Merry Motown Christmases

REMEMBERING THOSE HAPPY HITSVILLE HOLIDAYS

If it hadn’t been for Christmas, Eddie Holland might never have made it at Motown. And if he hadn’t, how could Holland/Dozier/Holland have come together? And if they hadn’t teamed up, what would have happened to the Supremes? And if…

Welcome to this special Yuletide edition of West Grand Blog. And before going any further, let’s clarify one thing. It wasn’t so much the holiday season which connected Eddie Holland to Berry Gordy, Jr. but a song: “Christmas In Heaven,” to be precise, as recorded by Jackie Wilson.

It was circa 1957, and a teenage Holland was looking to make a career in music. A Detroit entrepreneur, Homer Jones, thought that Gordy – at the dawn of his songwriting success with Wilson – might have some material suitable for this prospective young star, and directed him accordingly..

“I knew he had these hits on Jackie,” Holland told me some years ago. “I felt, well, what better way to impress him than to sing a Jackie Wilson song?” Part of this rationale was that Wilson recorded what was vocally demanding. Holland was a fan of Mario Lanza, “because I loved the operatic thing that he would sing. I couldn’t sing as high as Mario Lanza, but I could sing the same notes as Jackie Wilson. The high C was easy for me to hit.”

So when Holland met Gordy, he figured a Wilson song would do the trick. “And that’s what happened. He was impressed. When I named ‘Christmas In Heaven,’ he looked at me and asked, ‘Is that Jackie Wilson song?’ And when he said that, I thought, ‘I got him!’ He said, ‘You can sing Jackie Wilson songs?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So when I did [sing] it, he said, ‘Wow, I’d like to manage you.’ ”

That’s but one example of what Christmas meant to Motown. On another Yuletide occasion, the Temptations recruited their charismatic new singer, David Ruffin, after firing an earlier member, Elbridge “Al” Bryant. The group was performing at Detroit’s Fox Theatre in December 1963 when Bryant’s pugnacious attitude – he had previously smashed a beer bottle into Paul Williams’ face – finally exceeded group founder Otis Williams’ tolerance. “Al” was out. (What’s not exactly clear is whether Bryant’s exit occurred after a Fox Christmas concert, or during the venue’s New Year’s Eve show, when the Temptations were on a bill with Marv Johnson, Liz Lands and Choker Campbell’s band.)

A COOL CHRISTMAS DISCOVERY

For that same Christmas of ’63, Little Stevie Wonder was thousands of miles from Detroit. December 25 was the last date of his two-week booking – for a princely $4,300 (equivalent to $143,000 today) – at the Olympia music hall in Paris, where he appeared on a multi-artist bill with Dionne Warwick and the Shirelles, among others. From the French capital, Wonder went to London, and appeared on the December 27 edition of TV’s hip Ready Steady Go!

His presence in Europe meant that he couldn’t be at the Motown Christmas party at Detroit’s Graystone Ballroom. The first of these holiday happenings had taken place three years earlier at the Hitsville headquarters, which Gordy later remembered in To Be Loved as being the first time he encountered Marvin Gaye. “Berry, you’ve got to hear this guy, he’s great,” his sister Gwen advised him. “Not now, not tonight,” the boss replied. “This is our Christmas party.” And yet…

Gaye was at the piano in the basement studio, amid the festivities, looking cool, playing jazzy chords, and singing. “His voice was pure, mellow, soulful and honest,” wrote Gordy. “I loved it, and now it was my turn to be cool. I knew right then that I wanted to work with this man.”

***Diana Ross and Berry Gordy, Sr., celebrating Christmas ‘64 at the Graystone***

In 1964, an overseas visitor to 2648 West Grand found another Christmas shindig just as memorable. He was Clive Stone, a member of Britain’s Tamla Motown Appreciation Society who had previously made himself known to artists and musicians when they crossed the Atlantic. The account of his trip that December was the cover story of Hitsville U.S.A., the club’s relaunched fanzine. “The evening was present-giving at Hitsville,” he recalled, adding that the role of Santa Claus was taken by Berry Gordy Sr. “To see so many people in complete unity and to feel the warm genuine happiness that radiated the room was wonderful.”

Another holiday hit was Motown’s annual concert series at the Fox Theatre. The first took place in 1964, running from Christmas Day to New Year’s Eve and featuring the Miracles, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Marvelettes, the Headliners, Tommy Good and Willie Tyler & Lester. “This sold-out engagement with four shows a day was a chance for the local kids to see their hometown heroes in action,” wrote Gordy in his memoir. “As usual, the lineup could change from show to show, depending on the audience reaction.” The 1965 bill featured headliner Gaye (until he was sidelined by bronchitis, when the Miracles stepped in), Wonder, the Temptations, Jr. Walker & the All Stars and Martha & the Vandellas, all backed by Earl Van Dyke’s crew, plus debuts by Chris Clark and Tammi Terrell.

And so the series continued for several more years, including a ’68 sequence which sealed a new box-office record for the 5,000-seat Fox: $157,600 (worth more than $1 million today) in ticket sales. Booked for that eight-day run were Wonder, the Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Blinky, the Originals and Bobby Taylor, plus, once again, Willie Tyler & Lester. Tickets for the matinee performances were $2, for the evening $3.

If Christmas was an opportunity to ramp up concert revenues, it was also exploited on record – even though Motown’s initial Yule singles were a couple of anomalies: the Twistin’ Kings’ mostly-instrumental “Xmas Twist” in 1961, and the Miracles’ “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)” in 1963. The latter was reportedly set for commercial release, but ended up only as a promotional 45.

THAT BLACK TOY POODLE

Christmas With The Miracles was the company’s first seasonal long-player, a ten-song set issued on October 19, 1963, with one Robinson original (“Christmas Everyday”) and nine standards. “The album ranges in mood from the quiet reverence of the holiday’s original significance,” announced the sleeve notes, “to the festive, joyful exuberance with which we often greet it.”

The sleeve had one other asset: an endearing front-cover shot of the Miracles (minus Pete Moore, then drafted into the U.S. Army) in front of a fireplace, complete with Christmas stockings. The photo was taken at the home of Motown’s then-head of sales, Barney Ales and wife Mitzi. “Well, we were the only ones with a fireplace,” he told me. “Mitzi had them sitting on the hearth, all together. We had a black toy poodle called Suzette that sat on Claudette’s lap. It was the first dog that my wife and I had.”

For all the album’s charm, it’s not one of Motown’s most enduring holiday offerings. That kudos undoubtedly belongs to the Supremes’ Merry Christmas, released in November 1, 1965 as they were en route to becoming the most popular female group of the rock & roll century. The LP contained 12 tracks, mostly seasonal standards, but among the newbies were “My Christmas Tree,” written by Jimmy Webb (signed to Jobete at the time), and “Children’s Christmas Song,” co-authored by Harvey Fuqua, who also produced the Supremes’ vocal sessions for the album.

Merry Christmas was a commercial success, reaching the Top 10 of the Billboard holiday charts in the year of release, and selling again in subsequent years. It’s also been popular as a reissue, on vinyl (in 1978) and compact disc. The 1999 CD featured additional tracks, while the 2017 edition was considerably expanded – not least with detailed liners and track-by-track data – into a generous two-disc package.

About the original album, Mary Wilson was quoted in the ’99 reissue’s liner notes as saying, “We were all ecstatic. Christmas is the best time of year! Of course, being females, the first thing we thought about was what kind of photos we would use, and what we would wear.”

In terms of influence and longevity, the title track of Stevie Wonder’s 1967 Someday At Christmas album also stands tall. The song was written by Ron Miller and Bryan Wells; there are three new versions this season alone. One is by “Have You Ever?” hitmaker Brandy, who was recently signed to Motown Records; another is by Gregory Porter on his Christmas Wish album (which also has his take on Marvin Gaye’s “Purple Snowflakes”); the third is a reggae rendering by Nadine Sutherland.

A SINGING SANTA

Previous remakes of “Someday At Christmas” include those by Lizzo, Joy Denalane, Rascal Flatts, LeAnn Rimes, Pearl Jam, Justin Bieber and, of course, Motown’s Temptations and the Jackson 5. Diana Ross chose the song for her 1994 album, A Very Special Season, while Wonder himself employed it in 2015 for an Apple TV commercial, duetting with Andra Day. He also guests on a new version – by Cher – of another Someday At Christmas original, “What Christmas Means To Me.”

As Berry Gordy’s business was gifted with success in the 1960s and beyond, it unwrapped more seasonal albums: a second by the Miracles, two by the Temptations, and one by the Jackson 5. Still more of its stars cut Christmas material, including Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops and Kim Weston. One particular 2LP compilation, A Motown Christmas, topped Billboard’s Yuletide charts in 1973; it was later reissued on compact disc.

And Motown’s most engaging holiday idea? Recruiting a cross-section of its artists to record “season’s greetings” messages for use by radio and other media. These were taped over a period of years by the likes of the Supremes, the Miracles, Martha & the Vandellas, Jr. Walker, the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Jackson 5, Edwin Starr, the Elgins, the Velvelettes, Shorty Long, the Spinners, Willie Hutch, Thelma Houston and the Commodores. Perhaps the jolliest was done by Eddie Kendricks: “Ho! Ho! Ho!” he declared, merrily. “This is your singing Santa, wishing you the best Christmas ever and good vibrations for the coming year.”

If only Eddie Holland had voiced one, too, recalling his own heavenly Christmas moment.

Music notes: what’s Christmas without a playlist? So here’s one to accompany the tales told above, beginning with Cher and Stevie Wonder from this year, and ending with Jackie Wilson, fronting Billy Ward & the Dominoes, from 1953. Among the other tracks are Marvin Gaye’s “live” version of “The Christmas Song,” recorded at New York’s Apollo in 1963, and the Temptations’ “Everything For Christmas” from 1980. The latter was written by Berry Gordy, Jr. with Teddy Randazzo, a pairing about which little, if anything, is known. Except to the boss himself, of course. Merry Christmas, Mr. Chairman.