A Motown Timeline: 1963
BERRY GORDY ‘LET US DO WHAT WE WANTED TO DO’
For Motown Records, the single most important album of 1963 might just have been by the Beatles.
It was not the company’s release, of course, but The Beatles’ Second Album (as it was known in the U.S.) became a chart-busting behemoth – with more than a year among the best-sellers – and earned tens of thousands of dollars in royalties for Jobete Music, thanks to the three Motown covers it contained: “Money (That’s What I Want),” “Please Mr. Postman” and “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me.”
The revenue enabled the expansion of Berry Gordy’s young business, including significant investment in artist development, at the dawn of “the Sound of Young America.” The Beatles’ endorsement of the songs also served to promote Motown’s magic to the world.
That historic Chicago booking in April 1963
And so to the contention that 1963 should be recognised as one of the most significant years in Hitsville history, even if it doesn’t glow with a nice round number (after all, who celebrates a fourth anniversary?). The Fab Four cut their Jobete covers that July for the LP which became With The Beatles, out in the U.K. on November 22. It held the Number One slot there from December to April, when it was issued in the U.S. (as The Beatles’ Second Album, with some track changes) amid rampant Beatlemania. In its second chart week, the album soared to the Billboard summit.
In his autobiography, To Be Loved, Berry Gordy recalls being contacted by someone in the office of the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, seeking a publishing royalty discount on the three Jobete songs, before their U.S. release by Capitol Records. His initial response was to say “no,” but he agreed to a deal after discussing the issue with colleagues. “A part of something is always better than all of nothing,” Gordy later wrote.
Before the American release of The Beatles’ Second Album, the group had started publicly name-checking the magicians of West Grand. In an interview with British music weekly Disc at the end of 1963, Ringo Starr singles out Little Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips – Pt. 2” for praise, while George Harrison does the same for Marvin Gaye’s “Stubborn Kind Of Fellow.” Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn points out that in the same interview, Harrison said they all loved the Marvelettes, the Miracles and Mary Wells. (For a late-December edition of Saturday Club, the BBC’s Light Programme pop radio show, the Beatles themselves requested a spin for the Miracles’ “I’ve Been Good To You.”)
Every Motown year during the 1960s has its share of unimpeachable music, but ‘63 excels for introducing Holland/Dozier/Holland – the most successful writing team in the company’s history. Their first two hits were recorded that January and broke in the spring, namely, the Marvelettes’ “Locking Up My Heart” and Martha & the Vandellas’ “Come And Get These Memories.” The latter went Top 10 R&B and Top 30 pop.
MOTOWN’S BEST SALES YEAR YET
By the summer, H/D/H had scaled even greater heights with Martha & the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave” and the Miracles’ “Mickey’s Monkey.” The former topped the R&B rankings; both were Top 10 on the pop charts. “Berry Gordy being a songwriter and producer himself, and a good one at that,” Eddie Holland once told me, “he had all the confidence in the world from doing that. And when he started hearing the emergence of Brian, Lamont and myself – and other artists and producers there – he let us do what we wanted to do.”
Little surprise, then, that for full-year 1963, Motown Records achieves its highest gross revenues to date: $4.5 million (equivalent to some $47 million today). In addition to record sales, the boxoffice take from the second Motor-Town Revue is substantial. It plays up and down the eastern side of the country, from Chicago to Louisville, from New York to Memphis, wrapping in Detroit with eight shows over November 16-17 at the Fox Theatre. The $42,000 gross is the Motor City venue’s largest such tally in five years. (The tour’s November 15 stop in Lansing. Michigan, came with this radio commercial.)
The sizzling summer sales of ‘63
And then there was Little Stevie. Berry Gordy’s decision to record him in concert was pure genius, as if instructed from above. Like the finest H/D/H work, “Fingertips – Pt. 2” lifted the singer out of any type of ordinariness, commanding listeners to spend time in a place they could only imagine. The audience excitement – in Chicago – was palpable, the band ablaze, Wonder’s voice (and harmonica) another means of travelling far from everyday life. Especially if you heard it thousands of miles away, on another side of the world.
Art and religion aside, the payoff was substantial. Both “Fingertips – Pt. 2” and The 12 Year Old Genius Recorded Live topped the Billboard singles and album charts in August 1963. Not only was this Motown’s first LP to do so, but it also saw the company truly beginning to attract and impress, arousing curiosity in cities where the music industry rules were usually written and regulated. “Being in Detroit has been a big help to us,” Gordy comments in a rare (for him) media interview syndicated that summer. “The only drawback is the lack of arrangers and copyists. But we get the pick of Detroit artists, who would rather record for a hometown company, and we get a break with the local DJs, which helps us get records off to a fast start.”
Motown’s location was significant on another occasion in 1963, when an estimated 100,000 citizens took to the streets for a Freedom Rally on the 20th anniversary of Detroit’s wartime race riots. It was June 23, and inside the city’s Cobo Hall, an audience of 20,000 heard Rev. Martin Luther King deliver his historic “I have a dream” speech for the first time. Gordy then arranges with King to release a recording of the oratory, paying an advance and royalties to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Great March To Freedom album, complete with gatefold sleeve and a stunning aerial photo of the crowds on Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, came out on August 27 – one day before the civil rights leader delivered his more famous version of the speech in Washington, D.C., to an estimated 200,000 people. This, too, was recorded and released by Motown as The Great March On Washington.
If Gordy’s support for the civil rights movement plays primarily to a domestic audience that year, he had already shown an awareness of the world beyond America’s borders. In March, he and sister Esther Edwards, together with Motown’s sales chief, Barney Ales, travelled to Europe “to visit our affiliates and conclude arrangements with leading firms to represent us,” as a company advertisement in Billboard declared at the time.
MOTOWN GOES STATESIDE
It is Gordy’s first overseas trip on business, and the team meets label executives and music publishers in Britain, France, Holland and Germany. In London, there are appointments at Decca, Oriole (with which Motown had an existing, short-term contract) and EMI. On the Continent, there are similar sessions. The most significant outcome is a U.K. deal with EMI, which ultimately leads to Motown’s strongest international partnership, spanning two decades. It began that fall, with the British firm’s first 45 from Hitsville: “Heat Wave,” released on the Stateside label. Meanwhile, U.K. R&B fan Dave Godin starts a local fan club for Mary Wells, which soon evolves into the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, approved by Berry Gordy. The club draws members from across the British Isles, including singer Dusty Springfield and, reportedly, the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger.
Back home, 1963 proves momentous for Smokey Robinson beyond the chart fortunes of Mary Wells and the Miracles: he is appointed a Motown vice president. “It was a wonderful position to be in,” he told me in 2013, “because I was in on all the company business, and then I was in on all the artist business. The artists would come to me and tell me stuff that they wouldn’t go to Berry or Barney [about] because I was one of them. So if their gripes or grievances were legitimate, then I would go and tell Barney or Berry. It was a very unique position to be in, and I really relished it.”
The Supremes at the Apollo, New York, with the Motor-Town Revue
Other unique positions become apparent in Motown’s most significant year, including Harvey Fuqua’s switch from promotion to artist development and Earl Van Dyke’s assignment as studio bandleader to succeed Joe Hunter. From that point on, both men help to shape Motown’s evolution, such as Fuqua’s recruitment of ace choreographer Cholly Atkins, and Van Dyke’s firm-handed management of the most talented (and not undemanding) studio musicians of their generation.
But above all, there was the music – and as if to signal the rocket ride to come, the final Billboard Hot 100 of 1963 contained no fewer than six Motown singles, every one heading upwards. Two were written and produced by Smokey Robinson (“As Long As I Know He’s Mine,” “What’s Easy For Two Is So Hard For One”) and four by Holland/Dozier/Holland (“I Gotta Dance To Keep Fom Crying,” “Quicksand,” “Can I Get A Witness,” “When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes”). “The rock ’n’ roll age is now about ten years old,” Berry Gordy concludes in his summertime interview. “And its lasting power is amazing.”
The output of 2648 West Grand continues to fortify that power – as do the four young men from Liverpool, and their rather good taste in music.
Now, to the detail. Below is an effort, selective rather than exhaustive, to convey 1963’s endeavours and progress at Motown. It’s divided into three sections: the first, a chronological run-down of significant dates during those 12 months, followed by examples of notable single and album releases. When a 45 or album topped the Billboard R&B or pop charts, that entry is shown in bold-face italics. Other Motown timelines can be found here, under the “Looking Ahead, and Back” category.
January 12: Mary Wells’ “Two Lovers” is the first of five Motown 45s to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 this year. Those which follow are the Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” and “Mickey’s Monkey,” Little Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips – Pt. 2,” and Martha & the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave.”
January 23: Four Jobete Music songs from 1962 are given Citations of Achievement by performing rights organisation BMI at its annual awards dinner, held at the Pierre Hotel, New York. They are “Do You Love Me,” “Playboy,” “You Beat Me To The Punch” and “The One Who Really Loves You.”
January 25: The Supremes open a week-long run at the Regal Theatre, Chicago, with Jackie Wilson as headliner. The line-up also features the Dells and Jan Bradley. The Supremes include “Let Me Go The Right Way” in their short set.
February 4: Motown debuts its Workshop Jazz label with albums by the George Bohanon Quartet, Paula Greer and the Johnny Griffith Trio. Later, there are releases by Dave Hamilton and the Earl Washington All Stars.
February 7: Motown’s Mel-O-Dy label segues from R&B to pop and country with the release of the Chuck-A-Lucks’ “Sugar Cane Curtain.” It’s produced by the company’s southern region salesman, Al Klein, who previously had his own Duchess label out of Dallas.
February 16: Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells record “What’s The Matter With You Baby” with Mickey Stevenson producing, and it’s coupled with “Once Upon A Time” for the pair’s first 45, released in April 1964..
March 1: Berry Gordy, Barney Ales and Esther Edwards fly to Europe to meet potential foreign licensees and distributors for Motown. The company’s U.K. deal with Oriole Records expires in June.
March 2: Billboard publishes a Motown advertising supplement (“Hits are our business”) in its latest issue, aimed at disc jockeys, dealers, one stops, rackjobbers, distributors and jukebox operators, as well as international tradesters. The company’s latest album releases are showcased, as are forthcoming 45s.
March 16: Mary Wells becomes the first Motown artist to enter the Billboard pop album charts, with her Two Lovers And Other Great Hits. It peaks inside the Top 50 during an eight-week run.
March 23: The first hit for writing/producing team Holland/Dozier/Holland debuts on the Billboard Hot 100: the Marvelettes’ “Locking Up My Heart.” It goes on to peak inside the Top 50, while the flipside, “Forever,” also charts.
April: Motown opens a New York office for its Jobete music publishing arm, located in Suite 905 of the Brill Building on Broadway. Berry Gordy’s second wife, Raynoma — now separated from him — heads up the unit, while her brother, Mike Ossman, is appointed assistant director. Among its future signings are George Kerr and Sidney Barnes.
April 1: Chicago AM radio station WVON (formerly WHFC) hits the airwaves after its purchase by Leonard and Phil Chess, and becomes a powerful force in R&B radio, supporting Motown, among other labels.
April 10: The Four Tops sign to Motown. Their first session takes place on April 19, when “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” is among the five songs cut in Hitsville’s Studio A.
April 19: The Motor-Town Revue kicks off a week-long stint at Chicago’s Regal Theatre, where Little Stevie Wonder’s performance of “Fingertips” is recorded and released as a 45 less than a month later. Also on the bill: the Miracles, Mary Wells, the Marvelettes, the Contours, Marv Johson, Marvin Gaye and Martha & the Vandellas. Choker Campbell’s band backs the performers.
May 15: Motown’s first-ever Grammy nomination, Mary Wells’ “You Beat Me To The Punch,” loses out to Bent Fabric’s “Alley Cat” in the category of Best Rock & Roll Recording when the 1962 awards are handed out in Los Angeles and New York.
May 29: The Motor-Town Revue is booked into the Playland Roller Rink in York, PA, with advance tickets at $2.25. Two days later, the show opens at New York’s Apollo for a week. The following month, Marvin Gaye marries Anna Gordy, in between dates on the tour.
June 8: The Fabulous Miracles and Recorded Live: The Motor-Town Revue, Vol. 1 become the second and third Motown releases to enter the Billboard pop album charts. The latter peaks at No. 47, and a second volume is issued the following year.
June 11: The Detroit News reports the sale of Detroit’s Graystone Ballroom to Berry Gordy’s Rayber Corp. for approximately $125,000. He says he will invest $25,000 on immediate improvements to the five-story venue.
June 23: Rev. Martin Luther King leads a massive civil rights march in Detroit, and gives the first iteration of his “I Have A Dream” speech at the city’s Cobo Hall. The Great March To Freedom is released as an album by Motown in August.
June 26: Motown acts begin to record at the Graystone Ballroom. Marcus Belgrave cuts several tracks there on this date, while Liz Lands does so in July and Stevie Wonder in August. Both Lands and Wonder lay down a number of standards, the latter’s batch including “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “Harlem Nocturne.”
July: The July issue of Ebony contains a feature about Little Stevie Wonder. “The wide world Stevie knows now is better by far than the world he knew as a littler boy lost in a big city,” it notes, “handicapped not by blindness alone, but by poverty, a broken home, a father he rarely saw and a mother burdened by four other children.”
July 6: Carolyn Crawford is joint winner of the WCHB Tip-Top Bread Talent Contest, held at the Fox Theatre, Detroit; she sang Mary Wells’ “Laughing Boy.” Her prize includes a Motown contract (Berry Gordy was at the final) and $500. Crawford’s debut single is issued in October.
July 26: Motown announces the appointment of Smokey Robinson as a company vice president. The post is reported to earn an annual salary of $30,000.
July 26: In a media rare interview, Berry Gordy tells Dick Kleiner of news syndication service NEA that he is negotiating to record Eartha Kitt and Diahann Carroll.
July 31: The Supremes record “Come On Boy” at the Graystone Ballroom. The session is produced by Berry Gordy, who also wrote the song. Nine days later, the Miracles cut “Silver Bells,” “White Christmas” and “Winter Wonderland” there for the forthcoming Christmas With The Miracles album.
August 17: Britain’s pop weekly Record Mirror publishes the first major U.K. feature about Little Stevie Wonder, drawing the obvious comparisons with Ray Charles: “Both are coloured, both are blind, and both sing the same kind of music. The main difference lies in age and experience.”
August 19: Kim Weston, whose “Love Me All The Way” had just left the charts, appears at the Laicos Club in Montgomery, Alabama, backed by the Rhythm Aces. The afternoon show is “for teenagers only,” with tickets at 75 cents apiece.
August 24: Little Stevie Wonder’s Recorded Live The 12 Year Old Genius hits the peak of the Billboard Top LPs chart, as his “Fingertips – Pt. 2” rules the magazine’s Hot 100 for a third week. The youngster becomes the first artist ever to have a simultaneous Number One single and album.
August 28: Rev. Martin Luther King gives his now-historic “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. before a crowd of more than 200,000. Motown releases The Great March On Washington, including King’s address, as an LP in October.
September 4: LaBrenda Ben records “Better Un-Said” at the Graystone, written by Smokey Robinson and George Fowler. A few days later, Liz Lands records “We Shall Overcome” at the site with producers Fowler and Clarence Paul. It is included in Rev. Martin Luther King’s The Great March On Washington album.
September 21: Marvin Gaye and Martha & the Vandellas appear in “The Biggest Show of Stars” at the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis. Also in the line-up are James Brown, Jimmy Reed, the Crystals, Doris Troy and Major Lance.
September 28: British R&B writer Norman Jopling devotes the latest in his “Great Unknowns” series of articles in Record Mirror to the Contours.
October: Motown announces the signing of poets Langston Hughes and Margaret Danner, while newspaper reports cite the forthcoming release of their album, Writers Of The Revolution. In the event, it’s not issued until 1970 on Gordy’s spoken-word label, Black Forum.
October 1: The Supremes record their first significant pop hit, “When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” with producers Holland/Dozier/Holland. Background singers include the Four Tops.
October 1: A 13-year-old Stevie Wonder grants Power of Attorney to three of Motown’s International Talent Management, Inc. (ITMI) officials: Ted Hull, Ardena Johnston and Esther Edwards.
October 3: Singer Laura Johnson is reported to be recording an album for Motown’s Workshop Jazz label, for release in December. It never appears.
October 4: Rev. Martin Luther King files suit in New York against three labels – Mr. Maestro, 20th Century Fox and Motown – for copyright infringement by releasing his “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. on disc. He soon retracts the action against Motown, which was said to have been done in error.
October 11: EMI Records releases Martha & the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave” on its Stateside label, the first single under Motown’s new licensing deal with the U.K. company.
October 16: Brian Poole & the Tremeloes’ remake of the Contours’ “Do You Love Me” becomes the first Jobete copyright to top the U.K. singles charts.
October 18: Lou (“Reach Out For Me”) Johnson begins a ten-night stint at Detroit’s 20 Grand club, with the Four Tops as openers “direct from the Playboy Club circuit, the Moulin Rouge in Las Vegas and the Copacabana in New York.”
October 18: The latest Motor-Town Revue plays New York’s Apollo Theater, with the Miracles, the Marvelettes, the Supremes and Kim Weston among the performers. The Supremes leave on Monday (21) for their first engagement in Bermuda.
October 23: Little Stevie Wonder is signed by French concert promoter Bruno Coquatrix to play the Olympia Music Hall in Paris from December 11-25, for a total fee of $4,300. Also on the bill: Dionne Warwick and the Shirelles.
October 31: At midnight, Detroit radio station WKMH becomes Top 40-formatted WKNR and upends the local broadcasting scene. Motown is among the beneficiaries as “Keener 13” soars in the ratings, with Robin Seymour and Gary Stevens among its most popular DJs.
November 16: Billboard reports that Motown has opened a West Coast office in Los Angeles, with Brenda and Patrice Holloway as the first artist signings. Also recruited, according to the trade weekly, is “a 17-year-old Canadian singer, Clive Clerk.” This proves to be Chris Clark, who is not from north of the border, but from Santa Cruz, California. She initially works as a company receptionist.
November 16: Singer Sylvia Moy appears at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit with the John Griffith Trio. Earlier in the year, the future Jobete songwriter performs at the city’s Caucus Club.
November 22: With The Beatles is released in the U.K. by EMI Records’ Parlophone label. As npoted, it contains the group’s versions of three Motown hits: “Money (That’s What I Want),” “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” and “Please Mr. Postman.” The album spends 21 weeks at Number One.
December: Movie director William Asher begins filming Muscle Beach Party in Paradise Cove, Malibu, for American International Pictures. Little Stevie Wonder is among the performers, in a deal said to have been secured by Motown’s newly-hired West Coast chief, Marc Gordon.
December: Motown’s V.I.P. label makes its debut with “Stevie” by Patrice Holloway, although the release is limited. The record is produced by Hal Davis and Marc Gordon, and written by Frank Wilson.
December 4: Stevie Wonder records his first version of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind” with producer Clarence Paul. He recuts it in 1966 for his Uptight album, accompanied by Paul’s vocals.
December 14: Canadian actor/singer Bobby Breen, 36, puts his first Motown single on tape, having been signed by Berry Gordy earlier in the year. Breen’s version of “How Can We Tell Him” (previously cut by Marv Johnson) is produced by Gordy.
December 27: En route home from Paris, Little Stevie Wonder appears on British TV show Ready Steady Go! to perform three songs, including “Workout Stevie, Workout.”
December 31: Motown acts take part in a two-show (8:30pm, 11:30pm) New Year’s Eve concert at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, including Little Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Marv Johnson and “special added attraction” Liz Lands.
SELECTED SINGLES (by U.S. release date)
February 1: Mary Wells, “Laughing Boy,” Motown 1039
February 7: Kim Weston, “It Should Have Been Me,” Tamla 54076
February 15: The Marvelettes, “Locking Up My Heart,” Tamla 54077
February 22: Martha & the Vandellas, “Come And Get These Memories,” Gordy 7014
March 4: Amos Milburn, “My Baby Gave Me Another Chance,” Motown 1038
March 11: Connie Van Dyke, “Oh Freddy,” Motown 1041
March 11: The Miracles, “A Love She Can Count On,” Tamla 54078
March 18: The Temptations, “I Want A Love I Can See,” Gordy 7015
April 18: Marvin Gaye, “Pride And Joy,” Tamla 54079
April 24: Eddie Holland, “Baby Shake,” Motown 1043
May 21: Little Stevie Wonder, “Fingertips – Pt. 2,” Tamla 54080 (#1 R&B, #1 pop)
June 12: The Supremes, “A Breath Taking Guy,” Motown 1044
June 12: Holland & Dozier, “What Goes Up Must Come Down,” Motown 1045
June 25: The Temptations, “Farewell My Love,” Gordy 7020
July 1: The Marvelettes, “My Daddy Knows Best,” Tamla 54082
July 10: Martha & the Vandellas, “Heat Wave,” Gordy 7022 (#1 R&B, #4 pop)
July 16: The Miracles, “Mickey’s Monkey,” Tamla 54083
August 30: Mary Wells, “You Lost The Sweetest Boy,” Motown 1048
September 13: Little Stevie Wonder, “Workout Stevie, Workout,” Tamla 54086
September 20: Marvin Gaye, “Can I Get A Witness,” Tamla 54087
October 14: The Marvelettes, “As Long As I Know He’s Mine,” Tamla 54088
October 24: Kim Weston, “Just Loving You,” Tamla 54085
October 27: The Darnells, “Too Hurt To Cry, Too Much In Love To Say Goodbye,” Gordy 7024
October 31: Carolyn Crawford, “Forget About Me,” Motown 1050
October 31: The Supremes, “When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” Motown 1051
October 31: The Miracles, “I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying,” Tamla 54089
November 4: Martha & the Vandellas, “Quicksand,” Gordy 7025
December 6: Liz Lands, “May What He Lived For Live,” Gordy 7026
December 19: Eddie Holland, “Leaving Here,” Motown 1052
SELECTED ALBUMS (by U.S. release date)
January 31: Marvin Gaye, That Stubborn Kinda Fellow, Tamla 239
January 31: Mary Wells, Two Lovers And Other Great Hits, Motown 607
February 4: The George Bohanon Quartet, Boss Bossa Nova, Workshop Jazz 207
February 4: Paula Greer, Introducing Paula Greer, Workshop Jazz 203
February 28: The Miracles, The Fabulous Miracles, Tamla 238
February 28: The Marvelettes, The Marvelous Marvelettes, Tamla 237
March 13: Dave Hamilton, Blue Vibrations, Workshop Jazz 206
April 9: Amos Milburn, The Return Of Amos Milburn, Motown 608
April 22: Various, Recorded Live: The Motor-Town Revue, Vol. 1, Motown 609
May 31: The Miracles, Recorded Live On Stage, Tamla 241
May 31: Little Stevie Wonder, Recorded Live The 12 Year Old Genius, Tamla 240 (#1 pop)
June 28: Martha & the Vandellas, Come And Get These Memories, Gordy 902
June 28: Ralph Sharon, Modern Innovations On Country And Western Themes, Gordy 903
July 6: The Marvelettes, Recorded Live On Stage, Tamla 243
August 27: Rev. Martin Luther King, The Great March To Freedom, Gordy 906
September 9: Marvin Gaye, Recorded Live On Stage, Tamla 242
September 9: Mary Wells, Recorded Live On Stage, Motown 611
September 30: Martha & the Vandellas, Heat Wave, Gordy 907
October 8: Rev. Martin Luther King, The Great March On Washington, Gordy 908
October 23: Various, A Package Of 16 Original Big Hits, Motown 614
October 29: The Miracles, Christmas With The Miracles, Tamla 236
November 11: The Miracles, Doin’ Mickey’s Monkey, Tamla 245
December 28: Little Stevie Wonder, With A Song In My Heart, Tamla 250
Credit notes: sources for this timeline, among others, include Joel Whitburn’s Billboard chart books, Laurent Bendele’s Diana Ross/Supremes website, and the peerless liner notes for Universal Music’s The Complete Motown Singles series. Also, credit to Nick Soule for finding that Motown-Town Revue radio commercial. And, of course, there’s a 1963 playlist to be found on Spotify here.