A Motown Timeline: 1967
DEPARTURES AND DUETS, RIOTS AND REVUES
Is there another year in Motown history with as much drama as this one?
For Hitsville U.S.A., the departure of Florence Ballard from the Supremes that summer was a shock, even if there were earlier signs of trouble. That the group was also renamed Diana Ross & the Supremes added to gossip and speculation, while “Reflections” failed (just) to give them a second sequence of five consecutive Number Ones.
It’s Motown month in the United Kingdom
Then the dissatisfaction felt by Holland/Dozier/Holland about their financial rewards at Motown became apparent, leading to a creative slowdown and, subsequently, their exit from the firm, later spiced with acrimonious lawsuits. Also in ’67, there was resentment in some quarters of the black press that Motown was increasingly favouring white media as the company grew. This was publicly voiced in September by a journalist, Lee Ivory, who had previously written liner notes for some of the firm’s albums.
There was positive drama, too: Berry Gordy bought and moved into a grand mansion in one of Detroit’s historic districts, while his operation’s overseas business partner, EMI Records, delivered more Top 20 Motown hits (12) in the U.K. than ever before. But notes of tragedy also underpinned the year, including the on-stage collapse of Tammi Terrell into Marvin Gaye’s arms in October, and the suicide of hitmaking songwriter Rodger Penzabene in December.
In a wider context, the Motor City suffered pain and destruction with the summer’s racial rebellion, sparked by the gratuitous arrest of drinkers in a “blind pig” (a venue illegally serving after-hours alcohol) in the 12th Street neighbourhood. The July riots rocked Detroit, with thousands of citizens arrested, widespread damage to homes and businesses, and 43 deaths. “Look, this is a race riot,” Gordy later recalled telling his white sales chief, Barney Ales. “You people should get out of here and go home. And they were saying, ‘No, this is our home,’ and they stood there with the fires getting closer. I was trying to protect them, and they were trying to protect me, and Hitsville.”
In the event – and despite their close proximity to 12th Street – Motown’s people and premises escaped serious harm, but the psychological effect was soon clear: the following year, Gordy bought a house in Los Angeles, signalling the future.
Meanwhile, at home and abroad, Motown acts toured throughout 1967. The Supremes undertook their third run at New York’s Copacabana, while the Temptations embarked on their first. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell set off on a series of dates nationwide, while the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Jr. Walker & the All Stars and Gladys Knight & the Pips all played shows in Britain. Martha & the Vandellas were set to headline five nights in July at Detroit’s Fox Theater – only to have the city’s riots shut down the show at one point. At Christmas, though, the Motortown Revue played the Fox, with Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Marvelettes and the Contours among the attractions.
‘AN EVOLUTION OF MOTOWN’
Meanwhile, new Motown Inc. vice president Michael Roshkind – appointed in October – swiftly started to spin the company’s ambitions to the media. It is “diversifying into the entire spectrum of the entertainment field,” he told the Detroit Free Press. Earlier in the year, Berry Gordy said he was drawn to California because of “my television and movie interests out there,” adding, “It’s just an evolution of Motown.”
Whatever that corporate evolution, Hitsville’s backroom believers were continuing to produce fine (and hugely popular) music. The decision to pair Marvin Gaye with Tammi Terrell proved to be a masterstroke, creatively and commercially, and it also showcased the talent of new-to-Jobete songwriters Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. The Temptations delivered some of their finest work, while Knight & the Pips began inhabiting chart heights they had never known before.
Florence Ballard: gone but not forgotten
With “I Second That Emotion,” Robinson & the Miracles recorded another of their career milestones, while their summertime album, Make It Happen, quietly contained what would become their greatest hit – although that took three years.
And, sad though it was, Brenda Holloway’s departure from Motown (of her own accord) was accompanied by the release of her most memorable – and profitable – copyright. “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” co-written by Brenda and sister Patrice, became a major hit two years later for Blood, Sweat & Tears. A measure of the latter’s income generation for the writers can still be found today: the Blood, Sweat & Tears version has almost 21 million streams on Spotify alone; Brenda’s original has 1.3 million.
Now, to more detail. Below is an effort, selective rather than exhaustive, to convey 1967’s endeavours and progress at Berry Gordy’s business. 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. If a 45 or album topped the Billboard R&B or pop charts, that entry is shown in bold-face italics.
MOTOWN 1967
January 6: Tammi Terrell lays down her vocals for “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with producers Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua. When released in April as a duet with Marvin Gaye, it becomes the biggest hit to date for recently-signed Jobete Music songwriters Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson.
January 10: The Supremes finish “When You Wish Upon A Star,” recorded in Detroit and New York (with producer Michael Gentile), for The Supremes Sing And Perform The Disney Classics. The album is never released.
January 12: The Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles re-opens after a makeover, with Smokey Robinson & the Miracles leading the relaunch. Diana Ross is in the audience.
January 28: The Four Tops begin their first-ever U.K. tour with two sell-out shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In the audience are Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The Tops go on to play Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester.
February 22: West Hollywood nightspot Ciro’s reopens with a show by Marvin Gaye; the Raelettes are the opening act. The Motown singer is booked for ten nights.
February 4: Four Tops Live! becomes Motown’s first Number One on Billboard’s R&B album charts this year. Temptations Live! tops the list in April.
The Four Tops tour triumphantly in Britain
March 2: The Detroit Free Press reports Berry Gordy’s purchase of “palatial new digs” in the historic Boston-Edison District. “The house has been one of Detroit’s grandest since it was built in the late 1920s for more than $1 million in pre-Depression money,” notes the newspaper. The Motown founder is expected to move in during May.
March 2: The 1966 Grammy awards are presented at ceremonies held in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and Chicago. Motown has only two nominations – both for Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” – but neither gains a prize. Ray Charles’ “Crying Time” takes the Grammy in both R&B categories where Wonder is a contender.
March 22: The Happening, starring Anthony Quinn and Faye Dunaway, has its U.S. movie premiere. The Supremes’ title song, recorded earlier this month, is released two days before the movie opens. (It also turns out to be the last single by the Supremes before the group’s name is fronted by Diana Ross.)
March 25: The cities of Cleveland and Columbus celebrate the first annual Motown Day, with the participation of local radio stations and music retailers. The Four Tops perform at Leo’s Casino in Cleveland as part of the occasion, which has been organised by local Motown distributor Main Line.
April: The Four Tops grace the cover of Home of the Blues, as they’re voted top group in the British magazine’s annual poll of readers. Seven other Motown acts are in the Top 20.
April 19: At New York’s Biltmore Hotel, Berry Gordy is presented with the Interracial Council for Business Opportunity (ICBO) annual leadership award. The honour recognises that the Motown founder has been “inspiring young people to plan business careers.” At the dinner, Gordy announces the creation of the Loucye Wakefield Business Career Clinic to help such youngsters.
April 29: The Supremes are among the acts performing at the Hollywood Bowl, an event organised by Los Angeles radio station KHJ. The show raises money for the United Negro College Fund and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), enabling the latter to establish a Motown scholarship for music excellence.
April 30: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell play New Jersey’s Palisades Park, one of a series of concert dates this year by the pair. Their “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is within a couple of weeks of breaking into the Billboard and Cash Box charts.
April 30: Rev. Martin Luther King delivers his “Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam” speech at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His subsequent recording of the oration is released via Motown’s Black Forum label in 1970.
May 3: Jobete writers take the most prizes – a total of 13 – presented by performing rights society BMI at its annual awards dinner. Holland/Dozier/Holland win six citations, while Eddie Holland earns another two for songs written with Norman Whitfield. The event is held at New York’s Hotel Pierre.
May 4: Martha & the Vandellas play the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. Reeves is “a wenchy, feline creature with looks, grace and class,” comments Los Angeles Times reviewer Andrew Briggs.
The artist roster in ‘67 (and a typo)
May 11: The Supremes return to New York’s Copacabana for the third time, unveiling a new act to a capacity crowd. It runs through May 24. In the Washington Post, Carl Bernstein reviews the performance, while calling the nightclub “a musical mausoleum of another era, full of plastic pineapple trees and glass fibre citrus gardens.”
May 13: Motown has 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including Number One: “The Happening” by the Supremes. The other hits are by Martha & the Vandellas, the Temptations, the Marvelettes, Brenda Holloway, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Stevie Wonder, the Isley Brothers and Gladys Knight & the Pips. A remake by the Dave Clark Five of Marv Johnson’s “You Got What It Takes” is in the Top 10.
May 20: A riot breaks out during a show by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles in San Diego, California, and more than three dozen people are arrested. It’s reported that some 200 youths tried to crash the event, then rampaged around the area by the Community Concourse venue. Approximately 4,000 filled the auditorium for the concert, which was halted as a result of the disorder.
May 24: The Detroit Free Press notes that Florence Ballard did not perform with the Supremes at their April 29 show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Two nights earlier, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Diana Ross denied rumours that Ballard would be leaving the group.
June: Motown’s licensee in Italy, RCA, launches an Italian-language campaign for its artists. Various Hitsville acts have recorded tracks in Italian, working with RCA Italiana producer Peter Ricci; they include Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, the Supremes and the Temptations. Ricci has been to Detroit twice to supervise the recording sessions.
June 6-8: Martha & the Vandellas play Detroit’s 20 Grand nightclub for three nights, during which the shows are recorded for release as a live album later this year.
June 28: California’s Novato Advance publishes an interview with Chris Clark. “You have to be independent and you have to want to do it enough to put up with the bad side of the life of a singer,” she says of her career goals. Musicians feel free “to pretend, use their imagination, and love doing what they want to do,” she adds. Clark was signed to Motown in 1965.
July 4: Marvin Gaye wins a trophy at the Cleveland Holiday Open golf championship, held at the Seneca Golf Course. The singer “decided to enter the tournament for recreation,” according to the New Pittsburgh Courier. He and Tammi Terrell played four nights at the city’s Leo’s Casino from June 30-July 3.
July 12: With two shows tonight, Stevie Wonder takes part in the Rheingold Central Park Music Festival in New York. Also on the bill: Esther Phillips.
July 19: Martha & the Vandellas top the roster at the Swingin’ Time Revue of ’67, staged at Detroit’s Fox Theatre. Other acts include J.J. Barnes, the Dramatics, the Parliaments and Deon Jackson. MC is Robin Seymour; the show is set to run to July 25.
August: The 1966 legal action by songwriter Lorenzo Pack in Detroit against Jobete Music over alleged copyright infringement is dismissed by a federal judge. Pack had claimed that the Supremes’ hit, “Baby Love,” infringed his song, “I’m Afraid.”
August 3: Ewart Abner is appointed department head of Motown’s International Talent Management, Inc. (ITMI) division. The former VeeJay Records president joined the company in May.
A show at the 20 Grand, then the album
August 4: Cynthia (Cindy) Birdsong is signed to Motown Records. Three weeks later, she makes her first official appearance as a member of Diana Ross & the Supremes, performing at the Roostertail club during Motown’s first national sales convention in Detroit.
August 5: Suzanne dePasse, talent coordinator at New York’s Cheetah nightclub, stands in for columnist Cathy Aldridge of the Amsterdam News. “Cindy Birdsong (she’s the new singer with the Supremes) came to New York from her home in Camden, N.J., for a little pre-fall shopping,” she writes, adding, “We must have covered at least fifteen miles in one day!”
August 8: The Four Tops play Los Angeles’ Cocoanut Grove nightclub for the first time, with the shows recorded for album release. “Motown’s chief engineer was flown here,” reports Billboard, with arranger Wade Marcus and the Tops’ Lawrence Payton handling production.
August 10: The Temptations make their Copacabana debut, putting on “a dazzling dancing exhibition,” per Billboard, with “convincing imitations of the Four Freshmen, the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers.” The group “showed a middle-aged, well-heeled Copa audience why their soul records sell in the millions.” They’re booked into the New York nightspot for two weeks.
August 12: At the annual Golden Mike awards presented by the National Association of Radio and TV announcers (NATRA), the Temptations are cited as best male group and the Supremes as best female group. The event takes place in Atlanta, with Bill Cosby as master of ceremonies.
August 13: The Jackson 5 win first prize at an amateur talent contest at the Apollo Theater, New York.
August 19: While Diana Ross & the Supremes perform this weekend at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, burglars steal furs, jewels and other items belonging to Ross and Cindy Birdsong (worth an estimated $19,000) from their hotel rooms.
August 25-28: At Detroit’s Pontchartrain Hotel, Motown holds its first national sales convention, attended by distributors, one-stops, retailers and other merchants. On Monday (28), WKNR DJ Scott Regen presents the company’s latest release schedule. The convention includes performances by Diana Ross & the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Spinners, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Chris Clark and ventriloquist act Wille Tyler & Lester at the Roostertail nightclub.
August 29: Among the many new Motown albums pitched by Barney Ales’ marketing team at the sales convention is Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ Make It Happen, released on this date. Three years later, one of its tracks (“The Tears Of A Clown”) is identified by an EMI Records U.K. staffer, Karen Spreadbury, as a potential hit – and turns into just that: the biggest-selling single of the group’s career, worldwide.
August 31: Betty Kelley is reported to have quit Martha & the Vandellas, and has been replaced by Lois Reeves, Martha’s sister. The trio is due to begin a week-long engagement at New York’s Apollo Theater from tomorrow (1).
September 1: Fortune magazine features “The Motown Sound of Money,” an in-depth article about the company, including an interview with Berry Gordy. The firm’s 1967 sales are predicted to reach “as high as $30 million,” according to the magazine, up from $20 million in ’66. Sales VP Barney Ales is quoted as saying albums may account for as much as 70 percent of the company’s volume this year.
September 8: Cindy Birdsong’s first media interview since joining the Supremes appears in the Detroit Free Press. “I believe I have a lot to learn,” she confesses to Loraine Alterman. “Diana and Mary have helped me a lot.” Berry Gordy, present during the interview, says, “When she first understudied for the group, it was amazing.”
Barney Ales hosts Motown’s first national sales confab
September 30: Syndicated entertainment journalist Lee Ivory publicly criticises Motown for giving preferential treatment to mainstream media at the expense of the ethnic press. “We were writing about Motown long before the white press even knew there was such an entity,” he tells the New Pittsburgh Courier.
October: EMI Records U.K. launches “Tamla Motown Month,” running to mid-November, and coinciding with visits by Stevie Wonder and Jr. Walker. New LPs by Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops and Gladys Knight & the Pips will be the focus of promotion. The company has sold 100,000 Motown albums locally in the past three months.
October 1: Michael Roshkind is appointed vice president of Motown, Inc., based in New York. He was a partner in a local PR firm, Irving L. Strauss Associates, which took on Motown’s corporate publicity in 1966. The internal memo notes of Roshkind, “He will have full authority as Mr. Berry Gordy Jr.’s representative and special assistant on all matters, reporting directly to him.”
October 3: Diana Ross & the Supremes’ “Reflections” reaches the Top 5 of the British charts to become one of Motown’s two biggest hits there this year. The other: Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made To Love Her,” a Top 5 title in August.
October 7: Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher” tops the Billboard R&B charts. Members of Motown’s studio band play on the track, taped in Chicago and arranged by Sonny Sanders, formerly of Motown’s Satintones. Producer Carl Davis later says he paid the musicians “double scale in cash.”
October 7: Former Motown A&R director Mickey Stevenson has established his own label, Venture, in partnership with MGM Records, reports Cash Box. It will operate out of Los Angeles.
October 14: Tammi Terrell collapses on stage while performing with Marvin Gaye at the Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, and is taken to hospital. When back at home in Philadelphia, she is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour.
October 23: Jr. Walker & the All Stars (including Willie Woods, James Graves and Vic Thomas) play the Ram Jam Club in Brixton, London. A French TV documentary team films the show.
October 24-25: R. Dean Taylor records his vocals for “Gotta See Jane,” a song he co-wrote (with Eddie Holland and Ron Miller) and produced himself. When issued as a 45 in 1968 in the U.S., it is not a hit; when issued in the U.K., it reaches the Top 20.
October 28: Tony Bennett’s version of “For Once In My Life” enters the Billboard Hot 100 for a short run at the chart’s lower end. Even so, his recording helps the song to become one of the single most successful copyrights in Motown’s publishing catalogue, with more than 250 interpretations to this day.
October 31: “Honey Chile” is the first 45 release with billing by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas. Their first album with the change is Ridin’ High, issued in 1968.
November: James Graves, drummer in Jr. Walker’s All Stars, is killed in an automobile accident. The exact date and location of the crash are unknown. Graves was 26.
November 9: Berry Gordy is awarded a special plaque by the United Foundation Torch Drive in Detroit to mark his role in its latest fundraising campaign for local health and community services.
November 13: Motown releases what it calls its first-ever master purchase, “You Haven’t Seen My Love” by teenage band the Ones. The acquisition is from producer Bob Baldori’s Spirit label. The 45 is not a hit.
A chart-topping album within weeks of release
November 18: Motown has 10 titles on the latest Billboard Top LP’s chart, led by Diana Ross & the Supremes’ Greatest Hits at the peak. The other nine are releases by the Four Tops and the Temptations (two apiece), and the latest by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, as well as the seventh volume of the company’s A Collection Of 16 Original Big Hits series.
November 19: Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations are guests on CBS-TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show, performing together and separately. The groups feature a duet medley comprising “Get Ready,” “Stop! In The Name Of Love,” “My Girl,” “Baby Love” and “(I Know) I’m Losing You.”
December 3: Gladys Knight & the Pips make their U.K. concert debut at London’s Saville Theatre, having enjoyed their first British Top 20 hit with “Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me.” At home, the group’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” tops the Billboard R&B charts for the first of eight weeks.
December 4: Eddie Holland asks to be relieved of his duties as Motown’s A&R director. He was appointed to the post in May 1966.
December 8: For U.K. single release, EMI Records lifts “Walk Away Renee” from the Four Tops’ Reach Out album. It goes on to become a Top 3 hit early in 1968, and a Top 20 success in the U.S. when subsequently issued there.
December 9: The first volume of British Motown Chartbusters reaches No. 2 on the U.K. album charts, held from the summit by The Sound Of Music soundtrack. The compilation spends a total of 23 weeks in the Top 10, and kicks off a series of successful such releases.
December 11: Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, starring Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in New York City. Motown singer Barbara Randolph, who is also an actress, has a small part in the movie. Her first 45 for the firm’s Soul label, “I Got A Feeling,” came out in September.
December 23: Florence Ballard has signed with ABC Records as a solo artist, according to Billboard, with George Kerr scheduled to produce her first 45 for the label.
December 23: The Motortown Revue begins its annual year-end show at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, running through January 1. The performers are Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Chris Clark, the Contours, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, and Willie Tyler & Lester. Tickets for the evening shows are $2.50.
December 31: Songwriter Rodger Penzabene (“I Wish It Would Rain,” “I Could Never Love Another”) commits suicide in Detroit, as the result of his wife’s infidelity. He was 23.
SELECTED SINGLES (by release date)
January 11: The Supremes, “Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone,” Motown 1103 (#1 R&B, #1 pop)
January 27: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, “The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage,” Tamla 54145
February 3: Martha & the Vandellas, “Jimmy Mack,” Gordy 7058 (#1 R&B, #10 pop)
February 16: The Four Tops, “Bernadette,” Motown 1104
February 23: Chris Clark, “I Want To Go Back There Again,” V.I.P. 25041
Marvin & Tammi: united at their peak
March 9: The Contours, “It’s So Hard Being A Loser,” Gordy 7059
March 9: Brenda Holloway, “Just Look What You’ve Done,” Tamla 54148
March 16: Gladys Knight & the Pips, “Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me,” Soul 35033
March 20: The Supremes, “The Happening,” Motown 1107 (#12 R&B, #1 pop)
March 30: R. Dean Taylor, “There’s A Ghost In My House,” V.I.P. 25042
April 6: The Marvelettes, “When You’re Young And In Love,” Tamla 54150
April 13: The Temptations, “All I Need,” Gordy 7061
April 20: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Tamla 54149
May 4: The Four Tops, “7-Rooms Of Gloom,” Motown 1110
May 18: Stevie Wonder, “I Was Made To Love Her,” Tamla 54151 (#1 R&B, #2 pop)
June 12: Gladys Knight & the Pips, “Everybody Needs Love,” Soul 35034
June 13: The Temptations, “You’re My Everything,” Gordy 7063
July 24: Diana Ross & the Supremes, “Reflections,” Motown 1111
August 3: Martha & the Vandellas, “Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone,” Gordy 7062
August 17: Brenda Holloway, “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” Tamla 54155
August 22: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, “Your Precious Love,” Tamla 54156
September 14: Barbara Randolph, “I Got A Feeling,” Soul 35038
September 14: Stevie Wonder, “I’m Wondering,” Tamla 54157
No wonderin’ necessary: their greatest Motown hit
September 28: Gladys Knight & the Pips, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” Soul 35039 (#1 R&B, #2 pop)
October 5: Edwin Starr, “I Want My Baby Back,” Gordy 7066
October 12: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, “I Second That Emotion,” Tamla 54159 (#1 R&B, #4 pop)
October 25: Diana Ross & the Supremes, “In And Out Of Love,” Motown 1116
October 31: Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, “Honey Chile,” Gordy 7067
November 7: Jr. Walker & the All Stars, “Come See About Me,” Soul 35041
November 21: The Marvelettes, “My Baby Must Be A Magician,” Tamla 54158
December 21: The Temptations, “I Wish It Would Rain,” Gordy 7068 (#1 R&B, #4 pop)
December 21: Marvin Gaye, “You,” Tamla 54160
SELECTED ALBUMS (by release date)
January 23: The Supremes, The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland, Motown 650 (#1 R&B, #6 pop)
January 25: Various, A Collection Of 16 Original Hits Vol. 6, Motown 655
February 14: The Abbey Tavern Singers, We’re Off To Dublin In The Green, V.I.P. 402
March 6: The Temptations, Live!, Gordy 921 (#1 R&B, #10 pop)
March 6: The Marvelettes, The Marvelettes, Tamla 274
March 6: The Four Tops, On Broadway, Motown 657
May 22: The Supremes, The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart, Motown 659
July 17: The Temptations, With A Lot O’ Soul, Gordy 922 (#1 R&B, #7 pop)
July 17: The Four Tops, Reach Out, Motown 660
August 27: Stevie Wonder, I Was Made To Love Her, Tamla 279
August 29: Various, A Collection Of 16 Original Hits Vol. 7, Motown 661
That mighty Motown release schedule of ‘67
August 29: The Four Tops, Greatest Hits, Motown 662
August 29: Jr. Walker & the All Stars, Live, Soul 705
August 29: Gladys Knight & the Pips, Everybody Needs Love, Soul 706
August 29: The Isley Brothers, Soul On The Rocks, Tamla 275
August 29: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Make It Happen, Tamla 276
August 29: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, United, Tamla 277
August 29: Marvin Gaye, Greatest Hits Vol. 2, Tamla 278
August 29: Chris Clark, Soul Sounds, Motown 664
August 29: The Spinners, The Original Spinners, Motown 639
August 29: The San Remo Golden Strings, Hungry For Love, Gordy 923
August 29: Martha & the Vandellas, Live!, Gordy 925
November 27: Stevie Wonder, Someday At Christmas, Tamla 281
November 27: Various, A Collection Of 16 Original Hits Vol. 8, Motown 666
November 27: The Temptations, In A Mellow Mood, Gordy 924
History notes: a great many sources have enabled this and previous Motown timelines, but some deserve singling out here, including Terry Wilson’s Tamla Motown: The Stories Behind The U.K. Singles; Joel Whitburn’s Billboard and Cash Box chart books from Record Research; Laurent Bendele’s Diana Ross/Supremes website; J. Randy Taraborrelli’s Motown: Hot Wax, City Cool & Solid Gold; and the peerless liner notes of Universal Music’s The Complete Motown Singles series. Thanks to all, and not a few others (thanks, Darin).