The Chart Toppers Club

NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET

Some of you, dear readers, have commented on the artistic compromise which accompanied the back-catalogue marketing strategies of onetime Motown Records president Jay Lasker, as detailed last week.

There was author Graham (Motown Encyclopedia) Betts, recalling past charges of “devaluing the catalogue.” And former Motown U.K. press officer Bob Fisher, who reminded me that some of the two-for-one CDs contained edited – compromised? – versions of certain tracks, so as to fit both albums onto one disc.

My view, perhaps jaundiced by too many years at Billboard, was that Lasker was justified in doing what he did, because (a) the company was losing serious money when he joined, and marketing the past was a speedy way of stemming the bleeding, and (b) Motown back-catalogue album sales were negligible in the U.S. prior to his arrival. As a trade-press journalist, I was told time and time again by Lasker and others in the ’80s that R&B catalogue – call it black music catalogue, if you wish – didn’t sell. Once an album was off the charts, it was dead and gone.

Lasker’s thinking with the twofers was that the new CD soundcarriers would make the past attractive, encouraging affluent consumers to rebuy their record collections in a different format. Seal the deal, he thought, by offering two albums for the price of one.

All of which led me to wonder: what were the biggest-selling titles in the Motown catalogue? Or, at least, which ones reached Number One on the main Billboard album charts and so – while also taking chart longevity into account – were likely to have been the company’s greatest earners? Granted, this is a slight departure from the topic of how the catalogue used to be handled, but, hey, inspiration doesn’t always run in a straight line. Besides, it may be interesting to see some of the variations in record industry practice implicit in this survey.

There were nine albums which claimed the Billboard peak while Berry Gordy owned the business: three by Stevie Wonder, three by the Supremes (including one with the Temptations), two by Lionel Richie, and one – actually a movie soundtrack – mostly featuring Diana Ross. (By way of contrast, there were 53 Motown singles which topped the Billboard Hot 100 during that same period.) The company didn’t join the Recording Industry Association of America until the late 1970s, so the RIAA gold and platinum certifications don’t cover Hitsville’s entire sales history. Still, it’s safe to say that Wonder’s Songs In The Key of Life and Richie’s Can’t Slow Down – both certified for sales of ten million copies – are the titans of this particular tabulation.

Moreover, those are only the domestic numbers; both of those albums sold millions internationally, too. In Britain, Motown’s largest, most loyal market outside the United States, Songs In The Key of Life occupied the charts for 54 weeks, albeit that it couldn’t climb higher than No. 2. Can’t Slow Down did better: 154 chart weeks, with three at the summit.

And so here are details – somewhat random in nature, perhaps because of sobering current events – of those nine Motown Number Ones. Oh, and you’re spared any musical analysis here; others can do better on that score, and have done.

LITTLE STEVIE WONDER: Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius (Tamla 240)

He had turned into a teenager by the time this release spent one week at the height of Billboard’s Top LP’s chart dated August 24, 1963. He was then the youngest artist to score a Number One album, and his was also the first “live” recording to reach the summit.

Those triumphs were sparked by Wonder’s “Fingertips (Part 2),” the single which was lifted from the album – both were issued that May – and which bulleted into the Top 20 in three weeks flat. By the time Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius got to the peak, the 45 had already spent 14 days ruling the Hot 100. The two Tamla releases ruled simultaneously for a week, a remarkable achievement for Gordy’s young enterprise. “Up to then, nobody took us seriously as far as selling albums was concerned,” said Barney Ales, head of Motown’s sales department at the time. “We were just seen as a black company selling singles. From that point, they started to see us differently.”

In the liner notes of Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, Motown’s Billie Jean Brown wrote, “As you have probably heard by now, Stevie not only excels at vocal renditions, but also the harmonica, piano, drums, bongos and organ. All this, and he is blind.” The producer was identified as Berry Gordy Jr., but there was nothing about where or when it was recorded: Chicago’s Regal Theatre in March 1963, by most accounts.

The album spent 20 weeks on the Billboard charts, as Motown also seized the opportunity to aggressively sell Wonder’s two previous releases. And what might you have paid for this in your local record store some 57 years ago? With luck, it would have been $1.88, discounted in some outlets from the $3.98 list price; if you couldn’t afford that, there was always the single: 39 cents for “Fingertips (Part 2)” if you were close to, say, the Atlantic Appliance Co. in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

THE SUPREMES: The Supremes A’ Go-Go (Motown 649)

If not for the Beatles, Diana, Mary and Flo would have scored their first Number One album in 1964. As it was, Where Did Our Love Go spent four weeks as runner-up on the Billboard countdown that year. The trio had to wait until October 1966 for the chart-topping feat of A’ Go-Go, which was also the first album by any female group to attain Number One. (Another source of satisfaction? That it ended the six-week summit lock of the Beatles’ Revolver.)

A’ Go-Go was released by Motown on August 25, 1966, debuted on the Billboard countdown on September 24, and spent the last two weeks of October at the summit. Its Top 10 occupancy lasted for 15 weeks, and with a total of 60 weeks on the charts, this was the group’s second-longest occupancy there.

No producer credit appeared on the original cover artwork, but the chronology of the album’s making – who, when, where – can be found in remarkable detail (the work of George Solomon and Andrew Skurow) in the booklet which came with a 2CD “expanded edition” in 2017. If there’s a model for Motown reissues, it is that. “While the Supremes are in New Jersey,” reveals an entry typical of the almost-daily diarisation of the group’s 1966 schedule, “The Andantes lay down additional backgrounds to songs already containing Mary and Florence vocals: ‘Going Down For The Third Time,’ ‘Let The Music Play,’ ‘It’s The Same Old Song.’ Mary and Flo’s vocals are erased on the latter.”

A’ Go-Go contained two hit singles, “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart” and their seventh Number One, “You Can’t Hurry Love.” Ten of the 12 tracks were Jobete copyrights, eight were Holland/Dozier/Holland songs, and two were covers of contemporary tunes, “Hang On Sloopy” and “These Boots Were Made For Walkin’.” Recording sessions took place in Detroit and Los Angeles. The album’s shocking pink front cover was adorned by solo snaps of Diana, Florence and Mary, taken by distinguished photographer Frank Dandridge, known for his civil-rights photojournalism (mostly for Life magazine) in the 1960s. Liner notes were there none.

If you were a Supremes fan when A’ Go-Go was at its chart peak, $1.69 would have bought you a copy at Korvettes stores (“For stereo, add 50 cents”) or $1.99 if you shopped at Sears.

THE SUPREMES: Greatest Hits (Motown 663)

As befitted the now-superstar trio, this “Deluxe Package – 2-Album Set – 20 Big Hits” (as the front cover proclaimed) soon racked up Billboard chart credentials: only the second greatest hits compilation to reach Number One, and only the second two-record set to do so (the firsts belonged to Johnny Mathis and Judy Garland, respectively).

This was the centrepiece of Motown’s fall ’67 release schedule, touted to the company’s nationwide distributors at its first-ever national sales convention in Detroit – just days after the city’s devastating race riots. The event was a source of concern at Hitsville while the local landscape was still smouldering, but a planned gala concert at the Roostertail went ahead on August 27, including a performance by the newly-renamed Diana Ross & the Supremes. Greatest Hits was issued two days later.

The 20-track set contained all the group’s single hits up to “The Happening,” plus five songs which were flipsides. It debuted on the charts on September 30, soaring into the Top 3 in three weeks, and stepping up to the summit on October 28, where it remained until early December. Its impressive 89-week run on the best-sellers list matched that of 1964’s Where Did Our Love Go; it was also the first Motown album bearing Ross’ name ahead of the group’s, and their last ’60s release with images of Ballard on the artwork, which featured paintings by Robert Taylor. Small, separate portraits of the three girls by Taylor were included in the package.

“The Supremes and I,” wrote Broadway star Carol Channing in the liner notes, “have a lot in common. They make records. I buy them.” She added, “You see, I knew them when they first hit. I remember meeting them in Detroit and thinking to myself: ‘What lovely girls. I hope they make it big.’ ” Channing’s prose, it is said, was originally intended for another Supremes album planned for 1967 but never released: From Broadway To Hollywood.

Were you shopping at Thrifty Drug Stores back then? Greatest Hits sold for $4.48 there, whereas at Pittsburgh’s National Record Mart, another 51 cents was required – but still almost a dollar less than the list price. A steal…

DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES WITH THE TEMPTATIONS: TCB (*Takin’ Care Of Business) (Motown 682)

Motown’s third Number One had required a sturdy gatefold sleeve to accommodate the two LPs and mini-posters, but for this 18-track, single-album soundtrack of the company’s first television production, the gatefold was essential to splash the visuals from the show. See the Temptations in their snazzy green suits, the Supremes in those brilliant “green swirl” gowns designed by Michael Travis!

Broadcast by NBC-TV on December 9, 1968, the one-hour TCB was a ratings hit, beating Bonanza, Bewitched and The Beverly Hillbillies on the night. Its co-producer George Schlatter had been among those encouraging Berry Gordy to go west and get into television. “One day,” he said, “we will grow up to the point where we can do such a [special], which would show the Negro contribution to American art forms, to jazz, blues, Dixieland, much of our folk music.” For the most part, the performances on TCB skewed to the art of the 1960s, with the groups’ own hits, those by others (“Eleanor Rigby,” “Do You Know The Way To San Jose”) and a small suite of standards, including “With A Song In My Heart” and “Somewhere.” Naturally, it showcased Diana Ross to good effect, but also the newest members of the Supremes and the Temptations, Cindy Birdsong and Dennis Edwards, respectively.

“Someone finally got to Berry Gordy Jr., apparently,” asserted Variety in its review, “since the young Motown prexy has at last allowed Diana Ross and the Supremes to update their style and attack.” They and the Temptations “socked over a full hour of soul in fine exuberance,” the trade paper added. Among memorable moments was the performance of “For Once In My Life” by the troubled “spirit” of the Temptations, Paul Williams, as later recalled in Harry Weinger’s liner notes for the group’s definitive anthology, Emperors of Soul: “Stripping his soul bare, he showed plain his pain, for a moment snatching back all that had been lost.”

The TCB soundtrack, released by Motown one week before the broadcast, muscled its way into the Top 20 in January ’69 as the earlier Diana Ross & The Supremes Join The Temptations was an impatient runner-up to the Beatles’ so-called White Album at Number One. The following week, the Motown groups occupied two of the Top 3 slots, albeit with the Fab Four still reigning. TCB finally took the peak on February 8 during its 34-week chart occupancy.

New Yorkers who waited until February to buy the album got a bargain if they patronised Alexander’s. There, it sold for $1.98 (regularly $3.99), although “just 200 per store.” Record retailing was clearly still competitive.

ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: Lady Sings The Blues (Motown 758)

Another year, another double-album – and another medium for Motown’s stars. “Berry saw movies as a way for him to progress as an artist by working on a bigger canvas,” said Suzanne de Passe, Gordy’s onetime gofer who became his TV- and movie-making right-hand, not to mention screenplay co-writer of Lady Sings The Blues.

The soundtrack set was a luxurious item, stuffed full of music and dialogue, radiating Ross’ role as Billie Holiday – including the title song, originally co-written by Holiday – and underpinned by an orchestra conducted by Gil Askey. Present, too, were themes composed by Michel Legrand, as well as performances by Blinky (“T’Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do,” briefly) and Michelle Aller (“Had You Been Around”). The elegant cover featured a raised depiction of Holiday’s manacled arm, reaching for the microphone, and a stunning centre spread with Ross in character, bedevilled by her drug habit. In addition, there was an eight-page insert, displaying other stills from the film.

Motown shipped Lady Sings The Blues to stores on November 9, 1972, a few weeks after the movie began playing in U.S. cinemas. The soundtrack made its chart debut later that month, eventually rising to Number One for two weeks in April – after Ross lost to Liza Minnelli for the Academy Award for best actress. Perhaps the sympathy vote came out: the album spent a total of 54 weeks on the Billboard charts, more than any other by the singer/actress. Motown released four singles from the set, but only one reached the Hot 100: Ross’ rendering of Holiday’s signature song, “Good Morning Heartache.” It peaked at No. 34 on March 17, 1973, ten days before the Oscar winners were announced.

Among the extensive coverage of the awards’ outcome, there was this revealing item in the Detroit Free Press: “When Diana Ross failed to win an Oscar for Lady Sings The Blues, probably the most disappointed people in Our Town were State Rep. George Edwards and his wife, Esther, who is Berry Gordy’s sister. They held an Oscar bash in their apartment for a host of friends who pulled hard for Diana until the moment when Liza Minnelli’s name popped out of the envelope.”

A double disc of Diana (and friends) is not chopped liver, as some might say. At Korvettes stores on the east coast, the soundtrack could be had for $4.38, down from its list price of $7.98. Montgomery Ward outlets in the west required $4.87. But what’s 49 cents when a lady is involved?

STEVIE WONDER: Fulfillingness’ First Finale (Tamla 332)

The third of Wonder’s three consecutive Top 10 albums from 1973-74, this was also his last to be made with Malcolm Cecil and Bob Margouleff. These were the studio magicians who had helped the 21-year-old to advance his music through technology, and to project a confidence and creative imagination that was to dazzle the world. Ironically, their final project together was also the first Number One album of Wonder’s adulthood.

“He is very straight to the point, very clear on what he wants,” Cecil told me once upon a time. “You can also tell him the truth [about his work], you could tell him what you really thought. That’s what he wanted, and he would listen to us.” Cecil and Margouleff’s credits on Fulfillingness’ First Finale – as with Music Of My Mind, Talking Book and Innervisions – were for associate production, engineering and electronic programming. “Cinematic, that’s the way Stevie perceives the world,” Margouleff elaborated for me. “I came from the film business, so it was a synergistic thing. Stevie, Malcolm and I put all of our experiences together, and adjusted then ’til they all worked.”

They evidently all worked in studios in New York and Los Angeles, delivering Fulfillingness’ First Finale to Motown for release on July 22, 1974. The first single, “You Haven’t Done Nothin’,” went to market three days earlier. The album claimed the Billboard summit for two weeks from September 14; in total, its occupancy ran to 65 weeks. On March 1, 1975, Wonder collected five Grammys, including Album of the Year, making him the first to collect that accolade for two years in a row.

By then, gatefolds were common at Motown: Fulfillingness’ First Finale was Wonder’s fifth such sleeve, with – like its predecessors – lyrics to all the songs. And since this was his first Billboard chart-topper since Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, it seemed fitting that the artwork featured illustrations of Dr. Martin Luther King and JFK – symbols of ’63 – alongside depictions of gold discs, Grammy awards and a Motortown Revue tour bus.

Even so, Fulfillingness’ First Finale list price wasn’t nostalgic: $6.98 compared to $3.98 for Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. But bargains there were. Those frequenting Hawaii’s Holiday Mart required only $4.17 (admittedly, plus tax) for the album, while buyers in Bridgeport, CT could snap it up at Korvettes for a mere $3.79. Now that’s fulfilling.

STEVIE WONDER: Songs In The Key of Life (Tamla 340)

Wonder’s masterwork? Discuss, but perhaps at another time. It was released on September 28, 1976, just two days before the cut-off date to qualify for the year’s Grammys. For a star not known for timekeeping, this was prudent – and it paid off. When the awards were dispensed the following February, the contents of Songs In The Key of Life netted five, and its maker became only the second artist (after Frank Sinatra) in Grammy history to win Album of the Year three times.

The release had already proven itself to be Motown’s chart champ, with 14 weeks at the Billboard peak. Wonder was also the first American artist to have his album debut at Number One, on October 16, 1976. And four months later, when basking in his Grammy glow, it was still in the Top 3. (That glow involved one awkward moment: Wonder was in Nigeria when the CBS-TV telecast took place, and there were technical difficulties with the remote audio/video link. At one point, show host Andy Williams, frustrated by the cross-continent confusion, asked the musician, “Can you see us?”)

Songs In The Key of Life gave birth to a pair of Number One singles, “I Wish” and “Sir Duke,” and a further two Top 40 titles, “Another Star” and “As.” Writing in his autobiography, Berry Gordy praised the project’s sales results under the direction of his executive vice president, Barney Ales, “using all kinds of unique marketing schemes.” It was just as well. Ales had re-signed Wonder to Motown in March ’76 for a generous advance and a 25 percent royalty rate on the wholesale price of every album sold. It promised to make the musician at least $5.5 million, the equivalent of some $23 million today.

The vinyl packaging for Songs In The Key of Life was almost as plentiful as the music, with 21 tracks spread over two LPs and a seven-inch EP, tucked into one of the gatefolds. Creation of the striking front cover image was credited to Tony Warren and Jim/Jam, while an inserted 24-page booklet contained lyrics and thanks to a virtual universe of people. “To these friends who helped along the way,” Wonder wrote, “I love you all!!”

Such abundance costs money. The album was list-priced at a magisterial $13.98 (even more for 8-track and cassette), so retailers had to work hard. Many sold it for less than $10. Back to Korvettes for that $7.99 bargain, then.

LIONEL RICHIE: Can’t Slow Down (Motown 6059)

And so to the ’80s. Motown Records under president Jay Lasker derived a disproportionate share of its income from a handful of major stars – Stevie Wonder, Rick James, Lionel Richie – while others on the roster generated much less, if anything. Working away from the Commodores, Richie turned in his first solo album in September 1982 and watched it become a substantial success, selling more than four million copies and spinning off three Top 10 singles, including a Grammy-winning Number One, “Truly.”

Shrewdly, Lasker had negotiated a new deal with Richie before that solo debut, including a royalty rate said to be one of the highest in the industry (35 percent of wholesale). The motivated artist set to work through the course of 1983 on what came to be Can’t Slow Down, again teaming up with the Commodores’ longtime producer, James Anthony Carmichael.

The outcome, when released on October 14 that year, was one of the most popular albums of the decade. Can’t Slow Down was the source of no fewer than five consecutive Top 10 singles, driving its U.S. sales to 10 million copies (for which it was certified “diamond” by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1985). Reflecting all this was an extraordinary Billboard chart run of 160 weeks, including three at the top from December 3, 1983. International sales were of similar scale, exceeding 8 million, and in the case of Britain, a chart life which almost matched the album’s U.S. account. The album also benefitted from the growing popularity of the compact disc, with its release in that format four months after vinyl and tape.

Can’t Slow Down missed the deadline for ’83 Grammy consideration, but qualified in ’84, going on to scoop Album of the Year. In addition, Richie and Carmichael were honoured in the producer category. “If you knew how many times I’ve sat out in that audience,” the singer/songwriter said before the awards ceremony, “hearing the names of those other winners and wondering why.” That night, he wondered no more.

As for record buyers, this was the 1980s, when front-line LPs (and cassettes) carried a $7.98 list price. If you were lucky, you paid less than $6 for Can’t Slow Down. If not – say, at the Sound Warehouse chain in Texas – it would have cost you $6.99. But remember, Richie earned 35 percent of wholesale!

LIONEL RICHIE: Dancing On The Ceiling (Motown 6158)

This was the last of the three albums Richie made for Motown as a solo artist. It was also the first in recording industry history to be simultaneously RIAA-certified as gold, platinum, double platinum and triple platinum, barely two months after its release on August 5, 1986. The following May, the album was again certified, that time as quadruple platinum. And as if that wasn’t sufficient, Richie’s longform video, The Making Of Dancing On The Ceiling, officially became platinum on April 1, 1988, for sales of 100,000 copies.

As with its predecessors, Dancing On The Ceiling spun off a set of Top 10 singles. The first, “Say You, Say Me,” preceded the album by ten months – to the evident distress of label chief Lasker, as previously outlined (Richie’s preoccupation, according to the executive, was earning an Oscar nomination for the song). The album achieved Number One on September 27, 1986, lodging there for two weeks, but its overall chart life of 58 weeks was considerably less than that of Can’t Slow Down, as were its sales. Maybe the modest $1 discount off the list price at the likes of Sam Goody and Sears didn’t sufficiently help.

In 2003, Motown proprietor Universal Music reissued Richie’s trio of albums on CD, with additional material. The bonus tracks ranged from the solo demo of “Endless Love” on Lionel Richie to the 12-inch version of “All Night Long (All Night) on Can’t Slow Down, running 6:41, compared to the economic 6:18 on the original album. There were also liner notes which put each album in the context of Richie’s career. “Whether or not you’ll sell more records than your last should be the concern of the label,” producer James Anthony Carmichael was quoted as saying for the Dancing In The Ceiling reissue. “The artist’s job is simply to be true to himself and make music that represents who he is.” On that package, there were five bonus tracks: 12-inch mixes of four songs, plus “Night Train (Smooth Alligator),” which had been added to the original CD release of Dancing On The Ceiling (it wasn’t on the vinyl edition). The song was co-written and produced by Narada Michael Walden.

And in a measure of how much the record industry – and Motown – had changed since the company’s first Number One album, both the original 1986 release of Dancing On The Ceiling and the 2003 reissue featured pages of credits for the scores (perhaps even hundreds) of people involved in its making, including Richie’s fashion consultant and hair stylist. It was a long, long way from the handful of names on the back cover of Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. And who did style Stevie’s hair back in 1963?

Music notes: all but one of the above albums are available on streaming services, so this week’s West Grand Blog playlist features the biggest hit single from each. The missing album is the TCB soundtrack, so the Temptations’ recording of “For Once In My Life” (with Paul Williams on lead) from their In A Mellow Mood long player is included.