Sixty-three years ago today, Berry Gordy Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit. The name would be changed to Motown Records the following year, and under its new moniker, the label would go on to produce some of the most indelible hits of the 1960s and 1970s.
Legends like Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson all recorded with Gordy early in their careers, many of them at Motown’s Hitsville Studios on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit.
Along with Stax Records in Memphis, Motown played an outsized role in taking Black music to the masses, expanding on the success of Chicago’s Chess Records in the 1950s. Looking for a good reminder of that Motown sound? You could do worse than following this list of top hits from the Detroit label.Â
