How many Motown albums made it to number one?
Pop music works best in small doses, and during the 1960s nobody was as well-equipped to administer that quick hit of pop-soul mastery than Motown Records; the label that commanded the singles charts like no other. In spite of the label’s power, though, the album charts were far more elusive.
Since Berry Gordy started his Motown empire back in 1959, his mind was invariably fixed on the goal of creating hit singles, and he did just that. After Barrett Strong’s timeless classic ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ first established the label in the realm of the US singles chart, there was no stopping the commercial powerhouse of Hitsville USA. Throughout the 1960s, Motown was omnipresent within the charts, amassing well over a hundred top 20 entries between 1961 and 1971 alone, and launching a plethora of now-iconic pop stars in the process.
With that unshakable focus on the 45 rpm format, though, Motown’s album division wasn’t quite so busy. In fact, it wasn’t until 1961 that the label issued its first LP, in the form of The Miracles’ aptly-named Hi…We’re The Miracles, which failed to chart at all. Mind you, given the colossal success of their singles at the time, it seems unlikely that either Motown or The Miracles were too concerned with its chart placement – or lack thereof.
Even when Motown’s album output started to increase, towards the tail-end of the 1960s when the musical realm shifted to more expansive, long-format releases, chart-topping albums were still hard to come by. That is not to say, however, that the label didn’t have its fair share of hit albums.
Between the label’s first hit album in 1963 (Mary Wells’ Two Lovers And Other Great Hits) and Gordy’s decision to sell off the label in 1987, it had amassed 103 top 20 albums, but less than ten percent of those had reached the very peak of the charts. In total, Motown amassed nine number-one albums during Gordy’s tenure, with some of its most iconic offerings – like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On – failing to reach that top spot.
A pre-teen Stevie Wonder was the first to answer Motown’s prayers for a number-one album, with Record Live: 12 Year Old Genius taking the top spot in 1963, but the pianist’s next flirts with the top of the album charts didn’t arrive until his creative peak in the 1970s, with Songs In The Key Of Life spending 14 weeks at the number-one spot.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, it was Motown’s flagship heroine, Diana Ross who amassed the majority of those nine number-one albums, either in a solo capacity or alongside her Supremes sorority. Meanwhile, Lionel Richie’s pop dominance saw him become Motown’s defining star during the 1980s, earning him two number-one albums in the process, including Can’t Slow Down.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the label fared a little better, with volumes three, four, and five of its Motown Chartbusters compilation series topping the UK albums chart between 1970 and 1971. Motown also achieved another number-one record in the US, in the form of Boyz II Men and their album II, which topped the charts in 1994, but that was long after Gordy severed his relationship with the label, leaving it a husk of its former self.
Nevertheless, for a record label that, in many ways, defined the sound of 1960s America, as well as cultivating an unparalleled number of utterly iconic singles, the fact that Motown only ever achieved nine number-one albums in the US is almost unbelievable. Then again, the charts are always full of surprises.
The only Motown albums to reach number-one in the charts:
- Stevie Wonder – Record Live: The 12 Year Old Genius (1963)
- The Supremes – The Supremes A’ Go-Go (1966)
- Diana Ross and The Supremes – Greatest Hits (1967)
- Diana Ross and The Supremes with The Temptations – T.C.B. (1969)
- Diana Ross – Lady Sings The Blues (1973)
- Stevie Wonder – Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974)
- Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key Of Life (1976)
- Lionel Richie – Can’t Slow Down (1983)
- Lionel Richie – Dancing On The Ceiling (1986)
