happy birthday, motown!

Motown Records turns 50 years young today. This is the greatest. Can you believe 50 years ago today Berry Gordy founded this label that would literally CHANGE THE WORLD? It's so great. I had a wine flight to celebrate. You know how mama loves her cab sav.

Here's the deal: everyone knows those massive Motown hits. They are timeless and amazing. In 1959, Berry Gordy (look at that suave SOB above) got a loan from his family. Somehow, they managed to scrape together $800 for lil Berry and he started Tamla Records. He had big dreams. Berry had already worked with and discovered Smokey Robinson's group The Miracles, so he started writing songs and building up his label with more artists. Eventually, Tamla turned into Motown and soon tons of baby hits were born. Berry was instrumental in promoting African American artists. He got people listening to the good stuff. He definitely knew what he was doing, because he also had a pretty strong hold on the public image of all his artists. None of this Motown folks from that time would be caught in Us Weekly, if you get my drift. Also, look at that totally baller garage that Berry Gordy used to CRANK OUT THE HITS. That is so tight.

The list would be eighteen miles long of all the amazing acts and hits from Motown. I've blogged about many of them, and they all mean so much to me. It's time to get real and let the magic of Motown wash over you. The true definition of soul.