wouldn’t have left if I knew he was in that much pain.’ Gordy probably was in pain as he left Mary’s apartment, but all he told her on his way out, he wrote, was, ‘Think about staying with the company.’ ” Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown’s First Superstar, Peter Benjaminson, Chicago Review Press, 2012
Top 40 pop: Motown (11), post-Motown (1)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (12), post-Motown (2)
Top 20 pop LPs: Motown (1), post-Motown (–)
Postscript: after her first post-Motown destination, 20th Century Fox, Wells was contracted to Atco, Jubilee, Reprise and Epic over the next 18 years. With only two Top 10 R&B hits during that period, she never came close to matching her earlier glory. When later afflicted with cancer, the singer received financial support from Diana Ross, Martha Reeves, the Temptations and Berry Gordy, among others. She died in 1992.
THE ISLEY BROTHERS
1969: the Isleys’ first post-Motown (and Grammy-winning) hit, for T-Neck
“Motown had its own sort of way of putting songs together and how records should sound. I think I had asked [my brothers] why they didn’t want to do ‘It’s Your Thing’ at Motown, and Ronald said, ‘Because it would be done differently, it would have been a different arrangement,’ and he said there was a certain way they wanted the song to go, and a certain direction they wanted their career to go in.” Ernie Isley, The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits, Adam White & Fred Bronson, 1993
Top 40 pop: Motown (1) post-Motown (10)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (1) post-Motown (25)
Top 20 pop LPs: Motown (–) post-Motown (11)
Postscript: following their T-Neck label’s prosperous 1969-73 affiliation with Buddah, the brothers switched its distribution to CBS Records as the major began seriously investing in black music. They reaped the rewards, including six Top 10 albums, all of them platinum. P.P.S.: At this year’s MusiCares charity dinner honouring Berry and Smokey, Ronald and Ernie Isley were guest performers.
THE SPINNERS
“We did have some hits at Motown, but what always happened is that we’d have to wait a year or so to get another record out. Once you get a hit, you have to follow it up. With us, by the time we could get a new song out, it was always like we were starting over. Motown had a lot of groups of the same calibre as the Spinners, so we felt like we were always getting lost in the shuffle. But it was a good learning experience. To me, it was like going to college and coming out an A student.” Bobbie Smith, The Patriot News, February 2012
Top 40 pop: Motown (2), post-Motown (14)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (2), post-Motown (16)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (1), post-Motown (4)
Postscript: having graduated from Hitsville, the Spinners were the beneficiaries of the single-minded attentiveness of a record company (Atlantic), the creative genius of a particular producer (Thom Bell), and the virtues of a consistent group of studio musicians with a distinctive sound (MFSB). Sound familiar?
GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS
1973: Gladys & the Pips’ first post-Motown hit, for Buddah
“Around the time that we were going to have to make a decision on whether to leave or stay, we went to Motown’s accounting department and asked to withdraw about $3,000 from road money we had not collected on our records. We needed it to pay our taxes. They said the money was not there. Motown claimed to have no record of it. Another mistake. We had started to trust them. When we demanded our royalty money, they tried to leverage our tax instead. They said if we would sign another contract, they would pay our taxes for us. We weren’t that desperate. We hired a lawyer and said our goodbyes.” Gladys Knight, Between Each Line of Pain and Glory, Hyperion Books, 1997
Top 40 pop: Motown (13), post-Motown (10)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (12), post-Motown (18)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (1), post-Motown (2)
Postscript: as with the Isley Brothers, Buddah proved to be a fruitful destination for Gladys and the guys. Still, the quartet had learned early to be wary of the record business. Their first hit in 1961, licensed to Chicago’s VeeJay label, reportedly earned them bupkis, “so when the company folded a few years later, we weren’t among the mourners,” declared Knight in her memoir. A senior VeeJay executive, Ewart Abner, subsequently joined Motown. (One wonders: how were his conversations with Gladys?) P.P.S. The totals for Knight above include her solo recordings.
THE FOUR TOPS
“ ‘It’s over for the Tops. Y’all are free to do what you wanna do, go anywhere.’ We were speechless. None of us knew what to say. I was so mad and hurt. Not just about what [Ewart Abner] said, but the way he said it. So matter of fact. Cold, like he was throwing out the trash. I was so pissed [that] “the street” in me almost came out. I wanted to hit that motherfucker in his eye, but I held back because that’s not the way Motown had treated us. It had been good up to that point, no gangster stuff. None of us confronted him even though we were devastated.” Duke Fakir, I’ll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops, Omnibus Press, 2022
Top 40 pop: Motown (18), post-Motown (6)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (16), post-Motown (8)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (4), post-Motown (–)
Postscript: the unity of the Tops was consistent throughout their career, as they pitched their tent at labels like Dunhill, ABC, Casablanca and Arista (not to mention that 1983 return to Motown). “We wanted to start doing more writing, we wanted to produce, we wanted to help other artists,” Duke Fakir told Blues & Soul’s David Nathan in 1974. “In other words, we wanted to really be in business [ourselves] and we couldn’t do that at Motown.”
MARTHA REEVES
“Leaving Motown in the first place was a move she had to make. ‘I had reached the point where I felt I couldn’t be proud of my achievements. I had my audiences, sure, but no back-up and I couldn’t play the games that the artists did against each other. I couldn’t criticise a new artist any more than I could go against what they believed in. I was both physically and mentally stable and trusted my instincts.’ ” Martha Reeves, Chinwaggin’, Sharon Davis, Bank House Books, 2006
Top 40 pop: Motown (12), post-Motown (–)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (10), post-Motown (–)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (–), post-Motown (–)
Postscript: Barney Ales’ comment that other companies seldom knew how to handle Motown acts rang true loudly in Reeves’ case. At MCA Records, she worked with producer Richard Perry and various blue-chip musicians, including James Jamerson. “I’ll bet you thought you had a big hit with that record,” top radio programmer Paul Drew told Perry after the release of 1974’s Martha Reeves. The producer confessed: “MCA had no idea how to launch this ship. Was it R&B, contemporary pop, or rock ’n’ roll? Much to my chagrin, without anyone to chart a course, the album got lost at sea.”
THE JACKSON 5
1976: The Jacksons’ first post-Motown hit, for Epic/Philadelphia International
“Eventually my brothers and I reached a point with Motown where we were miserable, but no one was saying anything. My father didn’t say anything. So it was up to me to arrange a meeting with Berry Gordy and talk to him. I was the one who had to say that we – the Jackson 5 – were going to leave Motown. I went over to see him, face to face, and it was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.” Michael Jackson, Moonwalk, Doubleday, 1988
Top 40 pop: Motown (16), post-Motown (7)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (17), post-Motown (10)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (8), post-Motown (3)
MICHAEL JACKSON
Top 40 pop: Motown (6), post-Motown (31)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (6), post-Motown (26)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (2), post-Motown (7)
JERMAINE JACKSON
Top 40 pop: Motown (4), post-Motown (3)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (3), post-Motown (2)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (1), post-Motown (1)
Postscript: Motown’s reluctance to allow – let alone encourage – the Jacksons to develop their own material led ultimately to the creation of the biggest-selling album of all time. Had Epic Records not signed the brothers, would Thriller (50 million-plus) have ever come to pass? Then again, Michael’s moonwalk on Motown 25 sent the album to the stratosphere. Gordy recruited him for the show at precisely the right moment, for both of them.
THE MIRACLES
1977: The Miracles’ debut album for Columbia
“At first we didn’t think Motown would release the album [The Power Of Music]. They did release it, but they didn’t promote it very much. They were probably waiting for Columbia to start pushing, but Columbia decided to hold off on any major publicity and waited until now to release the first album. Columbia even tried to buy the album from Motown, but they said no.” Billy Griffin, Los Angeles Times, January 1977
Top 40 pop: Motown (29), post-Motown (–)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (26), post-Motown (–)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (2), post-Motown (–)
Postscript: Barney Ales was hurt by the Miracles’ exit for Columbia Records, and not only because of the money (“Whatever the deal was that they wanted, it was too rich.”). The Motown executive once told me of his efforts to help group member Pete Moore avoid being drafted years earlier, including having a pharmacist friend in Detroit provide the singer with drugs which could affect his physical exam. Unfortunately, they didn’t work, and Moore had to serve time in the U.S. Army.
THE TEMPTATIONS
“Like I said, Motown’s style of management when it came to us wasn’t NASA; it was just NASTY. Yes, we skyrocketed like astronauts. But we weren’t treated like the Temptations; we were treated like the Monkeys. We were not on board to manipulate any of the machinery; according to Otis [Williams], we were just along for the ride.” Richard Street, Ball of Confusion, Tate Publishing, 2014.
Top 40 pop: Motown (37), post-Motown (–)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (44), post-Motown (–)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (19), post-Motown (–)
Postscript: after their unimpressive spell at Atlantic Records, the Temptations considered deals with Warner Bros., Polydor and Philadelphia International. And yet, encouraged by Smokey, they returned to Motown in 1980 – and stayed there for another quarter-century. Even when they switched to Universal’s New Door label in 2006, the quintet cut an entire album of Motown covers. Still tempting.
JR. WALKER
“It was 1978, and he had just finished working on an album called Smooth with Motown. The album was having the same success as the last three; it was not doing so well….He was angry with Motown because he said, ‘I keep putting out good material, but they won’t get behind it and push it and help it well.’ His first recordings were still playing on the radio, so he was living off those songs for what he could make off of them.” Kenneth DeWalt, Shotgun: The Making of A Legend, self-published, 2020
Top 40 pop: Motown (12), post-Motown (–)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (13), post-Motown (–)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (–), post-Motown (–)
Postscript: technically, it wasn’t a Jr. Walker release that returned him to the heady heights of the Hot 100 for the first time in more than ten years, but Foreigner’s “Urgent” – featuring his blasting tenor – elevated his stature, and his income, for a while. The band’s Mick Jones said it took two days of editing and splicing to maximise the solo’s magic. When Walker joined Foreigner in concert, “he walked out on stage and played the solo note for note!”
DIANA ROSS
2021: Diana’s most recent Top 20 album, for Decca
“When I left Motown, in my heart I said, ‘Okay. We’re even.’ And I really meant it. I felt that [Berry Gordy] had built his company and sold it for millions of dollars. Money isn’t everything. I had built my name, and, reciprocally, we had helped each other do these things. At the time, I just wanted to go on from there and make the best of it all. I don’t get off on moaning and complaining about what I should have had or what I could have had. For me, complaining does nothing to support future movement.” Diana Ross, Secrets of a Sparrow, Random House, 1993
Top 40 pop: Motown (19), post-Motown (8)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (11), post-Motown (8)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (8), post-Motown (2)
Postscript: Ross made “the best of it all” upon her 1981 exit, signing separate covenants with RCA for North America and Britain’s EMI for elsewhere. What’s more, the latter deal brought her ten more Top 20 pop hits in the U.K. than she had at home, including “Chain Reaction,” a Motown model if ever there was one. Ross’ recent Decca album debut, Thank You, achieved a Top 20 ranking on both sides of the Atlantic.
MARVIN GAYE
“Berry surprised me,” Gaye said. “After all we’d been through, all the fussing and fighting, he acted like a gentleman. ‘If you want out, and we get the right price for you, then go.’ BG proved himself to me. I really believe he’s a great man.” Just like that, in the early spring of 1981, Marvin ended a twenty-year relationship with Motown. At long last, he successfully fought the fright that had prevented him from making the move earlier. Free of Mama Anna and Papa Berry, he was finally on his own. The next step was finding a new label.” Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, David Ritz, McGraw-Hill, 1985
Top 40 pop: Motown (39), post-Motown (1)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (36), post-Motown (2)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (6), post-Motown (1)
Postscript: CBS Records bought Gaye out of his Motown contract in 1982 for $1.5 million, and also had to pay the company a share of royalties (an “override”) from his future record sales. The CBS executive who signed him, Larkin Arnold, said that the performance of the Midnight Love album alone recouped the investment. Still, there was another price paid: “The Marvin Gaye project has taken at least 30 years off my life,” Arnold told Gaye’s biographer, David Ritz.
SMOKEY ROBINSON
1991: Smokey’s first post-Motown 45, for SBK
“After Berry sold Motown, it just wasn’t the same for me. I wanted to stick it out because I’d been there from the very first day. I felt a sense of loyalty. I wanted to see Jheryl Busby, a black man who’d become the president of Motown, succeed, because it seemed like he’d been handed something that was almost programmed to fail. But in the end, I felt it wasn’t happening for me or for Motown itself. My contract was up, so I was free to go.” Smokey Robinson, Musician, February 1992
Top 40 pop: Motown (9), post-Motown (–)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (15), post-Motown (–)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (3), post-Motown (1)
Postscript: over the past 30 years, Robinson has maintained more mobility than most Motown exiteers. There was his own Robso label, album deals with Cracker Barrel and Amazon, a gospel release, and a run at the great American songbook, among other projects. And yes, a brief return to Motown in 1999. The most successful outing was Smokey & Friends, his Top 20 duets album (with Elton John, John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige and others) in 2014. More recently, his guest spots on tracks by Anderson .Paak and Charlie Wilson have kept him in the R&B charts. Of the fate of his newest release, Gasms, it’s rather early to tell.
STEVIE WONDER
“Even though I have left Motown, I never leave Motown. That’s Detroit. So I’m sure that we can figure out how we can do some things at Motown. Maybe I’ll do my Gospel Inspired by Lula with Motown. We’ll work it out.” Stevie Wonder, Variety, October 2020
Top 40 pop: Motown (44), post-Motown (–)
Top 10 R&B: Motown (48), post-Motown (–)
Top 20 LPs pop: Motown (13), post-Motown (–)
Postscript: evidently, Wonder is no hurry to deliver new music for his new label, Republic. It’s more than two years since the release of “Where Is Our Love Song” (which reached No. 21 on the Billboard R&B airplay charts) and “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate,” while Through the Eyes of Wonder – the album (and title) he’s talked about since at least 2016 – seems no closer, either. Still, he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from New York’s Fordham University just last month. (No jokes about “Dr. Wonder will see you now,” please.)
Chart notes: Billboard’s methodology for tracking the hits has evolved with the music industry. During Motown’s heyday, the Hot 100 was based on playlists submitted by radio stations and sales reports from record retailers. In 1991, the chart was upgraded to use actual monitored airplay and point-of-sale data, and in 2005, digital download data was added, subsequently followed by streaming statistics. The album charts underwent equally radical change, and in 2020, the Billboard 200 was updated to incorporate video data from YouTube, plus visual plays from digital services such as Apple Music, Spotify and more, including Facebook. (Thanks to Billboard’s Paul Grein.)
Music notes: this latest WGB playlist features the first post-Motown 45 by each of the acts cited above, ranging from Mary Wells’ “Ain’t It The Truth” (produced by ex-Motown stalwart Bob Bateman, no less) to Stevie Wonder’s “Where Is Our Love Song.” Michael Jackson’s first post-Motown singles, both from the movie soundtrack of Motown Productions’ The Wiz, are excluded in favour of his first 45 from Off The Wall, “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough.”