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Motown on UK TV

Hitsville UK 1957 - 1965

Motown wasn't The Supremes, it wasn't The Temptations, it wasn't The Four Tops, it was Berry Gordy Jr, and at 93 years old at time of writing it still is, despite the fact that he sold the company nearly forty years' ago.

Gordy got started as a songwriter in Detroit in the mid-fifties with his first recorded songs appearing in 1957 sung by relative unknowns, but they also reached Jackie Wilson who went on to record many songs written, or co-written by Gordy. The first likely airing of a Berry Gordy song on UK TV airwaves was 19th November 1957 on Associated-Rediffusion's weekly dance show Cool For Cats where Jackie Wilson's Reet Petite was a featured record, alongside others by Perry Como, Elvis Presley and R&B legend Billy Ward, whose previous group Billy Ward & The Dominoes had coincidently also featured Wilson.

In 1958 the Gordy written To Be Loved, originally recorded by Jackie Wilson, had found itself the target of several cover versions in the UK. Dance band legend Victor Sylvester had cut To Be Loved - Slow Foxtrot for HMV, while Malcolm Vaughan recorded a version for Columbia, and it's his version that was performed on ATV's The Jack Jackson Show 12th April 1958, while another version by Valerie Kleiner was performed on ABC's Top Numbers on 20th April 1958.

Gordy established Tamla Records in 1959 and he would now rightly concentrate his efforts on his own roster of singers and writers, despite sometimes having to licence the songs out to larger labels like Chess, United Artists and End. Due to its independent nature he would also have to start looking for international distribution deals, one of which would be with London Records in the UK. This new label venture meant having to bypass Jackie Wilson, signed to Chicago's Brunswick label. Wilson, by the way, came close to appearing on Jack Good's Oh Boy on 23rd May 1959, but had to cancel his UK visit.

Into the sixties and singing trio The Lana Sisters, featuring the soon-to-be Dusty Springfield, record a cover of Marv Johnson's UK hit You've Got What It Takes as the B side to My Mother's Eyes, singing it on Cool For Cats on 1st February 1960. Johnson himself, despite his UK success with this song and a couple of others, appears not to have visited the UK at the time. 1960 would also bring another UK cover, this time by Philips recording star Ronnie Carroll whose attempt at Sam Cooke's Chain Gang was coupled with Gordy's (You've Got To) Move Two Mountains. While he appeared on the 11th October 1960 edition of Cool For Cats plugging the A side, there's no record of him performing Gordy's song, but since he was such an in-demand voice on British TV at the time it can't be ruled out. However The Mudlarks' cover of Move Two Mountains on Columbia saw them performing the song on the 4th October 1960 edition of Cool For Cats. At around the same time Oh Boy's resident organist Cherry Wainer appears to be the first act in the UK to tackle the classic Money (That's What I Want), written by Barrett Strong and Berry Gordy, but there's no definite sighting on TV. Similarly Emile Ford & The Checkmates EP cover of I'll Be Satisfied probably never made it to TV. No-one in the UK would have joined the dots that all these songs were the work of the same man and that his company would become the most influential record company in the sixties.

Although things were picking up in the USA with their first major pop hits Money (That's What I Want), Shop Around and Please Mister Postman, nothing was happening in the UK. Tamla and its new sister label, Motown had moved its catalogue from London Records in the UK to Fontana to no real effect. However, through paid-for plugs on Radio Luxembourg the songs were reaching the UK airwaves, and bands up and down the country joined the queue to cover them, but it was unlikely that these songs, now rightly regarded as classics, made their way to UK TV through cover versions.

By 1962 Gordy's Tamla/Motown empire had moved another rung down in the UK, with the catalogue now being released by the smaller, independent Oriole label. But people in Britain were now beginning to latch on to names on the label, Tamla, Motown, Gordy, Holland, Robinson. Bands like Freddie & The Dreamers, The Searchers and Brian Poole and The Tremeloes were now making up for lost time by covering these previously neglected classics.

Thankfully, the Cavalry were just over the horizon in Kingsway, London. Ready Steady Go would be Motown's best mate in the UK. The first edition of the show on 9th August 1963 had Brian Poole & The Tremeloes perform Do You Love Me which would take them to number one, with The Dave Clark Five plugging their version on Thank Your Lucky Stars on 5th October 1963 and on The Five O'Clock Club on 8th October 1963, while on Christmas Eve the same song would be heard performed by Faron's Flaminos in the Mersey special Beat City on Associated-Rediffusion. On the 26th October 1963 edition of ABC's Thank Your Lucky Stars The Beatles' debuted their version on Money (That's What I Want), reprising the song on their fan-filled Liverpool Empire show It's The Beatles, broadcast by the BBC on 7th December 1963, the same day that Bern Elliott & The Fenmen played their version on Thank Your Lucky Stars, another show with an open-door policy for Motown songs and artists. Like a precursor to man walking on the moon, Little Stevie Wonder was the first Motown act set foot on UK soil when he appeared on Ready Steady Go, 27th December 1963. At last, they knew where we were.

In 1962 EMI in the UK created a new subsidiary label, Stateside, to handle releases from America that had previously been released by the now defunct Top Rank International, while also absorbing USA releases from other EMI labels Columbia, HMV and Parlophone. It had a fine selection of USA catalogues like Scepter, Vee Jay, Musicor, Lauie, Swan, 20th Century Fox, A&M, LeGrand among others, but by summer 1963 it was obvious that Motown had been influencing the likes of The Beatles, Cilla Black, Helen Shapiro and other acts from the EMI group of labels and maybe it was worth checking out Motown's contract with Oriole. Luck was on EMI's side as the year-long deal with Oriole was due to expire in September. A new deal was struck and Motown's first Stateside single release would be Martha & The Vandellas' Heat Wave. However, despite good sales it did little in the UK chart when first released in October 1963, while the On Stage live album featuring Gaye, The Marvelettes, The Miracles and Mary Wells, became Stateside's first Motown LP, all released under the banner of A "Tamla Motown" Production. Motown now had the clout of "The world's greatest recording organisation" on their side, and they would stay there until 1984.

It took until 1964 for Shop Around to get its due in the UK, despite the fact that the Barrett Strong original was released here by London in 1959. Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames gave it the once over on Ready Steady Go on 3rd January 1964, Marty Wilde & The Wildecats did their version on The Arthur Haynes Show the following day, while Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and Helen Shapiro also released versions that year. Little Stevie Wonder seems to have stopped over in the UK as he made an appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars on 11th January 1964, but pre-recorded the previous Sunday. Also on 11th January The Dave Clark Five performed The Contours' Do You Love Me for The Arthur Haynes Show on ATV. The following day The Beatles give Money (That's What I Want) another airing on Sunday Night At The London Palladium. After their triumphant return from America The Fabs give both Please Mister Postman and Money an airing on ABC's Big Night Out on 29th February 1964. Their Please Mister Postman also pops up on the finale of Ready Steady Go on 20th March 1964, while Cilla Black gets her tonsils around Martha & The Vandellas' Heat Wave on Rediffusion's Around The Beatles special.

So it appears that by mid 1964 the Motown song catalogue was being admirably plundered by the great and the good, from Mersey to Birmingham to London, but what Motown now needed to do was to get its own acts on our screens. Although Little Stevie Wonder's Hey Harmonica Man was featured as Ready Steady Go's new theme from 7th August 1964, under the new deal with EMI Motown promised to send acts over for promotional appearances. Plainly The Supremes were the group that was given the most attention as they were unusually given two songs on the 8th October 1964 edition of Top Of The Pops, miming to Where Did Our Love Go and Baby Love, Motown's first number one single in the UK. Ready Steady Go hosted them the following day and then it was back to the BBC appearing on Open House on the Saturday 10th October, while their long weekend was completed by an appearance on ABC's Eamonn Andrews Show late Sunday and a recording for Thank Your Lucky Stars, broadcast 17th October. Having Monday off from TV they were back on Tuesday 18th on Rediffusion's Five O'Cock Club. Mary Wells had been given a prestigious spot supporting The Beatles on UK dates and she made her debut 24th October 1964 on ABC's Thank Your Lucky Stars, and she was given Sunday 1st November off to appear on The Eamonn Andrews Show. Kim Weston was next to head for London International airport, arriving in time for her debut on Granada's Scene at 6.30 on 12th November 1964. Her Ready Steady Go appearance on 27th November 1964 saw her in the company of The Beatles who had recorded several early Motown songs, before going across London for BBC2's Open House on 28th November 1964. Marvin Gaye was next to make it over to the UK, debuting on Granada's Scene at 6.30 on 18th November 1964, followed by his performance of Can I Get A Witness on Ready Steady Go two days' later. The Miracles found their passports in time to appear on Granada's Scene at 6.30 on 2nd December 1964, while their Ready Steady Go debut would be two days' later. Following a now traditional route they next headed for BBC2's Open House on Saturday 5th December 1964. Then up to Birmingham to record a clip for ABC's Thank Your Lucky Stars on Sunday, then back to London for BBC2's Beat Room 7th December, and then on Wednesday 9th December for BBC2's Top Beat. Whoever was booking all these acts on so many shows certainly deserved their Christmas break. They'd need it since 1965 would see the label and its acts move up a notch and make that label an international brand.

1965 started off not just quiet, but silent. No Motown acts appeared on UK TV promoting their new Stateside releases. Little did we know that Motown were planning their next move. 12th March 1965 saw both Little Stevie Wonder and The Temptations appear on Ready Steady Go, with The Miracles appearing the following week. The Temptations also popped up on Thank Your Lucky Stars on 20th March 1965. The following day The Supremes made it to the Sunday Night at The London Palladium, and on to Ready Steady Go on 26th March 1965 alongside The Miracles. The reason for the sudden influx was the launch by EMI of the Tamla-Motown label. EMI had been persuaded to branch their catalogue off from Stateside and give Motown its own imprint. UK labels had been reluctant to give American labels their own full identity, London-American for example had Monument, Atlantic and Dot as shared logos on the label. To help celebrate the launch of its new UK identity many of Motown's finest found themselves back in the UK, first for a Ready Steady Go special, The Sound Of Motown, then for a poorly attended live tour. Recorded 18th March 1965 and finally broadcast by Rediffusion on Wednesday 28th April The Sound Of Motown was one the finest pop shows ever broadcast in the UK. Thankfully, it still exists and hopefully either Universal on behalf of Motown or BMG, Ready Steady Go's current owners will officially release it. Most bootleg DVDs are taken from a butchered Channel 4 repeat in the 1990s. From then on Motown was a household name. People would know what a Motown record sounded like, unlike a Decca record or a Parlophone record. DJs on offshore stations played their records, mods danced to them, and eventually the audience bought them, scoring several number one singles, and remarkably two number one albums, throughout the second half of the sixties.