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Teena Marie in 2009
Teena Marie, the R&B singer known best for her hit songs “Lovergirl” and “I’m a Sucker for Your Love,” has died at 54.
Marie, born Marie Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, was signed to Motown Records in 1976. She had a string of hits in the late ’70s and ’80s, releasing 13 studio albums and developingd a partnership with the late Rick James that spawned “Fire & Desire.”
Teena Marie in 2006
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Bobby Taylor a brief outline of his story…
Bobby Taylor co-wrote with me for The Elgins, Mary Wells, Rare Earth, and so so many others, often turning his work around overnight.
Bobby Taylor sits over morning coffee and talks of the magical days of Motown music in the ’60s, when black pop artists from the Detroit label were vaulting over the recording race barrier and galloping through the white market.
Taylor had already signed his own group with Motown: Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers. Now, in the summer of ’68, he brought in a group of young kids he wanted to introduce to Motown owner Berry Gordy, the Jackson 5. It should not be surprising that Bobby Taylor was somewhere in the Jackson 5 mix.
The 63-year-old singer/composer/producer had only one big hit himself–”Does Your Mama Know About Me?” in the mid-’60s–but he seems to have hung out with practically every important R&B and pop artist of the second half of the 20th century.
As a child prodigy, Taylor grew up in a Washington, D.C., housing project “doo-wopping” on street corners with a long, skinny kid named Marvin Gaye, played with Louis Jordan, hung out with Big Mama Thornton, performed on TV on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour alongside good friend Gladys Knight, formed Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers up in Canada with guitarist and backup vocalist Tommy Chong (who later turned to comedy with Cheech Marin).
Once fired a then-unknown guitarist named Jimi Hendrix because “his solos went on too long, like about a half an hour, and he played his guitar so loud you couldn’t hear the rest of the band”; toured for a while with George Clinton, played command performances for the Queen of England and “that guy with the big nose in France” (Charles de Gaulle); and got discovered for Motown by Mary Wilson and Flo Ballard of the Supremes.
Bobby recorded three albums for Motown, and recently had all his unreleased tracks released in the U.K. on a new CD. He is constantly remembered for his Northern Soul classics like “Oh I’ve Been Blessed” and the incredibly rare single on Mowest, “Just A Little Bit Closer”, but the killer was the album track “Don’t Be Afraid” which is beloved as one of the greatest classics. But around 1970, Motown’s hold on its great artists began to weaken. “Berry Gordy pulled the hooks on me in 1971,” Taylor says. He left the company, suing for unpaid royalties. Taylor says that he won the suit, but has still not gotten his money.
Bobby recorded for Playboy, Epic, Philadelphia International, and made a whole album for Motorcity, including this fabulous remake of his biggest Motown hit.
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Jermaine Dupri, we salute for your mix-tape concept. JD raps, “I think I’m Berry Gordy, Russell Simmons, Quincy Jones”.
For those of you who don’t know he has based this concept on a track by Rick Ross called B.M.F. The first line Rick Ross says “I think I’m Larry Hoover, Big Meech”. Larry Hoover and Big Meech are American Gangsters. Whereas Mr Dupri has turned it around and for his version given us more positive role models Berry, Russell and Quincy. WE LOVE IT!
To listen to the mixed tape go to Jermaine’s Official Blog
Another Listening Link – Click Here
Click to Listen to the Rick Ross Version
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Label founder Berry Gordy made a point of catching up with the Beatles in 1964 before they returned to England to film “A Hard Day’s Night.”
Do you think that is Berry’s daughter, Hazel?
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Stevie Wonder, singer, songwriter, producer:
Because Berry Gordy owned the company, it was not “tore up from the floor up.” It was something he built. It was not something that somebody else had and passed on to him; it was his and his family’s and all the people who were part of it who built this thing. That alone gives us a sense of pride.
Smokey Robinson:
Way before we started Motown, Berry said, “I’m going to work with you and your group,” and he just turned my whole life around. I played him about 20 of my songs, and he critiqued every song. He told me the songs made no sense because I was talking about five different things in one song; the first verse had nothing to do with the second verse, and the second verse had nothing to do with the bridge. He told me a song has got to be a short book, a small movie, or a short story. He taught me how to structure my songs.
Berry Gordy:
At Motown, I hired a white salesman to go to the South. I didn’t have pictures of black artists on the record covers until they became big hits. The Isleys had a cover with two white people on the cover. Smokey’s Mickey’s Monkey had a monkey on the cover. No one knew or cared; they thought it was brilliant.
Stevie Wonder:
The competition at Motown was not the competition that said, “I don’t like you.” It was more like the Brill Building: it was a challenge to come up with great music, great songs, and to me that was cool. I love Berry to pieces—Berry Gordy was, for my life, a blessing.
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Gaye was married twice. His first marriage was to Berry Gordy Jr.’s sister, Anna Gordy, who was 18 years his senior. Marvin and Anna were married on January 8, 1964 when Gaye was 24 and Gordy was 42. The marriage imploded after Marvin began courting Janis Hunter, the daughter of Slim Gaillard, in 1973. Anna filed for divorce in 1975; the divorce was finalized in March 1977. Gaye had three children. Marvin Pentz Gaye, III (b. 1965 see below) was adopted by Marvin and his first wife Anna.
Stories on how Gaye eventually met Berry Gordy and how he signed to Motown Records vary. One early story stated Gordy discovered Gaye singing at a local bar in Detroit and that he had offered to sign him on the spot. Gaye’s recollection, and also a story Gordy later reiterated, was that Gaye invited himself to Motown’s annual Christmas party inside the label’s Hitsville USA studios and played on the piano singing Mr. Sandman. Gordy saw Gaye from afar and upon noting that Gaye was connected with Fuqua began to make arrangements to absorb Fuqua’s labels to Motown bringing all of the labels’ acts to Motown. Gordy said he immediately wanted to bring Gaye to Motown after seeing him perform, impressed by his vocals and piano playing. While working out negotiations, Fuqua would sell fifty percentage interest in Gaye to Gordy, which Gaye would find out later. After Gordy absorbed his brother and sister, Anna and Harvey to work with him in March 1961, Gaye was assigned to Motown’s Tamla division.
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Sorry guys, we were rather later with this one, but as the saying goes ‘better late than never’.
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Motown was not a normal company. P. Diddy told me he wouldn’t have been able to do what he’s done had it not been for us. But most of them think that I was a gangster, and I have to tell them, “You’re on the wrong track.” People in gangsta rap come up to me and say, “They got Gotti, but they couldn’t get you,” and I say, “Wait a minute—if you think that’s how Motown was built, you’re wrong, because the principles have to be totally different.” The Motown legacy is there to show them—there is another way. —Berry Gordy, May 15, 2008.
I never talked to the Mafia, but the rumor was so strong that I was a part of the Mafia that one time the F.B.I. called me down to their office. So when they called me down to the F.B.I. in Detroit, to the division that handles organized crime, well, who wouldn’t be scared? I was concerned, although I knew I wasn’t [involved in] organized crime unless I was being framed, which wasn’t out of the question. They asked me if I was in the Mafia, and I said no. Then they took me to a board and showed me pictures and charts of the Detroit Mafia families. They said, “We’ve been studying you for years, and we cannot find you in any of these charts or families.” And they said either I was the smartest person they knew or I had no ties to the Mafia.
Berry Gordy
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REMOVE THAT SCARF! YOUR HANDSOME!
Awww… 
