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17 chapter From Motown to Manhattan: In Almost Perfect Harmony Cast of Characters Roquel “Billy” Davis, Anna and Chess Records Gene Barge, Chess Records arranger and producer also featuring Joe Battle, Joe’s Record Shop and J-V-B Records; Leonard and Phil Chess, Chess Records; and Berry Gordy, Tamla-Motown Records It was always a privilege to be in the company of Roquel “Billy” Davis. Forever warm and welcoming, with a constant chuckle, he had an intelligence level that was inspiring. Over lunch or in front of a tape recorder, he was always willing to talk about his many accomplishments in the music business but with a disarming modesty. Could this natural humility be a plausible reason why most history books have not properly conveyed his integral role in preparing the groundwork for Tamla-Motown Records with Berry Gordy? Billy Davis learned his trade as apprentice to four record men: Joe Battle, Syd Nathan, Leonard Chess, and George Goldner. What teachers ; what an education! Starting out in Detroit, oozing with assemblyline talent, Billy Davis had a stellar resume that included singing with the first incarnation of the Four Tops vocal group; writing, with Berry Gordy, the career-launching songs of electric R&B entertainer Jackie Wilson; founding Anna Records in Detroit with Gwen Gordy; becoming A&R director of Chess Records and easing the iconic blues i-xvi_1-592_Brov.indd 319 11/19/09 10:44:50 AM 320 the hustle is on company into the soul era; and changing direction to become a Madison Avenue advertising executive. Davis wound up a dedicated music publisher. His final destination was a highly desirable brownstone building, nestled in the heart of Manhattan, housing the corporate offices and demo studio of Billy Davis Enterprises. This location was light years away from the Detroit ghettos where he contentedly spent his childhood days in the 1930s and 1940s. “Detroit became a haven for a lot of immigrants from the South,” said Davis, “like people from Alabama, Georgia, parts of Florida, and Mississippi. You found a lot of black families came up to Detroit because there was work available in the automobile plants. There was not just Ford Motor Company, which was the largest; my grandfather worked there. It was to Detroit and Chicago primarily that they came.” Nevertheless, the northern industrial city of Detroit , with a prominent Ku Klux Klan chapter, still had its share of early racial strife. Billy was born in 1932 to Willie and Catherine Davis. His father did not feature in our conversation, but “my mother was a dancer on stage. She and another young lady were dancing partners, and they performed around the Midwest, mostly in the Detroit, Ohio, [and] Illinois area, I understand. The name of the act was the Chocolate Drops. They might look at it a little differently today, but that was the name then [laughs]. It wasn’t a strip dance or anything like that; they were routine dancers (like tap dancing), and I guess they felt as if they were pretty successful for female dancers. That’s what they did for a living until she stopped doing it, I guess after I was born. I put an end to her career!” The glamour of show business rubbed off on the youngster. “I started out in school learning to play cornet and then trumpet,” he said. “I also took up the drums, but in my heart I really wanted to sing. So I was part of the glee club in school, from elementary school on, and I became a vocalist rather than a trumpet player.” Davis, the first grandchild, was raised by his grandmother (she was “Mama”) in a happy house teeming with the children, including his cousin/second grandchild Lawrence Payton (later of the Four Tops). Family entertainment was provided by way of a Victrola phonograph, which was a rare commodity in the neighborhood. “Yes, my name is Roquel Davis,” he said, “and Tyran Carlo . . . and Billy Davis! It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. In school I was Roquel, and when I got outta school, I was Billy. Roquel was a difficult name to pronounce, and it was totally unusual . My mother said she named me after reading a magazine in [the] hospital after she gave birth to me, and it was [the name of] a French movie actor. She loved it, and so I was handed, branded, Roquel.” Billy explained how his songwriter “nom de plume” came about: I wouldn’t call myself Roquel, and...

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