‘Shop Around’: The first Motown single to sell a million copies
Crafting a hit single is by no means an easy task, yet Berry Gordy Jr seemed to have the secret recipe. From the very early days of his label, Motown Records, Gordy oversaw the release of some truly groundbreaking hit singles. The intense level of success witnessed by Motown was something that American popular culture had never seen before, and throughout the 1960s and beyond, the sweet sounds of Detroit’s soul became the de facto sound of the American mainstream.
Berry Gordy seemed to have a knack for spotting hit singles and trailblazing artists, going right back to the earliest origins of Motown. Back in 1957, two years prior to starting the label that would later become Motown, the budding music mogul forged a friendship with a then-17-year-old Smokey Robinson, who would become a key figure within the Motown story in the years that followed.
These days, Smokey Robinson is one of those names that is invariably linked to mainstream musical success. However, that reputation might never have been cultivated without the prosperous relationship between Robinson and Motown Records.
Motown’s first taste of mainstream success came in 1959, with the release of Barrett Strong’s ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’. This was the single that launched Tamla-Motown into the popular culture of America, and its success was a sign of things to come for Gordy’s label. A month after the release of Barrett Strong’s hit, Motown issued ‘Bad Girl’, the first single released by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles on Gordy’s label. Although the song charted regionally, its success did not quite match that of Strong.
Nevertheless, Motown remained steadfast in its support of Robinson and his group, issuing a plethora of their material on the label. Eventually, this support of the songwriter would pay off. In 1960, just over a year after the very first release on Tamla, Motown achieved their first-ever single to reach one million sales: The Miracles’ ‘Shop Around’.
Penned by Robinson alongside Gordy, the song was originally oriented around the blues. This initial version became known throughout Detroit, but Gordy decided the track needed to be rerecorded with a more pop-centric sound. This risk certainly paid off, as the new version of the song became a smash hit for the label. Eclipsing one million sales and reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100, the single kicked off Motown’s incredible run of hit singles, which continued throughout the 1960s.
Although ‘Shop Around’ was a huge success for Motown and Smokey Robinson, it bizarrely did not provide the label with its first number-one single. That accolade went to The Marvelettes, whose timeless track ‘Please Mr. Postman’ reached the top of the singles charts in 1961. Over the next decade, Motown would foster 110 top-ten hits, launching a range of now-iconic artists, including the likes of Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye.
When was the last Motown number one?
Motown Records dominated the singles charts throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. However, by the mid-1980s, interest in the label had waned considerably. The only remaining artists on the label who gave Gordy any success were Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, and Lionel Richie. So, before things became too dull, Gordy sold off the label to MCA in 1988. Since then, the Motown name has changed hands numerous times, but it has not had a number-one hit since 1997.
That hit came courtesy of Philadelphia harmony group Boyz II Men, who released their number-one track ‘4 Seasons of Loneliness’ in 1997. The song followed various other Motown-released number-one singles by the band, including the likes of ‘Say You, Say Me’, ‘End of the Road’, and ‘I’ll Make Love to You’. Motown was eventually merged with Universal Records in 2005, before being relaunched in 2011. Nevertheless, the new incarnation of Motown has yet to inspire a number-one single.
