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Motown’s conquest of Detroit and then the United States might have seemed improbable, but Berry Gordy Jr. was hardly finished. At a time when England was exporting even more improbable rock ‘n’ roll heroes, the little house on West Grand Boulevard was about to provide America’s answer.
The Beatles and the other English bands were instrumental in opening the international door for Gordy’s forces, and that door has remained wide open to this day. Hardcore British fans often exhibit more reverence for the music of Detroit than people do stateside. That means collecting the records fanatically, attending dance parties and gobbling up tickets to Motown-related performances.
“We wanted to listen to what the Beatles listened to,” says British R&B fan Keith Hughes, who has turned his four-decades-plus obsession into a comprehensive Motown database.
Two of Motown’s earliest successes, Barrett Strong’s “Money” and Marv Johnson’s “Come to Me,” were English hits, but American R&B was not widely heard or popular in the U.K. then. How did their bands discover this music?
“It was said that American merchant ships sailing to England used quantities of old records as ballast,” Hughes says. “They were unloaded and sold in Liverpool, which was then a huge port. It seems plausible.”
Motown’s own fortunes were advanced when the Beatles invited Mary Wells to open their 1964 English tour. The Mod subculture responded immediately to the sharp suits and relentless beat, and when the all-powerful BBC radio was slow on the uptake, pirate stations - broadcasting from international waters - took up the Motown cause.
The influence of this music went beyond style or commerce. According to Hughes, “the story goes that in the mid-‘60s John Lennon marched into the office of Sir Joseph Lockwood, the head of EMI. He put on a Motown 45 and demanded to know why Beatle records didn’t sound as good as that. ... Because of Motown records, he demanded more from his own, and got it.”
The 1965 “Tamla-Motown Show” that toured England has passed into legend. Starring the Supremes, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Stevie Wonder and Martha & the Vandellas, it also gave English audiences a rare opportunity to see the Funk Brothers - billed as the Earl Van Dyke Six - on stage. Despite the trek’s near-mythical status, the shows outside London were poorly attended. Nonetheless, it was like lighting a fuse. Soon Motown mania was ablaze all over Britain, and spreading throughout Europe.
“Once Motown was accepted, we adapted it in our own way,” says David Nathan. He and Dave Godin (founder of the influential Tamla-Motown Appreciation Society) started Soul City Records, the first London shop devoted exclusively to R&B, and he now runs the soulmusic.com Web site. “The classic example is ‘Tears of a Clown,’ which was rescued from an album over here and went on to become the Miracles’ biggest hit ever. ... We found our own Motown treasures that weren’t necessarily the same things you went for there.”
British fans also revitalized the careers of veteran Motown artists, says Kev Roberts, a leading DJ on the scene.
“The smartest guy of all was Edwin Starr,” he says. “He was respectful of what Motown had done for him, but he didn’t want to let the grass grow under his feet. So every time Edwin had a hole in his schedule, he’d book a tour here. Eventually he moved here permanently.”
“I can’t tell you how good it felt,” Starr said shortly before his death in 2003. “English people knew every record I’d made, who played on them, B-sides I’d forgotten all about. They knew more about me than I did. It was a level of appreciation all artists dream they might receive.”
And still do receive. Jan. 8 marked the debut of “Memories of Motown” in Berlin, a musical featuring a mix of impersonators and real stars, and written by longtime Motown staffers Al Abrams and William (Mickey) Stevenson.
“Motown is as popular in Europe today as it ever was. It has not lost its magic,” says Abrams. “It is attracting a whole new generation of admirers.”
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The 10 best-selling Motown singles in the U.K., according to the BBC:
1. “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” Stevie Wonder
2. “Hello,” Lionel Richie
3. “One Day in Your Life,” Michael Jackson
4. “Three Times a Lady,” Commodores
5. “Being with You,” Smokey Robinson
6. “All Night Long (All Night),” Lionel Richie
7. “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” Marvin Gaye
8. “Baby Love,” the Supremes
9. “I Want You Back,” Jackson 5
10. “Happy Birthday,” Stevie Wonder
