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2009 United Way Thanksgiving Day Halftime Show: A Motown 50th Anniversary Tribute
Category: Motown
Posted: Nov 19, 2009 at 9:14 PM

(November 5, 2009 – New York, NY) The most quintessential of American holidays, Thanksgiving, is the setting for a special celebration of a quintessentially American musical treasure: the classic songs of Motown. NFL fans will be dancing in their seats at home and at Ford Field in Detroit during the 2009 United Way Thanksgiving Day Halftime Show: A Motown 50th Anniversary Tribute. The Motown tribute will take place during halftime of the first game of the NFL’s Thanksgiving tripleheader when the Detroit Lions host the Green Bay Packers on Thursday, November 26 at 12:30 PM ET on FOX.

In Motown’s original hometown, this special halftime event features six of the brightest talents from the current roster of Universal Motown Records, performing classics from Motown’s all-American songbook.

Bringing the unforgettable songs of Motown back to the Motor City are Melanie Fiona, Kem, Shontelle, Forever The Sickest Kids, Vita Chambers, and Hal Linton. The dynamic and driving tribute spans more than a decade of Motown classics – every one of the songs among the most recognizable and culture-defining songs in pop music history. Following the performance, fans can visit NFL.com/Thanksgiving to find out how to download a copy of the halftime medley, as well as music from each of the artists. Proceeds will benefit United Way.

MELANIE FIONA brings together vintage grooves on her exuberant and original SRC/Universal Motown debut album THE BRIDGE, available now at digital retail and on CD November 10th. Universal Motown singer-songwriter KEM performed a special live show in Detroit’s Cass Park in support of the city’s homeless in August 2009. KEM is a leading light of this decade’s progressive neo-soul movement with two gold albums and two No. 1 singles. International Top 10 hit singer-songwriter SHONTELLE’s SRP/SRC/Universal Motown album SHONTELLIGENCE contains the international hits “T-Shirt,” “Stuck With Each Other” (featuring Akon), and “Roll.” The innovative alternative rock/electronic six-man band FOREVER THE SICKEST KIDS’ Universal Motown album debut, UNDERDOG ALMA MATER, is now available in a deluxe edition now; the group will release an innovative series of three EPs of new material starting with FRIDAY on November 17th, 2009. The halftime show also features two impressive young Universal Motown newcomers: VITA CHAMBERS, who honors Motown’s classic era with her own edgy mix of rock, pop, and soul, and HAL LINTON, a talented singer who updates the great vocal tradition of Motown’s Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder for the new century. Both are completing debut albums for SRP/Universal Motown for 2010 release.

All of the halftime tribute’s songs are culled from the golden era of Motown, the company founded by Berry Gordy in 1959 that revolutionized contemporary music with its brilliant, influential, and unique fusion of pop, blues, R&B, rock, and gospel elements.

The celebration of Motown’s 50th anniversary continues around the globe with events, special programming, exhibits, etc. An irresistible force of social and cultural change, Berry Gordy’s legendary Motown made its mark not just on the music industry but society at large, with a sound that has become one of the most significant musical accomplishments and stunning success stories of the 20th century. No other record company in history has exerted such an enormous influence on both the style and substance of popular music and culture with artists such as Diana Ross and The Supremes, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. That influence is still being felt today, from pop to hip-hop, as Motown celebrates the 50th anniversary of the company’s founding. Today, Motown is part of the Universal Music Group, with its classic recorded music catalog managed by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe).

Continuing an innovation introduced in 2006, the NFL will serve up three nationally-televised games on Thanksgiving Day. The early game (FOX, 12:30 PM ET) will be an NFC North meeting of the Green Bay Packers at the Detroit Lions. This is the 19th time the Lions have hosted the Packers on Thanksgiving, including 13 consecutive games from 1951– 1963. The second game (CBS, 4:15 PM ET) features the Oakland Raiders visiting the Dallas Cowboys in the Raiders’ first Thanksgiving game since 1970.

The Thanksgiving primetime game will air at 8:20 PM ET on the NFL Network with the defending NFC East champion New York Giants visiting the Denver Broncos, marking the first Thanksgiving contest in Denver since 1963. The late afternoon game in Dallas between the Oakland Raiders and Cowboys on CBS (4:15 p.m. ET) will also feature special National Anthem and halftime show performances by national artists who will be announced shortly.

Now in its 36th year, the United Way/NFL partnership is the longest running charitable collaboration of its kind and connects NFL PLAY 60 with United Way’s goal of 1.9 million more healthy young people by 2018.

This is the 11th year that United Way has worked with the NFL on the Thanksgiving Halftime Show to inspire NFL fans across the country to get involved in their communities.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, performers Melanie Fiona, Kem, Hal Linton, Shontelle and Vita Chambers will join United Way the week of their performance to volunteer at the Detroit Boys & Girls Club’s “I Am Thankful” Dinner on Tuesday, November 24 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

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THE MOTOWN VOTE! RESULTS ARE IN!
Category: Motown
Posted: Jul 28, 2009 at 11:24 PM

The fans have spoken--and “My Girl” by The Temptations is their all-time favorite Motown recording. The results of the online voting held in June and July can be heard on the two-CD set Motown 50 Fanthology (Motown/UMe), to be released September 1, 2009, which continues the celebration of Motown’s 50th anniversary.

http://classic.motown.com/news.aspx?bid=90

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LAST CHANCE TO VOTE!
Category: Motown
Posted: Jul 14, 2009 at 11:56 PM

Have you voted yet for your Motown favorites to appear on the Motown 50 Fanthology later this year? Voting ends tomorrow 7/15/09! You can still vote at the link below:

http://classic.motown.com/vote

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THE MOTOWN VOTE!
Category: Motown
Posted: Jun 23, 2009 at 11:05 PM

It’s your turn to create a Motown album! We’re making a new Motown compilation called “Motown 50 Fanthology”. The tracklisting will be decided by your votes. Visit http://classic.motown.com/vote and vote! Then on September 1st you’ll be able to purchase your own copy of this 2CD set with your favorite 50 Motown songs! Voting ends 7/15/09 so vote now. Be a part of history!

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9 Classic Motown titles re-issued on vinyl!
Category: Motown
Posted: Mar 31, 2009 at 5:53 PM

2009 marks the 50th Anniversary of Berry Gordy’s legendary Motown records. Motown made its mark not just on the music industry, but society at large, with a sound that became one of the most significant global musical accomplishments and stunning success stories of the 20th century. The independent record store has played a significant role in Motown’s success, and we are proud to make nine landmark LPs available to all the independent stores for an exclusive three week window starting with Record Store Day on Saturday, April 18th, 2009! These premium audiophile vinyl reissues are pressed on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl in all the original packaging.

The list of nine Motown premium audiophile reissues are: Stevie Wonder “Songs in The Key Of Life” | Jackson 5 “ABC” | The Supremes “I Hear A Symphony” | Rick James “Street Songs” | The Temptations “Cloud Nine” | Smokey Robinson “A Quiet Storm” | Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “United” | Four Tops “Reach Out” | Diana Ross “Diana Ross”

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The quartet, originally called the Four Aims, made their first single for Chess in 1956, and spent seven years on the road and in nightclubs, singing pop, blues, Broadway, but mostly jazz—four-part harmony jazz. When Motown’s Berry Gordy Jr. found out they had hustled a national “Tonight Show” appearance, he signed them without an audition to be the marquee act for the company’s Workshop Jazz label. That proved short-lived, and Stubbs’ powerhouse baritone lead and the exquisite harmonies of Fakir, Benson, and Payton started making one smash after another with the writing-producing trio Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Their first Motown hit, “Baby I Need Your Loving” in 1964, made them stars and their sixties track record on the label is indispensable to any retrospective of the decade. Their songs, soulful and bittersweet, were across-the-board successes. “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” a no. 1 R&B and Pop smash in 1965, is one of Motown’s longest-running chart toppers; it was quickly followed by a longtime favorite, “It’s The Same Old Song” (no. 2 R&B/no. 5 pop). Their commercial peak was highlighted by a romantic trilogy: the no. 1 “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing In The Shadows Of Love” (no. 2 R&B/no. 6 pop) and “Bernadette” (no. 3 R&B/no. 4 pop)—an extraordinary run of instant H-D-H classics. Other Tops hits from the decade included “Ask The Lonely,” “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over),” “Something About You,” “You Keep Running Away,” “7-Rooms Of Gloom” and their covers of “Walk Away Renee” and “If I Were A Carpenter.” The group was also extraordinarily popular in the U.K.

After H-D-H split from Motown, producer Frank Wilson supervised the R&B Top 10 hits “It’s All In The Game” and “Still Water (Love)” at the start of the seventies. The Tops also teamed with Motown’s top girl group, the Supremes, post-Diana Ross. Billing themselves The Magnificent Seven for a series of albums, they hit with a cover of “River Deep - Mountain High.”

When Motown left Detroit in 1972 to move to Los Angeles, the steadfast Tops decided to stay at home, and with another label. They kept up a string of hits with ABC-Dunhill for the next few years: “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got),” a Top 5 hit; the Top 10 “Keeper Of The Castle”; and the R&B Top 10’s “Are You Man Enough (from the movie Shaft In Africa),” “Sweet Understanding Love,” “One Chain Don’t Make No Prison” (later covered by Santana), “Midnight Flower” and the disco perennial “Catfish.”

In 1980 the group moved to Casablanca Records. The following year they were at no. 1 again, with “When She Was My Girl,” making them one of the few groups to have hits in three consecutive decades. They also scored R&B Top 40s with the ballads “Tonight I’m Gonna Love You All Over” and “I Believe In You And Me,” the original version of the 1996 Whitney Houston smash. And the Tops were heard in the film Grease 2 with “Back To School Again.” By 1983, riding the wave of the company’s 25th anniversary celebration, the Tops were back with Motown and H-D-H. The reunion resulted in the R&B Top 40 hits “I Just Can’t Walk Away” and “Sexy Ways.”

They signed with Arista later in the decade, and there they racked up their final solo Top 40 hit, “Indestructible,” which was the theme of the 1988 Summer Olympics. That year they also partnered with Aretha Franklin, a longtime friend from Detroit, for the Top 40 R&B “If Ever A Love There Was.” During this period, Stubbs stepped out and gained notoriety for voicing the man-eating plant Audrey II in the film musical Little Shop Of Horrors, for which he sang the cult classic “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space.”

In 1990, with 24 Top 40 pop hits to their credit, the Four Tops were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Though they would no longer have hits on record, the group continued to be a hit in concert, touring incessantly, a towering testament to the enduring legacy of the Motown Sound they helped shape and define. Following Payton’s death in 1997, the group briefly worked as a trio until Theo Peoples, a former Temptation, was recruited to restore the group to a quartet. When Stubbs subsequently grew ill, Peoples became the lead singer and former Motown artist-producer Ronnie McNeir was enlisted to fill Payton’s spot. In 2005, when Benson died, Payton’s son Roquel replaced him.

For Rolling Stone’s 2004 article “The Immortals – The Greatest Artists Of All Time,” Smokey Robinson remembered: “They were the best in my neighborhood in Detroit when I was growing up (and) the Four Tops will always be one of the biggest and the best groups ever. Their music is forever."

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Band Members

Levi Stubbs, Renaldo "Obie" Benson, Lawrence Payton and Abdul "Duke" Fakir. Currently featuring along with Duke: Roquel Payton, Theo Peoples and Ronnie McNeir.