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Johnnie Mae Matthews
Johnnie Mae Matthews (December 31, 1922 – January 6, 2002) was an American blues and R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer from Bessemer, Alabama. Known as the "Godmother of Detroit Soul" and as the first African American female to own and operate her own record label (Northern Recording Company) she was an early influence on the careers of many of the now-famous recording stars who began their careers in Detroit, Michigan such as Otis Williams, David Ruffin, and Richard Street of the Temptations, Jimmy Ruffin, Joe Hunter of the Funk Brothers Band, Richard Wylie, Norman Whitfield, Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, Timmy Shaw, Barbara Lewis, Bettye LaVette and many more. Early life and career Johnnie Mae Matthews was born December 31, 1922, in Bessemer, Alabama. She learned to sing in her church choir, and also performed with her mother at military bases throughout the Deep South. When she was twelve years old, the family relocated to New Jersey, and in 1947 Matt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bessemer, Alabama
Bessemer is a southwestern suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. The population was 26,019 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is within the Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama, Hoover, AL Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama, Metropolitan Statistical Area, of which Jefferson County is the center. It developed rapidly as an industrial city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 2019, it was named Alabama's "Worst City to Live in" by 24/7 Wall Street. History The town was founded in the Reconstruction Era, postbellum era by the Bessemer Land and Improvement Company, named after Henry Bessemer and owned by coal magnate Henry F. DeBardeleben. He had inherited Daniel Pratt (industrialist), Daniel Pratt's investments. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Whitfield
Norman Jesse Whitfield (May 12, 1940 – September 16, 2008) was an American songwriter and producer, who worked with Berry Gordy's Motown labels during the 1960s. allmusic Biography/ref> He has been credited as one of the creators of the Motown Sound and of the late-1960s subgenre of psychedelic soul. During his 25-year career, Whitfield co-wrote and produced many enduring hits for Motown artists, including " Ain't Too Proud to Beg",Ain't Too Proud to Beg - The Temptations , AllMusic - Song Review by Ed Hogan "", " [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uriel Jones
Uriel Jones (June 13, 1934 – March 24, 2009) was an American musician. Jones was a recording session drummer for Motown's in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Biography Jones was first hired by Motown as a fill-in for principal drummer Benny Benjamin; along with Richard "Pistol" Allen, he moved up the line as recordings increased and Benjamin's health deteriorated. Hits that Jones played drums on include "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - both versions, by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell in 1967 and the 1970 remake by Diana Ross, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Ain't That Peculiar" by Marvin Gaye, " Cloud Nine" (in which he was augmented by Spider Webb), "I Can't Get Next to You", and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by the Temptations, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin, Jr. Walker's "Home Cookin'," "The Tracks of My Tears" and "I Second That Emotion" by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and "For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wonder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Willis
Eddie "Chank" Willis (June 3, 1936 – August 20, 2018) was an American soul musician. Willis played electric guitar and occasional electric sitar for Motown's in-house studio band, The Funk Brothers, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Career Born in Grenada, Mississippi, Willis was known for his signature style of muted guitar riffs which added a distinctive tone or "color" to the beat, often timed with the snare, of the hundreds of hit songs recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. for Motown artists. Among the recordings Willis performed on are "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes, " The Way You Do the Things You Do" by The Temptations, " You Keep Me Hanging On" by The Supremes, and "I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder. Influences for Willis included Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery, and Albert King. He played a Gibson Firebird guitar on most of his early 1960s work, later moving on to use a Gibson ES-335. On recordings such as The Supremes' "No Matter What Sign You Are", Willis per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Jamerson
James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As a session musician he played on twenty-three ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one hits, as well as fifty-six R&B number-one hits. In its special issue "The 100 Greatest Bass Players" in 2017, '' Bass Player'' magazine ranked Jamerson number one and the most influential bass guitarist. In 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked Jamerson number one in its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time. Early life A native of Edisto Island, South Carolina, he was born to James Jamerson Sr. and Elizabeth Bacon. He was raised in part by his grandmother who played piano, and his aunt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atco Records
ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the company was relaunched by Atlantic Records in early 2020. History 1950s–1960s: Beginnings ATCO Records was devised as an outlet for productions by one of Atlantic Records' founders, Herb Abramson, who had returned to the company from military service. The label was also intended as a home for acts that did not fit the format of the main Atlantic brand, which was releasing blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and soul. The ATCO name is an abbreviation of ATlantic COrporation. ATCO also provided distribution for other labels, including RSO, Volt, Island, Modern, Ruthless, Hansa and Rolling Stones. For most of its history, ATCO was known for pop and rock music, but during its early years, it produced some jazz albums. These included Harry Arnold ... [...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", " Two Lovers", and the 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 Mary Esther Wells was born near Detroit's Wayne State University on May 13, 1943, to a mother who worked as a domestic, and an absentee father. One of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bad Girl (The Miracles Song)
"Bad Girl" is a 1959 doo-wop single by The Miracles. Issued locally on the Motown Records label, it was licensed to and issued nationally by Chess Records because the fledgling Motown Record Corporation did not, at that time, have national distribution. It was the first single released (and the only one released by this group) on the Motown label – all previous singles from the company (and all following ones from the group) were released on Motown's Tamla label. Although The Miracles had charted regionally and on the R&B charts with several earlier songs, including "Got a Job", "I Cry", "I Need a Change", and "(You Can) Depend on Me", "Bad Girl" was their first ''national'' chart hit, reaching #93 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records' President and Founder Berry Gordy, "Bad Girl" is a sad, remorseful ballad about a young woman, whom Robinson, as the narrator, says "was so good at the start", but who later in the song " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Miracles
The Miracles (also known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965 to 1972) were an American vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and one of the most important and most influential groups in pop, rock and roll, soul and R&B music history. Referred to as Motown's "soul supergroup", the Miracles recorded 26 Top 40 Pop hits, sixteen of which reached the ''Billboard'' Top 20, seven top 10 singles, and a number one single (" The Tears of a Clown") while the Robinsons and Tarplin were members. Following the departure of Tarplin and the Robinsons, the rest of the group continued with singer Billy Griffin and managed by Martin Pichinson who helped rebuild the Miracles, they scored two final top 20 singles, " Do It Baby" and " Love Machine", a second No. 1 hit, which topped the charts before the group departed for Columbia Records in 1977, recording as a quintet with Billy's brother Donald Griffin replacing Marv Tarplin, wher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records. Established and run by two Jewish immigrant brothers from what was then Poland, Leonard and Phil Chess, the company produced and released many singles and albums regarded as central to the rock music canon. The musician and critic Cub Koda described Chess as "America's greatest blues label". Chess was based at several locations on the south side of Chicago, initially at South Cottage Grove Ave. The most famous was 2120 S. Michigan Avenue, from May 1957 to 1965, immortalized by the Rolling Stones in "2120 South Michigan Avenue", an instrum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WMKM
WMKM (1440 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Inkster, Michigan, and serving the Detroit metropolitan area. Owned by Timothy Gallagher, through licensee Great Lakes Radio—Detroit, LLC, the station airs an Urban Gospel radio format branded as Gospel 1440 AM. The radio studios and offices are on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit. WMKM broadcasts with 1,000 watts of power using two different directional signal patterns for day and night. Its six-tower array is located near Ecorse and Merriman Roads in Romulus, Michigan. History From 1956 to 1990, the 1440 spot on the AM dial was the home of WCHB. It was the Detroit area's first radio station to be built from the ground up by, and programmed one hundred per cent to, African-Americans. WCHB played a soul music format through the 1960s and 70s. In the late 1970s, the station called itself "Detroit's original disco music station". In February 1990, WCHB abandoned 1440 for the 1200 kHz frequency licensed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by Delaware Bay and the state of Delaware. At , New Jersey is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, fifth-smallest state in land area; but with close to 9.3 million residents, it ranks List of U.S. states and territories by population, 11th in population and List of U.S. states and territories by population density, first in population density. The state capital is Trenton, New Jersey, Trenton, and the most populous city is Newark, New Jersey, Newark. With the exception of Warren County, New Jersey, Warren County, all of the state's 21 counties lie within the combined statistical areas of New York City or Delaw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
