The end of Hitsville USA: What was Motown’s last-ever number-one single?
Musical expression and experimentation were at their peak in the United States back in the 1960s, but it was the sweet sounds of Motown Records which dominated the singles chart throughout that era. From its beginnings during the late 1950s, Berry Gordy’s grew exponentially, launching a plethora of iconic artists along the way, from Little Stevie Wonder to Diana Ross and The Supremes. Such an intense commercial prowess was never going to last forever, though.
When he first entered the music industry, Gordy arrived with an intimate knowledge of Detroit soul music, but, predominantly, he came with a business mindset. Throughout Motown’s tenure, Gordy was always looking to produce hit records above anything else, which likely explains the various experiments and oddities in the label’s discography during those early days in 1959. Once they struck commercial success, however, there was no stopping the label.
Motown’s very first hit record arrived in 1959, with Barrett Strong’s legendary single ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ reaching number 23 in the Billboard Hot 100 a few months after its initial release. This truly iconic track laid the foundation for the future of Gordy’s label and the Motown sound, which would go on to define the pop scene of the 1960s. Shortly after, in 1961, The Marvelettes earned Motown its first number-one with ‘Please Mr. Postman’, alerting the mainstream to the fact that Motown was here to stay.
Within the following decade, Motown would earn 110 top-ten hits in the US, not counting the various chart successes the label earned overseas, with the UK becoming particularly receptive to the Motown sound towards the end of the 1960s. Gordy had successfully grown the label from nothing into the biggest commercial powerhouse in American music at that time, amassing an unparalleled roster of now-iconic artists in the process.
Eventually, though, the label’s relevancy began to decline, as musical tastes changed during the 1970s. The emergence of styles like disco, coupled with the increasingly prevalent politics of funk and soul, put Motown at risk of losing its power. Stars like Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder continued to record hit singles for Motown throughout the 1970s, but even these became increasingly infrequent as the decade went on.
By the mid-1980s, Motown’s only remaining talent consisted of Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, the only two artists to achieve number-one singles for the label in that decade. So, being the business-minded individual that he is, Gordy sold off Motown to MCA in 1988, bringing an end to his time with the label. The next few years would see Motown change hands a multitude of times before eventually coming under the ownership of Universal.
So, what was the last number-one hit Motown released?
Although Motown’s post-Gordy period was nowhere near as successful as its 1960s heyday, it did witness a handful of notable hits. Between 1992 and 1997, the label produced four number-one singles, all of which were recorded by the vocal quartet Boyz II Men. Steeped in the history of Philadelphia soul and R&B, the group felt like a natural fit with Motown, and some of their most iconic works were released through the label.
The group’s final number-one for Motown, and the label’s last number-one to date, was the track ‘4 Seasons of Loneliness’, which arrived in September 1997. Outside of the US, the song reached the top ten in the UK singles chart. Following that single, the group continued to record for Motown, but none of their subsequent singles released on the once-mighty R&B label could match the success of ‘4 Seasons of Loneliness’.
Motown still exists today, having been absorbed into Universal in the late 1990s before being relaunched in 2005 and 2011, respectively. The latest incarnation of the label is a much more below-key affair than it had been under Gordy’s ownership, and its roster of artists is largely made up of hip-hop artists, including Vince Staples, Lakeyah, and Lil Baby, among others.
