pplpod is a podcast about people, places and lots of other stuff. Each episode takes a deep dive into the lives, choices, and legacies of fascinating figures from history, culture, music, and beyond. From icons who shaped entire generations to hidden stories that deserve the spotlight, pplpod brings you closer to the people behind the headlines and the legends. Thoughtful, engaging, and story-driven, pplpod explores what makes these lives extraordinary—and what we can learn from them today.
Episodes
The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow older. When we're young, friendships often revolve around constant communication, shared activities, and the desire to be included in everything. But as adulthood brings careers, families, responsibiliti
Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, vacations, outdoor adventures, and childhood memories. But when does summer actually begin? The answer depends on whether we follow the movement of the Earth, changes in temperature, or centuries of c
Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaimed British actor whose commanding voice, classical training, and unforgettable performances made him a cultural icon. Born in Yorkshire in 1940, Stewart grew up in a working-class household marked by
Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, and producer who transformed everyday annoyances into some of television's most influential comedy. Born in Brooklyn in 1947, David developed a distinctive comedic style built around social discomfort
Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, energetic herding dog whose name disguises its American origins. Developed in the western United States during the 19th century, the breed emerged from European herding traditions and sheepdogs associat
Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of the world's most beloved and versatile dog breeds. Its story begins not in Labrador, but along the rugged coast of Newfoundland, where the St. John's Water Dog worked alongside fishermen retrieving net
Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, do less, and notice more. From the towering Cliffs of Moher and the ancient stone forts of the Aran Islands to the extraordinary limestone terrain of the Burren, we discover a country shaped by geolog
Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where he sang in the teenage choral group the Ambassadors and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1962. As Willie Hutch he began recording in 1964 on the Soul City label, then returned to Los
Songs in the Key of Life: Stevie Wonder's Ghana Plan and a $13 Million Deal
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In early 1975, at 24 and after Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale, Stevie Wonder was planning a farewell concert and a move to Ghana to work with children with disabilities, driven by frustration with the U.S. government and social inequality. On August
Super Freak's Afterlife: Alonzo Miller's Edit, Beat Freaks and Nicki Minaj
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Super Freak was recorded in winter 1980 and early 1981 for Rick James' fifth album, Street Songs, at the Record Plant in Sausalito and Motown's Hitsville studio in Hollywood. The episode says James set out to make a pragmatic crossover hit that white audiences would dance to. Oscar Alston played
What's Going On: Obie Benson's Berkeley Bus Ride and a Smuggled 1971 Single
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!What's Going On began in May 1969, when the Four Tops' Renaldo "Obie" Benson watched the Bloody Thursday clash at People's Park in Berkeley, California, from the group's tour bus. Troubled that the country sent young people to war while armed authorities attacked them at home, he wrote the song
Dreamgirls 2006: Whitney's Lost Deal, 783 Effie Auditions and an Oscar Snub
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The 2006 film of Dreamgirls spent 25 years in development. David Geffen, who co-financed the 1981 Broadway show that won six Tony Awards, guarded the rights to protect director Michael Bennett, who died in 1987. A late-1980s deal with Whitney Houston as Deena collapsed when she wanted Effie's sh
Eddie Holland: A Top 30 Hit With Jamie, Then the Pen Behind 143 Hits
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Edward James Holland Jr. was born in Detroit in October 1939. In 1958 he sang You, You, You, You, You for Mercury Records, a track Berry Gordy co-wrote and produced, and when Gordy launched Motown in 1959 Holland was among its first artists. His 1961 single Jamie reached the U.S. top 30 and No.
Detroit 1967 Riot: Willie Horton's Plea, Guard Panic and Phantom Snipers
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!At 3:45 a.m. on Sunday, July 23, 1967, Detroit police raided an after-hours blind pig in a 12th Street printing office and found 85 people celebrating two GIs back from Vietnam. The episode traces the pressure behind that night: federal redlining that gave Black areas D ratings, restrictive cove
For Once in My Life: Billie Jean Brown's Fight to Free Stevie Wonder's Take
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!For Once in My Life was written in 1965 by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown's publishing wing as a slow, sentimental ballad. Connie Haynes recorded it first in July 1965, but that version stayed unreleased for 50 years until a 2015 digital compilation. Miller had Jean DuShon cut a demo,
Wanda Young: From Nursing Student to Marvelettes Lead and a 1989 Comeback
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Wanda LaFaye Young was born in August 1943 and raised in Inkster, Michigan, one of ten children of Ford plant worker James and homemaker Beatrice. She was studying for nursing exams when classmate Gladys Horton asked her to audition after Georgia Dobbins left the group because her father forbade
Raynoma Gordy Singleton: Miss Ray's 5,000 Bootleg Copies of My Guy
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Raynoma Mayberry was born in Detroit in March 1937, the eighth child of her mother Lucille and the first of her father Ashby, a Cadillac janitor. After a marriage to musician Charles Liles and the birth of son Cliff in December 1955, she auditioned in 1958 with her sister Alice for a young songw
Yvonne Fair: The Singer Whose I Found You Became James Brown's I Feel Good
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Yvonne Fair was born Flora Yvonne Coleman in Richmond, Virginia, in October 1942. She left high school in 11th grade, married Leroy Fair and had a son, Leroy Jr., and her husband pushed her to join the vocal group the Chantels. By 1961 she was a featured singer in the James Brown Revue, and in 1
DeBarge: Rhythm of the Night, a Motown Split and the Siblings' Hidden Pain
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!DeBarge came out of Detroit and later Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their mother, gospel singer Etterlene Abney, married the older Robert Louis DeBarge Sr. at 17, and the marriage, which lasted until 1974, was defined by control and physical abuse. Several children later accused their father of sexual
I Wish It Would Rain: Roger Penzabene's Real Heartbreak Behind the Hit
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!I Wish It Would Rain was recorded by the Temptations in Hitsville USA's Studio A in Detroit in two sessions, on April 22 and August 31, 1967, and released on the Gordy imprint on December 21, 1967. David Ruffin sang lead with Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams and Otis Williams behi
Bobby Brown: A $500 VCR Payout, New Jack Swing and a $400,000 Ransom
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Bobby Brown grew up one of eight children in Boston's Orchard Park projects, and at age three he watched James Brown perform live. After singing in church choirs, he formed New Edition around 1980 with Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell, and later Ralph Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe. The group sold millions
The Marvelettes: A Fourth-Place Finish and an All-Night Postman Rewrite
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In the fall of 1960 at Inkster High School, west of Detroit, 15-year-old glee club member Gladys Horton, an orphaned ward of the courts, formed a group with Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart and graduate Georgia Dobbins. They first called themselves the Casinyets because the
Meet the Supremes: Shrill Early Takes, Buttered Popcorn and a UK Reshuffle
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Meet the Supremes, the group's debut studio album, was recorded at Hitsville USA in Detroit between October 1960 and September 1962 and released in December 1962. Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Raynoma Liles all produced tracks, and the record moves between pop, r
Three Times a Lady: An Anniversary Toast and a Waltz Meant for Sinatra
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Lionel Richie formed the Commodores as students at Tuskegee University, and the band built its name on dance-floor funk. Growing up in Alabama he also absorbed classical music from his grandmother Adelaide Foster, a piano teacher, and the country music around him. The spark for Three Times a Lad
Stevie Wonder's Innervisions: A Log Truck Crash, a Coma and Higher Ground
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!By 1973 Stevie Wonder had shed the Little Stevie image through Music of My Mind and Talking Book. On Innervisions, released August 3, 1973, he played nearly every instrument himself, from drums and bass to Fender Rhodes, clavinet and the TONTO synthesizer system built by associate producers Malc
Nowhere to Run: Ivy Jo Hunter's Snow Chains, Panic Lyrics and John Wick
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Nowhere to Run, the 1965 Martha and the Vandellas single, was written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland as the follow-up to Dancing in the Street. The Funk Brothers built a dense wall of sound with Earl Van Dyke on piano, Benny Benjamin on drums, James Jamerson on bass and a full horn secti
The Andantes: 20,000 Tracks, Four Tops Sopranos and the Darnells Ruse
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The Andantes, Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow and Louvain Demps, were Motown's in-house female session singers through the 1960s, credited with roughly 20,000 recordings and seven Billboard No. 1 hits while remaining anonymous. On three- and four-track tape, producers needed singers who could sight
Uriel Jones: The Laid-Back Drummer on Grapevine and Ain't No Mountain
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Uriel Jones, born in Detroit in 1934, entered Motown's Funk Brothers as a backup for Benny Benjamin, whose health and reliability were failing just as the label's output soared. Moving up alongside Richard Pistol Allen, Jones had to deliver radio-ready takes in the Snake Pit from charts he had n
Benny Benjamin: Big Band Roots, a Mixed-Brand Kit and the Beatles' Question
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William Benny Benjamin Jr., known in the studio as Papa Zita, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1925, officially on July 25, though headstone records suggest July 15. He learned drums in the 1940s on big band jazz, absorbing Buddy Rich and the polyrhythmic Latin jazz of Tito Puente. In 1958 he
The Funk Brothers: Snake Pit Sessions, Ed Wingate's Cash and a Door Notice
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The Funk Brothers, Motown's in-house studio band from about 1959 to 1972, played on more than 100 R&B No. 1 singles and over 50 pop No. 1 hits, yet stayed unknown to the public. About 13 core players formed the backbone, including Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke on keys, Benny Benjamin and Rich
The Satintones: Motown's First Group, the Motor City B-Side and a Lawsuit
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The Satintones formed in 1959 when Robert Bateman and Sonny Sanders, backing singers at Berry Gordy's new Tamla label, decided to front their own group. They added Sanders' neighbor James Ellis, tried to recruit Brian Holland, who was too busy with label work, and instead brought in songwriter C
MCA Records: A Pope Album, Tom Petty's Bankruptcy and Mob-Linked Cutouts
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!MCA Records grew out of American Decca, cut loose in 1937 by its British owner as war approached. In 1962 the Music Corporation of America, a talent agency and TV producer, bought Decca mainly to get Universal Pictures, and antitrust rules then forced it out of the agency business. In 1971 Mike
Brewster-Douglass Towers: Bilal Berreni's Murder, Ruin Imagery and Bedrock
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The Brewster-Douglass site began on Hastings Street, a district that shifted from Detroit's Jewish center to the heart of Black life in the city, celebrated in John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillen. Eleanor Roosevelt broke ground in 1935 on the Brewster project, the nation's first federally funded pu
Gladys Horton: A Father's Veto, Please Mr. Postman and Marvelettes Now
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Gladys Horton was born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1944 or 1945, given up for adoption at nine months, and raised in foster homes before landing in a Henry Ford-built housing project in Inkster, Michigan. At 14 she formed the Del-Rhythmettes, who recorded for the small JVB label. In 1960 she ass
More Hits by the Supremes: 300,000 Advance Orders and a Title Royalty Snag
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!More Hits by the Supremes, the group's sixth studio album, came out of Hitsville USA in 1965 with producers Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier under pressure to extend the trio's run. Distributors placed advance orders for 300,000 copies before release, a remarkable figure for an album at the time.
Gloria Jones: Tainted Love's First Singer, T. Rex Clavinet and Marc Bolan
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Gloria Jones was born in Cincinnati on October 19, 1945, and moved to Los Angeles at seven. At 14 she formed the gospel group the COGIC Singers with a young Billy Preston and recorded the album It's a Blessing. Producer and songwriter Ed Cobb signed her in 1964, and her single Heartbeat took her
Janie Bradford: From Hitsville's Front Desk to Money and the HAL Awards
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Janie Bradford was born on June 2, 1939, in Charleston, Missouri, and moved to Detroit as a child during the Great Migration. As a teenager she took a job as the receptionist at Berry Gordy's young label, working in the house on West Grand Boulevard where the garage served as the studio and the
Joe Messina: Charlie Parker Gigs, Funk Brothers Guitar and 30 Silent Years
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Joe Messina was born in Detroit on December 13, 1928, got his first guitar from his father at 13, and moved from Central High School to Cass Technical High School before dropping out to play professionally. By his mid-20s he was in the ABC television studio band on The Soupy Sales Show, backing
Robert White: The Moonglows Bassist Who Wrote the Riff That Opens My Girl
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Robert White was born in November 1936 in Billmeyer, Pennsylvania, and learned music from his uncle. He first toured with the vocal group the Moonglows, playing bass, which the hosts credit for his rhythm-first approach to guitar. In 1960 he moved to Detroit for steadier work, played sessions at
The Tracks of My Tears: Two Clashing 1965 Reviews and a UK Revival
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The Tracks of My Tears started with a descending guitar lick from Miracles guitarist Marv Tarplin, around which Smokey Robinson and bass vocalist Pete Moore built the vocal and lyric. Recorded on May 19, 1965, for Tamla with the Funk Brothers and members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, it pai
Henry Cosby: Army Sax With Cannonball Adderley to Fingertips and Prince
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Henry Cosby was born in Detroit on May 12, 1928, and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, playing in a military band alongside Cannonball Adderley. Back home he played tenor saxophone in pianist Joe Hunter's band, and when Berry Gordy launched Motown in 1959 he recruited Hunter's group
Táta Vega: A 1975 Sniper Shot, Then the Voice of Shug Avery
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Táta Vega was born Carmen Rosa Vega in Jamaica, Queens, in October 1951, of Afro-Dominican, Puerto Rican and Spanish descent. Her Air Force father moved the family through Panama, Puerto Rico, San Antonio and Colorado Springs, and at 17 she legally took the name Táta, her first spoken word. She
Bob Babbitt: From Motown's War to Philly's Midnight Train to Georgia
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Bob Babbitt was born Robert Andrew Kreinar in Pittsburgh in 1937 and became a core bassist in Motown's Funk Brothers from 1966 to 1972. Rather than serving as a backup to James Jamerson, he traded sessions with him, bringing a precise, anchored feel suited to soul's shift into the 1970s. His bas
Deke Richards: From an Eegah Extra to Writing the Supremes' Love Child
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Deke Richards was born Dennis Lussier in Los Angeles on April 8, 1944, the son of screenwriter Dane Lussier, and the hosts tie his sense of song structure to growing up around three-act storytelling. He appeared as a background musician in the 1962 low-budget film Eegah, credited as Deke Lussier
Tammi Terrell: Pre-Med at Penn, Eight Brain Surgeries and the Easy Dispute
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Tammi Terrell was born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery in Philadelphia in 1945 to parents who had wanted a son and called her Tommy. At 12 she renamed herself Tammy after the film Tammy and the Bachelor. According to her sister, she was assaulted by three boys at 11, and around that time began suf
David Ruffin: Building Hitsville With Pops Gordy to a Painted Limousine
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!David Ruffin was born Davis Eli Ruffin in 1941 in Whynot, Mississippi. His mother died 10 months after his birth, and his father, a strict and reportedly violent Baptist minister, took the family on the road as a gospel group opening for acts like Mahalia Jackson and the Five Blind Boys of Missi
Reach Out I'll Be There: A Bolero Build and a Mallet-Struck Tambourine
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In 1966 Holland-Dozier-Holland set out to write a Four Tops song built on sustained tension. Lamont Dozier drew on the bolero's slow, steady build, setting the verses in a minor key with what he described as an Eastern European or Russian feel and releasing into a bright, gospel-driven major-key
Florence Ballard: Naming the Supremes, Singing 17 Feet Back and Welfare
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Florence Ballard was born in Detroit in 1943, the eighth or ninth of up to 15 children in a family that came north in the Great Migration and settled in the Brewster-Douglass housing projects. Her father Jesse, an amateur musician, taught her to sing and died of cancer when she was 15. Known as
Just My Imagination: A Shelved 1969 Ballad, Marimba and Strings at Dawn
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!By late 1970 the Temptations had spent years in Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong's psychedelic soul phase, with fuzz guitars and social themes on records like Runaway Child, Running Wild, Psychedelic Shack and Cloud Nine. Fans, as Eddie Kendricks recalled, were screaming bloody murder for the
Robert Taylor: ARPANET, Tuskegee Bricks and a 1979 Livingston UFO Case
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!This episode works through a Wikipedia disambiguation page for the name Robert Taylor, which spans nearly six centuries, from an English member of parliament who died around 1428 to an American painter of Native American subjects who died in 2025. Robert Robinson Taylor (1868 to 1942) became the
Heat Wave: Motown's First Grammy Nod to Linda Ronstadt's Sixth Encore
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Heat Wave began at Hitsville USA in Detroit, where Holland-Dozier-Holland, fresh off their first hit with Martha and the Vandellas, Come and Get These Memories, needed a follow-up. The group recorded it on June 20, 1963, and the Gordy label released it on July 10. Martha Reeves sang lead with Ro
Marvin Gaye's 1976 Turn: Leon Ware's Songs and Ernie Barnes' Sugar Shack
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!By 1975 Marvin Gaye was stuck. Coming off a massive 1973 success, he could not write or record, and his marriage to Anna Gordy, sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, was falling apart, which put him in conflict with the top of his own label. In 1973 at the Hitsville West studio in Los Angeles, p
Barney Ales: From a Dodge Assembly Line to Motown's National Sales Chief
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Barney Ales, the son of a Sicilian immigrant barber, started out fitting parts on a Dodge assembly line in Detroit before working local sales for Capitol Records and Warner Brothers in the 1950s. At the time the record business was intensely regional: pressing plants, independent distributors, r
Syreeta Wright: A Vetoed Supremes Spot and With You I'm Born Again
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Rita Wright was born in Pittsburgh in 1946. Her father was killed in the Korean War, and money troubles kept the family moving between Detroit and South Carolina, ending a hoped-for ballet career. In 1965 she joined Motown as a receptionist and became secretary to A&R head Mickey Stevenson.
Stevie Wonder: A $2.50 Stipend, a 14% Royalty and Ray Kurzweil's Reader
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Stevland Hardaway Judkins was born six weeks premature in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950, and the high-oxygen incubator that saved him caused retinopathy of prematurity and left him blind. By eight he sang solo in church and taught himself piano, harmonica and drums, playing street corners as Stevie
Music of My Mind: Stevie Wonder's 1972 One-Man Album After Leaving Tamla
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Stevie Wonder had been inside Motown's Tamla system since age 11, where writers wrote, session players played and singers sang. When his childhood contract expired at 21 in 1971, he received his childhood earnings and used that bargaining power to sign a new deal granting him full artistic contr
Superstition: A Jeff Beck Barter, a Drum Jam and Berry Gordy's Overrule
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Superstition began as a trade. During sessions for Talking Book, guitarist Jeff Beck agreed to play on Stevie Wonder's album in exchange for an original Wonder song he could record with his own band. At Electric Lady Studios in New York in the summer of 1972, Beck sat at a drum kit during a brea
Fulfillingness' First Finale: Stevie Wonder's Somber 1974 Album of the Year
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Released in the summer of 1974, Fulfillingness' First Finale was the fourth album in Stevie Wonder's classic period and followed the outward-looking Innervisions with a somber, inward record about spirituality, heartbreak and mortality. Wonder, then 24, played acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes, drum
Smokey Robinson: A 100-Song Notebook, Quiet Storm and a $500M Countersuit
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William Robinson grew up in Detroit's North End, nicknamed Smokey Joe by his uncle Claude and insisting on the name until age 12. After his mother died when he was 10, he was raised by his sister Geraldine in a household with her husband and 10 children, a few houses from a young Aretha Franklin
Shorty Long: Devil With a Blue Dress On, Here Comes the Judge and Pigmeat
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Frederick Earl Long, known as Shorty Long, brought a gritty Birmingham, Alabama blues sound to Motown in 1963 after recording for the Tri-Phi and Harvey labels run by Harvey Fuqua and Gwen Gordy. Rather than reshape him, Motown created the Soul Records imprint for his music. Its first release in
Stop! In the Name of Love: The Hidden Andantes and a Statler Brothers Loss
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The Supremes' Stop! In the Name of Love was written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland and recorded at Hitsville's Studio A, the room called the Snake Pit, on January 5, 7 and 11, 1965. The Funk Brothers lineup included Johnny Griffith on organ, Joe Messina on guitar, James Jamerson on bass
2648 West Grand Boulevard: Esther Gordy Edwards and McCartney's Steinway
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In 1959, 29-year-old Berry Gordy bought a two-story house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, turned the former photography studio in back into Studio A, and lived upstairs while the studio ran about 22 hours a day, pausing only from 8 to 10 a.m. for equipment maintenance. Over roughly seve
Rick James: Skipping Sharon Tate's Party, a Navy Brig Escape and MTV
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!James Ambrose Johnson Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York in 1948. His father left when he was 10, and his mother supported eight children by cleaning houses by day and running numbers at night. Facing the draft in 1964, he fled to Toronto, where Levon Helm pulled him out of a street fight and he
Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing: Aretha's Slow Grammy to an EDM Sample
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, written and produced by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, was released in March 1968 on Tamla as the lead single from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's second album, You're All I Need. Ashford and Simpson built it as a conversation, with the two singers tradi
Ain't No Mountain High Enough: Dusty Springfield's No and DJs' Razor Edits
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson were unknown songwriters when Dusty Springfield asked to record their song Ain't No Mountain High Enough. They refused, treating it as their golden egg and the key to a staff job at Motown, and the song won them that job. By late 1966 it went to Marvin Gaye a
Quality Control Music: A $1 Million Atlanta Studio Bet to HYBE's $300M Buy
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Kevin Lee, known as Coach K, and Pierre Thomas, known as P, founded Quality Control Music in Atlanta in March 2013 to focus on hip hop, trap and R&B. Before they had a roster, they spent about a million dollars of their own money and a year building a West Atlanta headquarters with four reco
The Corporation: Gordy's Trademarked Team Behind I Want You Back and ABC
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!After Holland-Dozier-Holland walked out of Motown in 1967 to start Invictus and Hot Wax, Berry Gordy concluded he had created what he called backroom superstars: writers and producers with enough name recognition to hold the label hostage. His first fix was the Clan, a collective credit used on
Lamont Dozier: Out Here on My Own, Two Hearts and a USC Professorship
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Lamont Dozier was born in Detroit in 1941 and spent the late 1950s and early 1960s recording for small independent Detroit labels without a hit. In 1962 he joined brothers Brian and Eddie Holland to form Holland-Dozier-Holland at Motown, with a strict split of duties: Dozier and Brian Holland bu
Pam Sawyer: The London-Born Lyricist Behind Love Hangover and Love Child
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Pamela Joan Sawyer was born in London in 1938 and, set on writing pop songs, contacted media mogul Lew Grade, who introduced her to visiting American composer Bob Mersey. They married in 1958 and moved to New York in 1961, later separating. In the city's songwriting trade she wrote with Helen Mi
Johnny Bristol: Supremes Farewell Ad-Libs and a Best New Artist Nod in 1975
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Johnny Bristol was born in 1939 in Morganton, North Carolina, and while in the US Air Force in the late 1950s he met Jackie Beavers and formed the soul duo Johnny and Jackie. By 1959 they recorded for Anna and Tri-Phi, labels run by Gwen Gordy and Harvey Fuqua. When Motown absorbed Tri-Phi, Bris
Mary Wilson: Losing the Supremes Name in Court and Truth in Music Laws
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Mary Wilson was born in Mississippi in 1944 and raised in Detroit by an aunt and uncle she first believed were her parents. In the Brewster-Douglass housing projects she met Florence Ballard at a school talent show, and in 1959 Ballard brought her into the Primettes, a sister group to the Primes
Here, My Dear: Marvin Gaye's Court-Ordered Album and Its Monopoly Board Art
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In late 1975 Anna Gordy Gaye filed for divorce from Marvin Gaye, citing irreconcilable differences and seeking child support for their adopted son. Gaye's spending left him behind on payments, and by September 1976 a warrant was issued for his arrest over unpaid alimony, sending him into hiding.
Sexual Healing: Marvin Gaye's Ostend Exile, a TR-808 and a $15M Lawsuit
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In January 1981 Marvin Gaye arrived in Ostend, Belgium from London, owing back taxes to the IRS, paying alimony to Anna Gordy, separating from Jan, and addicted to cocaine. He had just split from Motown after 20 years, angry that In Our Lifetime was released without his final approval. Belgian p
Marv Johnson: Come to Me, 16 Weeks at No. 1 in Australia and a UK Rebirth
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Marv Johnson was born in Detroit in 1938, grew up on gospel and blues, and sang doo-wop with the Junior Serenaders. Berry Gordy heard him at a Detroit carnival and made him the first release on his new Tamla label: Come to Me, in May 1959. Lacking national distribution, Gordy licensed it to Unit
Martha and the Vandellas: A Wrong-Day Audition and a Mustang Line Shoot
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!The group began in 1957 as the Del-Phis, formed in Detroit by Rosalind Ashford, Annette Beard and Gloria Williams, who took etiquette coaching from Maxine Powell. Martha Reeves, who had sung with the Fascinations, joined later. After flops on Checker and Checkmate, Reeves sang solo as Martha LaV
Mable John: Tamla's First Female Signee, a Stax Hit and a Divinity Degree
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Mable John was born in 1930 in Bastrop, Louisiana, the eldest of at least nine children, and moved with her family to Arkansas, where her brother Little Willie John was born, and then to Detroit in 1941. After Pershing High she worked at the Friendship Mutual Insurance Agency, run by Bertha Gord
Lionel Richie: A Would-Be Priest, Four Throat Surgeries and Baghdad Fans
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Lionel Richie was born in June 1949 in Tuskegee, Alabama and grew up on the Tuskegee Institute campus, in a grandparents' home the episode says was a gift from Booker T. Washington. He returned to Tuskegee on a tennis scholarship, studied economics, played in the Marching Crimson Pipers and cons
James Jamerson: One Finger, Dead Strings and a Bass Line Played Lying Down
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!James Jamerson was born on January 29, 1936 on Edisto Island, South Carolina, though he long believed it was 1938. Raised by a piano-playing grandmother and a choir-singing aunt, he started on piano and trombone, which the episode credits for his fretless, by-ear approach. He moved to Detroit in
Motortown Revue: Roped-Off Dance Floors and Fingertips Live at the Regal
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Through the 1960s Motown loaded its roster onto buses for the Motortown Revue, a package tour where early headliners Mary Wells, the Marvelettes, Barrett Strong, the Contours and closers Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were supported by unproven acts: Marvin Gaye, a young Stevie Wonder, the Tem
Jackson 5: Tito's Broken String, a 2.8% Royalty and the Epic Records Exit
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In Gary, Indiana in 1964, Tito Jackson broke a string on his father Joe's guitar, and instead of punishing him Joe bought him a guitar and formed the Jackson Brothers with Tito, Jermaine and Jackie. Marlon joined on tambourine and five-year-old Michael started on congas before moving to the micr
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