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Anna Gordy
Anna Ruby Gaye (née Gordy; January 28, 1922 – January 31, 2014) was an American businesswoman, composer and songwriter. An elder sister of Motown Records, Motown founder Berry Gordy, she became a record executive in the mid-to-late 1950s distributing records released on Checker Records, Checker and Gone Records before forming the Anna Records, Anna label with Billy Davis (songwriter), Billy Davis and her sister Gwen Gordy Fuqua. Gordy later became known as a songwriter for several hits including The Originals (band), the Originals' "Baby, I'm for Real", and at least two songs on Marvin Gaye's ''What's Going On (Marvin Gaye album), What's Going On'' album. The first wife of Gaye, their turbulent marriage later served as inspiration for Gaye's 15th studio album, ''Here, My Dear''. Life and career Born Anna Ruby Gordy on January 28, 1922, in Oconee, Georgia, she was the third-eldest child of Gordy family, Berry Gordy Sr. (Berry Gordy II) and Bertha Ida (married and maiden names ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oconee, Georgia
Oconee is a city in Washington County, Georgia, Washington County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. The population was 197 in 2020. History The city's name derives from the Oconee (tribal town), Oconee, a Mikasuki language, Hitchiti-speaking tribe who inhabited central Georgia from 1692 until 1715. The Oconee lived in present-day Baldwin County, Georgia at a settlement known as Oconee Old Town, later moving to the Chattahoochee River in the early 18th century. The name exists in several variations, including Ocone, Oconi, Ocony, and Ekwoni. The city of Oconee was named after the river that bears the tribe's name. It was founded in the early 1840s, when the railroad was extended to that point. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Oconee as a town in 1876. Notable natives * Gordy family, Berry Gordy Sr. and wife, Bertha Fuller Gordy, the parents of legendary music producer and Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., left Oconee in 1922. Geography Oconee is located at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Checker Records
Checker Records is a defunct record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary of Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded Tape (GRT) in 1969, shortly before Leonard's death. The label released recordings by mostly African American artists and groups. Checker's releases cover a wide range of genres including blues ( Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II), rhythm and blues (Sax Mallard, Jimmy McCracklin), doo-wop ( The Flamingos, The Moonglows, The Students), gospel (Aretha Franklin, Five Blind Boys of Mississippi), rock and roll (Bo Diddley, Dale Hawkins), and soul ( Gene Chandler). The label was discontinued in 1971 following GRT's consolidation of the Chess catalogs. As with Cadet and Chess, the label's catalog is now owned by Universal Music Group and releases from the Checker catalog are released by Geffen Records and Chess. History Due to the rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bells (The Originals Song)
"The Bells" is a 1970 single recorded by The Originals for Motown's Soul label, produced by Marvin Gaye and co-written by Gaye, his wife Anna Gordy Gaye, Iris Gordy, and Elgie Stover. History Shortly after the release of the Originals' first hit " Baby, I'm for Real", Motown issued this similarly produced record, which was a Marvin Gaye production. Gaye had proved skeptics at the label wrong by producing a hit song for another act. Both "Baby I'm for Real" and "The Bells" set the precedent for Gaye's 1971 landmark album '' What's Going On''. Primarily functioning as background session singers at Motown during much of the 1960s, The Originals would continue to provide background vocals for Gaye until 1973. "The Bells" peaked at number 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States, and reached number four on the Hot Black Singles chart. It remains the most successful single of the group's career, the rest of which included several more Gaye-produced R&B hits and the Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Wonder is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, R&B, Pop music, pop, Soul music, soul, Gospel music, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LP record, LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Visual impairment, Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder. Wonder's s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Wells
Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part of the charge in black music onto radio stations and record shelves of mainstream America, "bridging the color lines in music at the time". With a string of hit singles composed mainly by Smokey Robinson, including "The One Who Really Loves You (song), The One Who Really Loves You", "Two Lovers (Mary Wells song), Two Lovers", and the Grammy Award, Grammy-nominated "You Beat Me to the Punch", all in 1962, plus her signature hit, "My Guy" (1964), she became recognized as "The Queen of Motown" until her departure from the company in 1964, at the height of her success. Life and career Early life and initial recordings (1943–1962) Mary Esther Wells was born near Detroit's Wayne State University on M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Tex
Yusuf Hazziez (born Joseph Arrington Jr.; August 8, 1935 – August 13, 1982), known professionally as Joe Tex, was an American singer and musician who gained success in the 1960s and 1970s with his brand of Southern soul, which mixed the styles of funk, country, gospel, and rhythm and blues. His career started after he was signed to King Records (USA), King Records in 1955 following four wins at the Apollo Theater. Between 1955 and 1964, he struggled to find hits, and by the time he finally recorded his first hit, "Hold What You've Got" in 1964, he had recorded 30 previous singles that were deemed failures on the charts. He went on to have four million-selling hits: "Hold What You've Got" (1965), "Skinny Legs and All (song), Skinny Legs and All" (1967), "I Gotcha (Joe Tex song), I Gotcha" (1972), and "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)" (1977). Tex was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame six times, most recently in 2017. Early life Joe Tex was born Joseph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Ruffin
David Eli Ruffin (born Davis Eli Ruffin;Ribowsky, p. 88 January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer most famous for his work as one of the lead singers of the Temptations (1964–1968) during the group's "Classic Five" period as it was later known. Ruffin was the lead voice on such famous songs as " My Girl" and " Ain't Too Proud to Beg." He later scored two top 10 singles as a solo artist, " My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" and " Walk Away from Love." Known for his unique raspy and anguished tenor vocals, Ruffin was ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2008 and again in 2023. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 for his work with the Temptations. Fellow Motown recording artist Marvin Gaye once said admiringly of Ruffin that, "I heard n his voicea strength my own voice lacked." Early life Ruffin was born Davis Eli Ruffin on January 18, 1941, in the rural unincorporat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Money (That's What I Want)
"Money (That's What I Want)" is a rhythm and blues song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, which was the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959 as a single for the Tamla label, distributed nationally on Anna Records. Many artists later recorded the tune, including the Beatles in 1963 and the Flying Lizards in 1979. Composition and recording The song developed out of a spontaneous recording session at the Hitsville studio A in Detroit. Berry Gordy and Barrett Strong began by improvising on piano and vocals and were joined by Benny Benjamin on drums and Brian Holland on tambourine. It is a response song to the standard The Best Things in Life Are Free. Authors Jim Cogan and William Clark only identify the guitarist and bass guitarist as "two white kids walking home from high school hoheard the music out on the street and wandered in to Hitsville ndasked if they could play along." They add, "Strong claimed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrett Strong
Barrett Strong Jr. (February 5, 1941 – January 28, 2023) was an American singer and songwriter known for his recording of "Money (That's What I Want)", which was the first hit single for the Motown record label. He is also known for his songwriting work in association with producer Norman Whitfield; together, they penned such songs as " I Heard It Through the Grapevine", " War", " Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)", and " Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". In 2004, Strong was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Whitfield. Early life Strong was born in West Point, Mississippi, on February 5, 1941, the only boy of six children born to Barrett Strong Sr., a minister. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan, when he was four years old, and his father bought him a piano soon after. Strong began singing at Hutchins Intermediate School in Detroit, where his classmates included Aretha Franklin and Lamont Dozier. Career Tamla Records and Motown Strong was among t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Married And Maiden Names
When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries and cultures that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also used as a gender-neutral or masculine substitute for maiden name), whereas a married name is a family name or surname adopted upon marriage. In some jurisdictions, changing names requires a legal process. When people marry or divorce, the legal aspects of changing names may be simplified or included, so that the new name is established as part of the legal process of marrying or divorcing. Traditionally, in the Anglophone West, women are far more likely to change their surnames upon marriage than men, but in some instances men may change their last names upon marriage as well, including same-sex couples. In this article, ''birth name'', ''family name'', ''surname'', ''married name'' and ''maiden name'' refer to patrilineal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Here, My Dear
''Here, My Dear'' is the fourteenth studio album by the American soul music, soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye, released as a double album on December 15, 1978, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records.[ allmusic - Here, My Dear overview] Recording sessions for the album took place between 1977 and 1978 at Gaye's personal studios, Marvin's Room (studio), Marvin Gaye Studios, in Los Angeles, California. The album was notable for its subject matter focusing largely on Gaye's acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye. A commercial and critical failure upon its release, it was later hailed by music critics, in the years following Gaye's Death of Marvin Gaye, death, as one of Gaye's best albums. "It's taken me a while," Anna admitted in later years, "but I've come to appreciate every form of Marvin's music." Background Marvin Gaye was going through a personal crisis in the summer of 1976. In November 1975, Gaye's estranged first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye, sued Gaye for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What's Going On (Marvin Gaye Album)
''What's Going On'' is the eleventh studio album by the American soul singer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as producer and to credit Motown's in-house session musicians, known as the Funk Brothers. ''What's Going On'' is a concept album with most of its songs segueing into the next and has been categorized as a song cycle. The narrative established by the songs is told from the point of view of a Vietnam veteran returning to his home country to witness hatred, suffering, and injustice. Gaye's introspective lyrics explore themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War. He has also been credited with promoting awareness of ecological issues before the public outcry over them had become prominent (" Mercy M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
