Ray Singleton
Raynoma Mayberry Liles Gordy Singleton (March 8, 1937 – November 11, 2016) was an American R&B producer, songwriter, and vocalist perhaps best known for her association with ex-husband, Berry Gordy during the early days of Motown when she was often known as Miss Ray. Early life Raynoma Mayberry was born on March 8, 1937, in Detroit, Michigan. She was her mother Lucille's eighth child, but her first by her marriage to Ashby Mayberry. Although her father worked as a janitor for Cadillac, he did well enough to purchase a house on Detroit's Blaine Street in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. In the mid 1950s, Raynoma met and married Charles Liles, an aspiring musician. They had one son, Cliff Liles, born in December 1955. Burdened by financial pressures, the marriage soon folded. Career Early association with Berry Gordy In 1958, Raynoma and her younger sister, Alice, auditioned as a duo for a young songwriter named Berry Gordy. Sensing that Gordy was not excited about their s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area, and the 14th-largest in the United States. Regarded as a major cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music, art, architecture and design, in addition to its historical automotive background. ''Time'' named Detroit as one of the fifty World's Greatest Places of 2022 to explore. Detroit is a major port on the Detroit River, one of the four major straits that connect the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The City of Detroit anchors the second-largest regional economy in t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. A songwriter who mainly writes the lyrics for a song is referred to as a lyricist. The pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that song writing is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with the task of creating original melodies. Pop songs may be composed by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have external publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees, c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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My Guy
"My Guy" is a 1964 hit single by Mary Wells for the Motown label. Written and produced by Smokey Robinson of The Miracles, the song is a woman's rejection of a sexual advance and affirmation of her fidelity to her boyfriend, who is her ideal and with whom she is happy, despite his ordinary physique and looks. Mary Wells version At the session for the "My Guy" backing track, the studio musicians were having issues completing the intro: with the musicians having been playing all day and a half-hour scheduled studio time left, trombonist George Bohanon said to keyboardist Earl Van Dyke that the opening measure of "Canadian Sunset" could be perfectly juxtaposed on the intro's chord changes, and Van Dyke, the session bandleader, expediently constructed an intro incorporating the opening of "Canadian Sunset" and also the "left hand notes" from "Canadian Sunset" composer Eddie Heywood's rendition of "Begin the Beguine". Van Dyke would recall: "We were doing anything to get the hell out ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Copyright Infringement
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works. The copyright holder is typically the work's creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assigned. Copyright holders routinely invoke legal and technological measures to prevent and penalize copyright infringement. Copyright infringement disputes are usually resolved through direct negotiation, a notice and take down process, or litigation in civil court. Egregious or large-scale commercial infringement, especially when it involves counterfeiting, is sometimes prosecuted via the criminal justice system. Shifting public expectations, advances in digital technology and the increasing reach of the Internet ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kerry Gordy
Kerry Ashby Gordy (born June 25, 1959) is a career music executive, and fourth eldest son of the founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy. Kerry is the chief executive officer of Kerry Gordy & Associates, Inc. LLC, KGIP Inc., Dakia-Gordy and NuVintage, LLC., intellectual property and branding companies focused on entertainment. Early years Gordy was born in Detroit, Michigan to multi-instrumentalist, Motown songwriter and arranger, Raynoma Mayberry and Berry Gordy. He was born the same year that his father founded Motown Records on West Grand Boulevard which housed the Hitsville U.S.A/Motown recording studios. Gordy's mother, was a child prodigy in music and played eleven instruments. She orchestrated the early arrangements for Motown. Gordy lived with his mother until the age of 13, at which point he began to live full-time with his father. In 1972, Gordy moved to Los Angeles, California with his father and became one of his protégés, along with best friend and business partn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Janie Bradford
Janie Bradford (born June 2, 1939 in Charleston, Missouri, United States) is an American songwriter, most known for her tenure with Motown. With Berry Gordy, she co-wrote "Money (That's What I Want)", originally recorded by Barrett Strong, and then by The Beatles on their second album ''With The Beatles''. "Money" is also on The Rolling Stones' first UK EP (January 17, 1964). Other hits by Bradford include "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" by Marvin Gaye (although originally by The Temptations), and also recorded by Phil Collins, "Contract On Love" by Little Stevie Wonder and "Your Old Standby" for Mary Wells. She worked at Motown for more than 25 years. Currently, Bradford is the executive director of the Janie Bradford HAL Scholarship Fund and producer of the Heroes And Legends a.k.a. HAL Awards, an annual event that raises funds for performing arts scholarships while paying tribute to entertainment legends, including many of Motown's biggest stars. She has also established T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter and producer. He led the group from its 1955 origins as "the Five Chimes" until 1972, when he announced his retirement from the group to focus on his role as Motown's vice president. However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year. Robinson left Motown Records in 1990, following the sale of the company two years earlier. Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and was awarded the 2016 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for his lifetime contributions to popular music. In 2022, he was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. Early life and early career William Robinson Jr. was born to an African-American father and a mother of African-American and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Andantes
The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers, among others. It is estimated they appeared on 20,000 recordings. The Andantes provided back-up singing on Motown singles starting in 1962. The group was most prominently used on all of the Four Tops' Holland–Dozier–Holland-produced hits, including "Baby I Need Your Loving", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", "Reach Out I'll Be There", and more. Motown began to use the Andantes as background vocal substitutes for the vast majority of recordings for its girl groups beginning with the Marvelettes recordings in 1965, Martha & the Vandellas in 1966, and major p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sonny Sanders
William Nelson "Sonny" Sanders (August 6, 1939 – October 12, 2016) was an American soul music singer, songwriter, arrangement, arranger, and record producer. Born in Chicago, Sanders made his first recording in 1955, on "Tears of Love" / "Roxanna" by Sax Kari and the Qualtones. The Satintones, ''HarmonyTrain.com'' Retrieved 17 October 2016 He formed the Satintones in Detroit in 1957, with Robert Bateman (songwriter), Robert Bateman, James Ellis and Sammy Mack. They became the first vocal group signed to Motown, and released their first record, "Going to the Hop" / "Motor City" in 1960. Sanders also worked as a backing singer at Motown, on such records as Marv Johnson's "You Got What It Takes" and Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)"; and as an arranger. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Robert Bateman (songwriter)
Robert Bateman (April 30, 1936 – October 12, 2016) was an American R&B singer, songwriter and record producer. Among other songs, he co-wrote the hits " Please Mr. Postman" and "If You Need Me". Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, he was one of the founding members of vocal group the Satintones in Detroit, Michigan, in 1957. Bateman was the bass singer. "Correc-Tone: Introduction", ''Soulful Detroit.com'' Retrieved 16 October 2016 In 1959, the group made their first recordings for , and Bateman did additional work for the company as a backing sing ...
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Brian Holland
Brian Holland (born February 15, 1941) is an American songwriter and record producer, best known as a member of Holland–Dozier–Holland, the songwriting and production team that was responsible for much of the Motown sound, and numerous hit records by artists such as Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and The Isley Brothers. Holland, along with Lamont Dozier, served as the team's musical arranger and producer. He has written or co-written 145 hits in US and 78 in the UK. Holland was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States. For a short time, he partnered with Robert Bateman, and together they were known as "Brianbert", collaborating on such hits as " Please Mr. Postman" for The Marvelettes. Holland has also had an on-and-off career as a performer. He released a solo single in 1958 under the name of "Briant Holland". He and longtime friend and future songwriting partner Freddie Gorman were in a short-lived group called the Fidalatones, and he was later ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds. In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations and initialisms (including acronyms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in layman’s terms. Contraction is also distinguished from morphological clipping, where beginnings and endings are omitted. The definition overlaps with the term portmanteau (a linguistic ''blend''), but a distinction can be made between a portmanteau and a contraction by noting that contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as ''do'' and ''not'', whereas a portmanteau word is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept that the portmanteau describes. English English has a number of con ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |