Berry gordy jr.s biography
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Berry Gordy
American music executive and record producer (born )
Musical artist
Berry Gordy III (born November 28, ), also known as Berry Gordy Jr.,[5] is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.[6]
As a songwriter, Gordy composed or co-composed a number of hits including "Lonely Teardrops" and "That's Why" (Jackie Wilson), "Shop Around" (the Miracles), and "Do You Love Me" (the Contours), all of which topped the US R&B charts, as well as the international hit "Reet Petite" (Jackie Wilson). As part of the Corporation, he wrote many hit songs for the Jackson 5, including "I Want You Back" and "ABC". As a record producer, he launched the Miracles and signed acts like the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the fyra Tops, Gladys Knight & the
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Encyclopedia Of Detroit
Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan on November 28, Dropping out of high school in the 11th grade, he tried professional boxing, then in enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in Korea until he was discharged in
Returning to Detroit, Gordy followed his love of music and opened the 3-D Record Mart-House of Jazz, with help from his father and brother George. When the store went bankrupt in , Gordy was forced to find steady work to support his wife and son. He got a job at Ford Motor Company, first in the foundry, then on the assembly line at the Lincoln-Mercury plant.
Unenamored of factory work, Gordy quit in to become a professional songwriter. In , again borrowing money from his father, he founded a music publishing company, Jobete, then two record labels, Tamla Record Company and later in the year Motown. Also in Gordy purchased the house on Detroit’s Grand Boulevard that would become known as Hitsville USA. He converted a p
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Berry Gordy
HIT-MAKING SONGWRITER
A gifted songwriter, Berry penned or co-wrote hits for Jackie Wilson, including “Reet Petite&#;, “Lonely Teardrops” and “To Be Loved&#;. Despite this success, Berry was not content to write songs: He burned with the entrepreneurial spirit, as was only natural for one of Berry, Sr. and Bertha’s children. With an $ loan in grabb from the Gordy Family’s Ber-Berry Co-op, Berry set out in to apply some of the principles he learned in the auto plant to the production of records and the creation of music groups and solo artists. He envisioned a process by which a “kid could walk in one door an unknown off the street and come out the other a polished performer&#;.
MOTOWN RECORDS FOUNDER
With a tenacity that reflected his training as a boxer, a drive to succeed that matched the lessons he learned from his parents, and an attention to detail that is evident in the quality and uniqueness of every element of the Motown experience, Berry built the Empire on W