A Motown Timeline: 1975
DIFFICULT DAYS – SLIPPERY WHEN WET?
As early as February of this particular year, the writing may have been on the wall.
There was no A&R department at Motown Records, according to Herb Belkin, its then-vice president of creative operations, and so there was no head of A&R – a post previously filled by the likes of Mickey Stevenson and Eddie Holland. “A&R is no longer what it used to be in terms of a company finding artists, repertoire and developing a recording program,” Belkin told Billboard a few weeks into 1975. “That ceased to exist with the development of the self-contained group.”
The task of finding and signing artists was in his hands, together with those of fellow vice president Suzanne de Passe and the record company’s president, Ewart Abner.
Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler at the Grammys, March 1 (photo: Everett Collection/Alamy)
But whether or not Belkin was right in his assessment, he wasn’t in place long enough to discover. Having joined Motown in Los Angeles in the summer of ’74, he was out by the end of the following year – as was Abner himself.
In other words, 1975 proved to be a year of change.
This was largely because it was a year of fewer hits. The company registered no Top 10 albums at all on the pop charts, compared to two in 1974 and seven in 1973. Motown did manage to send a couple of ’75 singles to the summit of Billboard’s Hot 100 – although that wasn’t until the following year, after regime change, as it were.
When speaking to Billboard, Belkin stressed the firm’s diversification, and he touted ten rock acts affiliated with Motown via distribution deals – yet not one of them went on to sell enough to make the album charts. Motown’s start-up country music label, Melodyland, did deliver two Number One singles on the country countdowns in 1975, but neither made a strong impression in the pop market.
To Motown’s further disadvantage, it received no new albums from superstars Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, thus missing out on substantial acclaim and earnings. In August, it publicised Wonder’s re-signing – but the deal wasn’t actually inked until the following April, while his planned September ’75 album release, Songs In The Key of Life, didn’t show up until…September ’76.
There were other woes. In March of 1975, Gladys Knight & the Pips filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Motown with claims of unpaid royalties. In July, the Jacksons (minus Jermaine) announced their intention to join CBS Records when their Motown pact expired in 1976. Also in July, Smokey Robinson’s false-arrest lawsuit against the San Francisco police department resulted in a hung jury and a mistrial. And in October, Melodyland came under attack from a California church organisation of the same name, which wanted the country label to change its identity – in part, because releases like Jud Strunk’s “The Biggest Parakeets In Town” sullied the reputation of the church’s own recordings issued under that brand, it said.
A PROSPEROUS YEAR FOR JOBETE
More positively, the Commodores’ popularity grew by leaps and bounds: the group scored their first U.S. Top 20 pop success with “Slippery When Wet,” and the accompanying album, Caught In The Act, sold substantially. Jobete Music had a prosperous year, too: “Please Mr. Postman” returned to Number One by way of the Carpenters’ remake, while “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” were major hits once more via Gloria Gaynor and James Taylor, respectively.
Success is nothing without…
Moreover, there was a payoff from the Four Seasons’ short stint at Motown. Frankie Valli’s “My Eyes Adored You” was recorded during that time; the company sold the track back to the group, but retained a share in the publishing (the song topped the charts in March). Likewise, it had a percentage of the Seasons’ two subsequent hits, “Who Loves You” and “December, 1963 (Oh What A Night).” Then, their Motown-made “The Night” brightened the British Top 10 when reissued in the spring of ’75.
The U.K. was also the site of a bold attempt by Motown to establish itself as an independent, with its own marketing and promotion resources there, rather than continuing to rely on those of its local partner, EMI Records. The initiative, driven by the American firm’s managing director in Britain, John Marshall, was due to start in September – but Berry Gordy’s decision to fire Ewart Abner that month short-circuited the switch.
To run the record company worldwide, Gordy decided to bring back his former right-hand man, Barney Ales – who then, among other changes, decided to scrap independence in the U.K. in favour of a financially-beneficial new deal with EMI. Marshall was let go, as were a variety of those on Abner’s team, including Herb Belkin and marketing chief Tom Noonan.
Ales’ primary task upon returning was to secure the Stevie Wonder deal, but he also pumped Motown’s marketing machine to make the most of Mahogany – Diana Ross’ second movie vehicle, which opened that October – and to gain more hit singles (among them, David Ruffin’s “Walk Away From Love”). Most telling, perhaps, was the internal slogan – “The picnic is over” – which Ales confidently adopted as he took charge again and sought to return Motown to its prior heights. Years later, he told me, “I had a bunch of signs made up and sent around to all the offices.”
And it may even have been written on a wall somewhere.
Now, to the detail. Below is an account of ‘75, subjective rather than exhaustive, to convey its flavour at the hands of Motown’s music makers and backroom believers. It’s divided into three sections: the first, a chronological run-down of significant dates during those 12 months, followed by examples of the year’s notable single and album releases. If a 45 or an album topped the Billboard R&B, country or pop charts, that entry is shown in bold-face italics.
MOTOWN 1975
January 17: Associated Press reports that Florence Ballard is considering a return to performing after an offer from an unnamed New York music contractor. “I still think I would like to perform again,” she says. The former Supreme is currently living on welfare, the newspaper adds.
January 31: Berry Gordy’s mother, Bertha, dies at age 75 in Los Angeles. Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and David Ruffin are among those who sing at her funeral days later.
February 7: The Jackson 5 play the first of six nights at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. During the show, a young Janet Jackson does a Mae West impression, and, with Randy Jackson, impersonates Sonny & Cher.
February 15: “Devil In The Bottle” by T.G. Sheppard, issued three months earlier, hits Number One on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles – the first of the Melodyland label’s two such chart-toppers. The singer’s “Tryin’ To Beat The Morning Home” is the second, in June.
February 18: At the second annual American Music Awards in Hollywood, Berry Gordy is honoured with a Distinguished Merit Award for his contributions to the music industry.
February 23: Unreleased as a single in the U.S., Syreeta’s “Your Kiss Is Sweet” peaks at No. 12 in the U.K. She co-wrote the song with Stevie Wonder, who also produced the record.
March 1: Stevie Wonder collects four Grammy awards, including Album of the Year for Fulfillingness’ First Finale. He wrote another of the night’s winners, “Tell Me Something Good” by Rufus.
March 8: The Jackson 5 perform at the National Arena in Kingston, Jamaica, opening for Bob Marley & the Wailers.
April 3: Billy Davis, Berry Gordy’s former songwriting partner, produces vocals by Diana Ross for “Coming Home,” a subtle commercial for Coca-Cola. By this time, Davis is working in music for the New York advertising agency, McCann-Erickson.
April 24: Smokey Robinson plays to a sell-out crowd at the Roxy in Los Angeles, beginning a four-night run at the venue. Opening for him is Thelma Houston.
May 4: “The Night” by the Four Seasons peaks at No. 7 on the U.K. charts, to become Motown’s only Top 10 single there in 1975.
July 20: The New York Daily News reports that Elaine Jesmer’s Number One With A Bullet is “this summer’s hot roman à clef.” It adds, “Music lovers are already guessing about those thinly disguised famous people in this scorching inside story of Motown.”
July 22: Motown Record Corp. president Ewart Abner testifies on behalf of Smokey Robinson in the latter’s lawsuit against the San Francisco police department for false arrest, seven years earlier.
August 5: Stevie Wonder is expected to re-sign to Motown today, according to media reports, with a contract worth $13 million over seven years. “The future is very positive,” he says. “There are faults at Motown, but they can be corrected.” (The deal is actually not signed until 1976.)
August 12: Motown officially registers the name Melodyland with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its new country music label, based in Nashville.
September 3: Motown Industries vice chairman Michael Roshkind updates the Los Angeles Times on the firm’s film projects, including “an original rock musical written by Stevie Wonder” and a plan to make a movie star out of Marvin Gaye. “None of this is blue sky,” says Roshkind. “It will all happen.”
September 9: Motown Record Corp. confirms the resignation of Ewart Abner as president, and the return of Barney Ales as the firm’s executive VP and assistant to the president.
September 26: Motown announces a new, long-term U.K. licensing agreement with EMI Records, reversing its earlier decision to establish an independent operation.
September 29: Jackie Wilson suffers a heart attack and collapses during a show at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. It’s reported that he was singing “Lonely Teardrops,” co-written by Berry Gordy, at that moment.
October 8: Mahogany, starring Diana Ross and directed by Berry Gordy, opens in the United States. At first, the movie’s promotional slogan is “Mahogany – the woman every woman wants to be – and every man wants to have.” Later, it becomes, “Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with.”
October 31: Melodyland Records throws a first-anniversary party at Hollywood’s Palomino Club. T.G. Sheppard and Jerry Naylor perform, while label mates Terry Stafford and Dorsey Burnette are present to help celebrate.
November 14: Yvonne Fair’s “It Should Have Been Me” is released as a single in the U.K., going on to reach the Top 5 of the British charts the following February.
SELECTED SINGLES (by release date)
January 13: Eddie Kendricks, “Shoeshine Boy,” Tamla 54257 (#1 R&B, #18 pop)
February 11: Diana Ross, “Sorry Doesn’t Always Make It Right,” Motown 1335
February 17: Smokey Robinson, “Baby That’s Backatcha,” Tamla 54258 (#1 R&B, #26 pop)
February 17: The Temptations, “Shakey Ground,” Gordy 7142 (#1 R&B, #26 pop)
February 26: The Boones, “When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” Motown 1334
March 14: T.G. Sheppard, “Tryin’ To Beat The Morning Home,” Melodyland 6006 (#1 country, #95 pop)
April 2: The Commodores, “Slippery When Wet,” Motown 1338 (#1 R&B, #19 pop)
April 9: Valentino, “I Was Born This Way,” Gaiee 90001
May 23: Syreeta, “Harmour Love,” Motown 1353
May 23: Jud Strunk, “The Biggest Parakeets In Town,” Melodyland 6015
June 10: The Jackson 5, “Forever Came Today,” Motown 1356
June 12: The Supremes, “He’s My Man,” Motown 1358
July 9: Willie Hutch, “Love Power,” Motown 1360
August 4: The Undisputed Truth, “Higher Than High,” Gordy 7145
August 12: G.C. Cameron, “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday,” Motown 1364
September 19: The Miracles, “Love Machine,” Tamla 54262 (#5 R&B, #1 pop)
September 24: Diana Ross, “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To),” Motown 1377 (#14 R&B, #1 pop)
October 21: David Ruffin, “Walk Away From Love,” Motown 1376 (#1 R&B, #9 pop)
November 21: Smokey Robinson, “Quiet Storm,” Tamla 54265
November 25: The Commodores, “Sweet Love,” Motown 1381
December 1: Stephanie Mills, “This Empty Place,” Motown 1382
December 1: T.G. Sheppard, “Motels And Memories,” Melodyland 6028
SELECTED ALBUMS (by release date)
January 16: Michael Jackson, Forever, Michael, Motown 825
January 16: The Miracles, Don’t Cha Love It, Tamla 336
January 16: The Temptations, A Song For You, Gordy 969 (#1 R&B, #13 pop)
January 16: The Dynamic Superiors, The Dynamic Superiors, Motown 822
February 20: The Commodores, Caught In The Act, Motown 820
February 20: The Undisputed Truth, Cosmic Truth, Gordy 970
March 10: The Temptations, Wings Of Love, Gordy 971
March 26: Smokey Robinson, A Quiet Storm, Tamla 337
March 26: Gladys Knight & the Pips, A Little Knight Music, Soul 744
March 26: The Originals, California Sunset, Motown 826
May: T.G. Sheppard, T.G. Sheppard, Melodyland 401
May 15: The Supremes, The Supremes, Motown 828
May 15: The Jackson 5, Moving Violation, Motown 829
May 15: The Marvelettes, Anthology, Motown 827
May 15: Yvonne Fair, The Bitch Is Black, Motown 832
May 15: Various, DiscoTech: The Magic Disco Machine, Motown 821
June: Rare Earth, Back To Earth, Rare Earth 548
June 17: Willie Hutch, Ode To My Lady, Motown 838
June 18: Eddie Kendricks, The Hit Man, Tamla 338
June 26: Original Soundtrack, Cooley High, Motown 840
July 14: Lenny Williams, Rise Sleeping Beauty, Motown 843
July 14: The Dynamic Superiors, Pure Pleasure, Motown 841
September 17: The Undisputed Truth, Higher Than High, Gordy 972
September 17: The Miracles, City Of Angels, Tamla 339
September 17: Frankie Valli, Inside You, Motown 852
October 14: The Commodores, Movin’ On, Motown 848
October 14: Original Soundtrack, Mahogany, Motown 858
October 14: David Ruffin, Who I Am, Motown 849
October 14: Stephanie Mills, For The First Time, Motown 859
November 4: The Temptations, House Party, Gordy 973
West Grand Blog is taking a short break. See you on the other side, with luck.
Music notes: there’s always plenty of choice in any given Motown year, and 1975 is no exception. But please forgive that this WGB playlist doesn’t include the Boones’ remake of “When The Lovelight…”