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4. Motown and Other Sounds In the spring of 1960 it seemed like everyone was turning up the radio to hear the pounding piano riffs that kicked off a huge R & B hit called “Money (That’s What I Want).” Recorded by Barrett Strong, it was released locally on Tamla Records, a new Detroit label founded by a man named Berry Gordy. There was a certain camaraderie in record and radio circles in the 1950s. On any given night, songwriters, record promotion men, and disc jockeys would gather at the Flame Show Bar at 4664 John R at Can‹eld. Built in 1949, the Flame was the leading “black and tan” nightclub, featuring mainly black entertainers performing for a racially mixed audience. Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday , Roy Hamilton, and Sarah Vaughan were among the national performers appearing on the club’s unique stage, which had been built right into the bar. Maurice King led the seven-piece house band known as the Wolverines.1 Berry Gordy was a hustling local songwriter who liked to hang out at the Flame, where his sisters Anna and Gwen had the photo concession downstairs. The Flame, along with the nearby Frolic Show Bar and the Chester‹eld Lounge, had turned John R into a “Vegas”-like strip replacing Hastings Street and Paradise Valley. By the late ‹fties, that area had become run-down, home to hundreds of vacant businesses. In January 1959, bulldozers moved in, and construction began on the Chrysler Freeway, which would replace most of Hastings Street and destroy the once-vibrant neighborhood around it.2 The Flame was owned by businessman Morris Wasserman, and day-to-day operations were handled by Al Green, a music publisher who managed artists such as Johnny Ray and LaVern Baker, as well as Detroiters Della Reese and Jackie Wilson. Born in Detroit in June 1934, Jackie Wilson started singing as a child, and by his teens he had formed a quartet called the Ever 33 Ready Gospel Singers Group, which performed in churches around town. Jackie himself was anything but religious, and he often used the money he earned from singing to purchase wine.3 While growing up in Detroit’s rough North End, Wilson had been a member of a street gang calling themselves the Shakers, and on two occasions did time at the Lansing Correctional Institute, where he learned to box. In 1950, at the age of sixteen, he dropped out of Highland Park High School to box full-time, eventually entering a Golden Gloves championship in Detroit, in which he lost.4 When he wasn’t boxing, Wilson was singing. After King Records passed on Johnny Otis’s signing recommendation in 1951, Wilson worked brie›y with a local R & B quartet, the Thrillers, before recording a few tracks for Dizzy Gillespie’s Detroit-based Dee Gee label under the name Sonny Wilson. He then auditioned for and won the spot Clyde McPhatter vacated when he departed Billy Ward and the Dominos. Wilson’s ‹rst hit with the group was 1953’s “You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down.” Later that year he sang lead on “Rags to Riches,” which was also a pop hit for Tony Bennett. The Dominos’ version hit number 2 on the R & B charts. In 1956, after a change in labels to Decca Records, Jackie sang lead on the group’s ‹rst pop hit, “St. Theresa of the Roses.”5 The following year, Wilson decided to pursue a solo career and signed a management deal with Al Green, who quickly secured a record contract with Decca’s Brunswick label. On December 18, 1957, the day before the signing, Green collapsed and died in the lobby of his New York hotel. Wilson’s career then fell into the hands of Green’s assistant, Nat Tarnapol.6 Berry Gordy pitched Jackie Wilson a song originally called “She’s So Fine,” which he had written for the Five Jets, a local group he comanaged. His partner, Roquel “Billy” Davis, had once been a member of the group.7 The song had never been a hit, but Gordy liked it and had made some adjustments, including a title change to “Reet Petite.” Jackie Wilson recorded the track with a high-speed percolating rhythm and scored his ‹rst solo hit toward the end of 1957. The song hit number 11 on the R & B charts and number 62 pop. Gordy stayed close to Wilson, supplying even bigger national pop hits, including “To Be Loved” (number 22...

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