The 1971 soul hit that was rejected countless times before selling two million copies
By 1971, Berry Gordy had turned soul music into a bona fide hitmaking machine with Motown, taking it from a small operation that began in the humble streets of Detroit to a powerful global music presence that platformed some of the 20th century’s most iconic artists.
Gordy quickly understood how to blend genuine musical talent with commercial opportunity, carefully crafting his industry presence, but when asked about what the essence of a great Motown track was, he said, “It’s a combination of everything I heard in my life that makes you feel good. Whether it be gospel, blues, jazz, whatever…I don’t like labels. When people ask me, I just say it’s pop. That means it is popular; it sells over a million records. That’s what it was.”
But while he tried to posture as a tastemaker, the truth was, Gordy was more of a businessman. He knew what made him feel good, as long as he thought it had a chance of making money, and truthfully, he got it wrong on more than one occasion. Famously, he tried to block Marvin Gaye from releasing ‘What’s Going On’ because he couldn’t quite grasp the artistic vision that Gaye was projecting.
Thankfully for the world, his mistakes were ignored, and we all got to hear the song that introduced one of the greatest albums of all time. But while history has largely told the story of Gordy’s triumphant success with only a Marvin Gaye mishap to account for his lack of artistic nous, there were plenty more tracks he missed out on during his heyday.
Another came from the same year as ‘What’s Going On’, maybe hinting towards ‘71 being the year that his powers began to fade. Gordy, like many other label execs, passed up on a song that became one of the era’s most recognisable hits: Jean Knight’s ‘Mr Big Stuff’.
Following the recording sessions, Knight’s demo was shopped around to several national record labels, with most of them passing up on it. It wasn’t until Stax Records caught wind of Knight’s song, realising that it was recorded in the same Mississippi studio as King Floyd’s hit ‘Groove Me’, that it went on to achieve the success it deserved.
The record label took a chance and issued it as a single in May 1971, when it quickly rose to the top of the Billboard Soul chart and reached number two on the Hot 100. The rapid fire success of the record saw it go on to sell over two million copies and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, which is a feat that Knight has never topped in her near 26 year career thereafter.
It just goes to show that no matter how much authority the suit-wearing label execs of music’s record-making heyday liked to think, there was no formulaic recipe for success. Music couldn’t be analysed and tracked through sales, nor could an artist’s potential.
Success existed in the lap of musicians willing enough to share their art, as opposed to the businessman wanting to distribute it.
