An organization chart was beginning to emerge. Sister, Esther Gordy, was given the role of controlling finance. Another sister, Loucye controlled “pressing plant” shipping and billing. Raynoma and her brother Mike Ossman controlled publishing and Berry was the salesman. He had to persuade black radio disc jockeys to play their songs. Without airplay, the 45’s had no chance. 

Most of the band which A&R man Mickey selected for the “Come To Me” session were also enrolled and played under the leadership of Joe Hunter.

Berry regarded the core of Hunter’s band to be James Jamerson and William “Benny” Benjamin. Jamerson was a genius on the bass and a great improviser. Benjamin’s drumming fitted in perfectly with the bass to the extent that he was like a metronome. 

Also in the band were guitarists Larry Veeder, saxophonists Hank Cosby and Mike Terry. Other significant musicians in the early days were Richard “Popcorn” Wylie, Thomas “Beans” Bowles, Eddie Willis, Robert White and many more. 

The vital task of arranging songs was now transferring from Raynoma to Sonny Sanders and sound engineering was overseen by Robert Bateman and Brian Holland.  

Backing singer Louvain Demps would soon be joined by Judith Barrow and Jackie Hicks to form the Andantes. A legendary trio who would eventually feature on many thousands of Motown tracks. 

Many record companies found it to be good policy to vary releases between labels so Berry introduced the Motown imprint that September. The song first was to be “Bad Girl” by The Miracles which I assume must have been sitting in the can, having been recorded at United Sound Systems.  

Motown took the song to United Artists in the hope of a national release but they rejected it due to a previous flop. Chess took an interest however and released it on #1734a, but it went nowhere. 

Two more Motown releases followed towards the end of 1959; ”My Beloved” by The Satintones and “You Never Miss A Good Thing” by early Rayber signing Eugene Remus. Both were nice songs but failed to achieve anything. 

Gordy was frustrated. These so-called failures were sapping up the cash.

If those were frustrating then the failure of The Miracles “Way Over There” must have been really hard to take. Released on Tamla at the beginning of the new decade, it was a travesty that this failed to sell beyond Detroit. The team even went back to the drawing board with it and added strings but it was only after a third release in 1962 that this classic song scratched it’s way into the back end of the Top 100.

The song was also significant in that it was Tamla’s first attempt at organizing a 45 for national distribution. They packaged a copy to all the major disc jockeys in the country plus Chess distributors and also placed a quality ad in Cashbox. But they had much to learn on this subject. 

Gordy found it difficult to accept the quality of sound emerging from his studio after working in some of the best in the country in New York. He was constantly analyzing and criticizing the sound.

So he sought out someone who could look into the technical aspects of their recording equipment and methods.

He got lucky again when technical whiz-kid Mike McLean applied for the job.

With no traces of recordings made in the months of May and June, that could be when his employment kicked in. Gordy later referred to Mike as a technical genius.

music : "Hold Me Tight" - Eugene Remus (Motown1001b)

Continued