Gradually putting
Brunswick behind him, Gordy released four Tamla
45’s in that same time frame, April through
June.
Chico Leverette’s
“Solid Sender”, and the Satintones (which
included Chico) “Motor City” being best of the
bunch. “It” by Ron & Bill also got a release on
Chess Records, Argo subsidiary.
The United Artist
deals were providing some badly needed cash,
enough in fact to buy a volkswagon van and give
some of the staff pay rises. Gordy’s developing
operation now had it’s own transport to take
Marv and the rest of the entourage to New York,
Washington, Philadelphia and Chicago.
And there were
still other Gordy non-Motown releases in the
first half of ’59. They included Big John’s
Swing Caravan-“Tossing My Heart Around” (JFJ)/Bryan
Brent & The Cutouts-“Vacation Time” (Penny)/CuteTeens
(who included Raynoma)-“When My Teenage Days Are
Over” (Aladdin)/The Voicemasters-“Oops I’m
Sorry” (Anna)/Hill Sisters-“Hit And Run Away
Love”(Anna) and a couple of flip sides by
Frances Burnett on Coral.
The need for their
own studio was now looming large and when
Raynoma gave birth to a son, Kerry, on 25th
June, the decision was taken out of their hands.
Not only would they save money by owning their
own studio, bigger premises would better house
their expanding family. There was however one
slight hitch, they were both awaiting divorce
and would have to wait to the following spring
before they could get married in Toledo, Ohio.
So, several weeks
after the birth, Raynoma set out to find a
suitable property and came up with a
photographers studio in the heart of the city,
on West Grand Boulevard.
It fitted the spec;
large front window, garage at the rear, living
quarters upstairs and nursery facilities with a
playground, across the road. It was also in a
nice neighborhood.
When they moved in,
Pops Gordy gave the premises an overhaul. He
converted a room at the back of the buiding into
a control room and opened up the wall to provide
access to the garage which would now become the
studio. The studio was lined with old green
velvet curtains which had formerly hung in a
theatre and Bristoe Bryant agreed to sell an old
piano and a two track recorder At the main
entrance, a reception area was created.
Finally the signage
went up……. HITSVILLE USA.
Berry appointed a
girl called Janie Bradford to the receptionist’s
post. He had worked with her on one of the Kudo
songs, so for her songwriting skills alone it
made a lot of sense.
Within a couple of
days Janie had helped her boss finish a song
about his pet subject, “Money” and Barrett
Strong, who had helped play the piano during the
latter stages of the writing process, found
himself being allocated the song.
There was a certain
charm about the recording due to the fact that
Barrett, the band and the backing singers are
all on the same small floor giving the song a
raw feeling.
When the 45 got
pressed that same week, Berry gave the it a high
catalogue number to give the impression that
Tamla was well established.
The song became big
in Detroit Washington and Cleveland, but Gordy
needed national distribution. His sister Gwen
came up with the idea of releasing the song on
her new label Anna which had recently acquired a
new national distribution deal with Chess.
“Money” must have
been one of the studio’s first recordings, yet
it peaked at #2 R&B and #23 Pop. This was an
incredible start to life at 2648 West Grand
Boulevard.
However, although
leasing the song to Anna seemed to work well,
Berry was still dissatisfied as he was well down
the pecking order when it came to getting paid.
After two years in business, cash flow remained
a problem.
music : "Money" - Barrett Strong (Tamla54027a)
Continued
