Radio 2 Celebrates Motown's 60th Anniversary

[rubcale]

Can't believe I've only just heard of this.

Radio 2  will be celebrating Motown's 60th Anniversary with a whole range of programmes over the coming (Bank Holiday) weekend,Friday  23rd - Monday 26th August, including:

Friday 23rd

4.00am The More Motown Magic Mixtape
The Craig Charles House Party Mixtape (30mins)
For the iconic record label's 60th birthday, Craig digs deep to find some Motown magic you'll love, but might not have heard before!

8-10pm Friday Night Is Motown Night
Friday Night is Music Night
Trevor Nelson celebrates 60 years of the Motown sound at Hackney Empire with the BBC Concert Orchestra and guest singers Tommy Blaize, Tony Momrelle, and Heather Small.

10-12midnight Sounds Of The 80s with Gary Davies
The Brand New Heavies guest on My 80s and, keeping it soulful, another chance to hear Gary's 80s Motown Mastermix, as part of Radio 2's Motown Weekend, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Motown.

Saturday 24th

3.00-400am The King Of Motown - Berry Gordy
Marshall Chess tells the story of Berry Gordon and the Motown "family". The documentary was first broadcast in January 2008.

9-10pm
Motown At The BBC
Tony Blackburn presents the first of 2 shows celebrating Motown at the BBC. Featuring unique archive performances from Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and The Pips, and The Four Tops.

Sunday 25th

2.00 - 3.00am Stevie Wonder recorded live in concert for Radio 2. (rpt from 2006)

3.00-4.00am
Motown On The Mersey.
Another chance to hear Craig Charles celebrate the heyday of Liverpool's Mardi Gras club. (rpt 2007)

3.00-5.00pm
Sounds Of The 70s with Johnnie Walker
It's a Motown special and Johnnie speaks to former Motown plugger John Reid, who went on to manage Elton John.

9.00-10pm
Motown At The BBC (pt2)
Tony Blackburn presents the second of 2 shows celebrating Motown at the BBC. Including a recently rediscovered Radio 1 session from Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Monday 26th

12.00-3.00pm
Motown Top 100 Countdown with Craig Charles
Craig Charles starts Top 100 Countdown to celebrate Motown's 60th year, with the writers, producers and artists involved talking about Hitsville USA and the classic sounds.

3.00-6.00pm
Motown Top 100 Countdown continies with Trevor Nelson
Trevor Nelson continues the Motown Top 100 Countdown to celebrate the label group's 60th year, with the writers, producers and artists involved talking about Hitsville USA.

6.00-8.00pm
Motown Covered with Ken Bruce
Ken Bruce brings you the best of today’s artists performing Motown tracks, live from the Piano Room. Plus famous names pick their favourite Motown songs in Tracks Of My Years.

8.00-9.00pm
Motown Loves Northern Soul
Richard Searling highlights the foundations of Northern Soul and connections with Motown.

Particularly looking forward to Tony Blackburn's Saturday night slot and of course the Top 100 Countdown from noon - 1800hrs on Monday.

I'm hoping they don't include streams but am not holding out much hope.

Surely too it will be UK sales.

We've had an emergency re-arrangement of our plans for Monday!

[smokeyb]

You can always catch up using the BBC I player radio app, I use it all the time.

[rubcale]

Just a quirk but prefer to listen to it "live"!

[TheThorne]

Aug 22, 2019 18:07:28 GMT 1 rubcale said:

I'm hoping they don't include streams but am not holding out much hope.

Streams and downloads are included so expect all those songs that get played or covered on X Factor or Glee to be very high.

[Mic1812]

Wouldnt know what the best selling motown song was. maybe Stevie Wonder with Superstition.

[rubcale]

Aug 24, 2019 18:45:23 GMT 1 Mic1812 said:

Wouldnt know what the best selling motown song was. maybe Stevie Wonder with Superstition.

Unless Streaming has completely messed it up probably still Stevie's (awful) I Just Called To Say I Love You.

Jackson 5, Michael J, Stevie and Temptations will all have many gains.

The only Supremes record to increase significantly will be You Can't Hurry Love and in the case of Diana Ross I'm Coming Out and the Richie Endless Love duet.

[rubcale]

This sucks.

If I'm reading the publicity right it appears that this is based on Downloads and Streams.

Are they now trying to pretend that physical sales never existed?!

Pah.

[raliverpool]

Aug 25, 2019 16:08:34 GMT 1 rubcale said:

This sucks.

If I'm reading the publicity right it appears that this is based on Downloads and Streams.

Are they now trying to pretend that physical sales never existed?!

Pah.

Well it makes perfect sense.

After all Berry Gordy's Motown record label whole concept was about making money for the label with the artists getting majorly financially mugged. (Hence why a lot of the best artists subsequently left the label to get better deals).

Hence it is the perfect label to do that exercise on. As all musicians, and songwriters earn less money from streaming than they ever did from physical sale formats. (Example: In 2017 Stevie Wonder claimed he now earns 37% per "equivalent sales unit" of what he previously earned from physical sales).

[Shireblogger]

I may be on my own here, but I'm delighted it is a digital-only list.

If they'd tried to prepare a list based on physical sales, it would be so error strewn, it would be worthless. Motown themselves wouldn't have a clue as to what single sold how many copies in the UK, given that they didn't have their own distribution for most of their history. And we all know how useless the OCC is when it comes to anything from before 1994.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the Top 100.

As the OCC has already revealed a few of the entries on the list, it is possible to make a couple of further observations beyond what is already on the OCC's website:-

- the #27 single (Santa Claus Is Coming To Town) has about 220,000 digital "chart sales";
- the #65 single has around 100,000 digital "chart sales";
- as the #96 single has never made the weekly Top 200, even at Christmas, its digital "chart sales" are unlikely to be much higher than 50,000.

[Shireblogger]

Aug 26, 2019 13:42:32 GMT 1 Shireblogger said:

As the OCC has already revealed a few of the entries on the list, it is possible to make a couple of further observations beyond what is already on the OCC's website:-

- the #27 single (Santa Claus Is Coming To Town) has about 220,000 digital "chart sales";
- the #65 single has around 100,000 digital "chart sales";
- as the #96 single has never made the weekly Top 200, even at Christmas, its digital "chart sales" are unlikely to be much higher than 50,000.

OCC has posted actual figures:

#27 = 217,000
#65 = 104,000
#96 = 64,000

My estimates weren't far off.

[rubcale]

With Endless Love at #25 I'd worked out that Upside Down had surely passed the 200k mark so must be in the region of 600k+ now although it isn't eligible for a Siver Disc.

With #65 on around 100k if circumstances remain the same it will be a long time before any further Supremes or Diana Ross record will get a certifiction.

The one big surprise for me was The Contour's Do You Love Me at #29 - never even on the radar.

I still feel cheated. If they could produce figures for physical sales in 2008 (albeit that many think they were prone to lots of errors) then they could have compiled a full sales list now.

Still it's such a joyous, infectious record that hearing You Can't Hurry Love on the radio always makes ne feel good for a day or two.

[Shireblogger]

We seem to have two threads on this subject.

In the other one I have posted an all-time Motown Top 150 which combines physical and digital sales.

MOTOWN ALL-TIME TOP 150

[vastar iner]

I listened to the ten part documentary on Radio 2, a repeat of one from 1984ish.

What I found fascinating was that the first half was utterly brilliant. Every song was outstanding, even the non-hits, worth listening to again and again and again.

And after about 1974 it all turned to ratshit. Instead of perfect pop or dark social realism, we had dull, mainstream, saccharine/lachrymose balladry that I was fast-forwarding repeatedly. The nadir might have been when Rick James was being presented as a bright new sound of funk, doing a pale imitation of what Parliament and Sly Stone had been doing a decade before, and, even at its best, close to unlistenable. Only Stevie Wonder was doing interesting stuff in the seventies and even that was vanishing. By the last programme I was hardly listening to anything.

In a sense Motown grew up with its audience - and forgot how to create anything exciting.

It's interesting to compare the Motown Chartbusters of 1985 from volume 1...

Mary Wells - My Guy
Diana Ross And The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go
Diana Ross And The Supremes - Baby Love
Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run
Diana Ross And The Supremes - Stop! In The Name Of Love
Stevie Wonder - Uptight (Everything's Alright)
Four Tops - Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever
The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud To Beg
Jr Walker And The All Stars - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
Diana Ross And The Supremes - You Can't Hurry Love
Four Tops - Reach Out I'll Be There
The Temptations - Beauty Is Only Skin Deep
Jimmy Ruffin - What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
Diana Ross And The Supremes - You Keep Me Hangin' On
Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - I'm Ready For Love
The Temptations - (I Know) I'm Losing You
Stevie Wonder - A Place In The Sun
Four Tops - Standing In The Shadows Of Love
Marvin Gaye And Kim Weston - It Takes Two
Diana Ross And The Supremes - Love Is Here And Now You're Gone

...to volume 8...

Diana Ross - Upside Down
Teena Marie - Behind The Groove
Diana Ross - My Old Piano
Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out
Smokey Robinson - Being With You
Diana Ross - It's My Turn
Michael Jackson - One Day In Your Life
Charlene - I've Never Been To Me
Diana Ross & Lionel Richie - Endless Love
Mary Jane Girls - All Night Long
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
Michael Jackson - Farewell My Summer Love
The Dazz Band - Let It All Blow
The Temptations - Treat Her Like A Lady
Commodores - Nightshift
DeBarge - Rhythm Of The Night

[Whitneyfan]

I love most of the songs in that second list!

[lewis17]

So do I ~ love most of those on the first list, too!

[rubcale]

They're all brilliant!