Happy 50th, Motown!

Here we are, working all day long, worrying about deadlines and fact-checking and such, and we didn't even know until around 4:30 p.m. that today is Motown's 50th birthday! Thank goodness for Reuters, which tipped us off to the news with a look-back at the influential soul-music empire. (Coincidentally, an obscurish soul 45 we recently purchased on eBay, albeit not one that was released on Motown or it's affiliated Tamla/Gordy labels, arrived on our desk today. It must have been in the cards!)

Things we learned from the Reuters article: Motown's founder, Berry Gordy, started the label with an $800 family loan and initially ran it out of a two-story house. "He often likened his method of grooming black talent to an automobile assembly line that transformed plain metal frames into gleaming motorcars." Also, "Motown chroniclers believe Gordy's decision to move Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles in the late 1960s alienated some artists and weakened the company. Many of its stars inevitably went their own way and radical changes to the music industry eventually led to the company's takeover. Gordy sold Motown on June 28, 1988, for $61 million."

Apparently, Motown has plans for a year-long celebration including record releases, documentaries and exhibitions, and there's been some chatter of a 2010 Broadway musical. In the meantime, YouTube has some killer footage of one of our favorite Motown recording artists, Martha & the Vandellas. Enjoy the classic track above!