The most played Motown song of the 20th century in the USA
Hitsville, USA, became the sound of modern culture in the 20th century. Perhaps without the label ever fully intending to do so, the stories of our societal age and Motown are irrevocably interlinked.
Berry Gordy might have founded the label in 1959 with little more than an $800 nest egg, but soon it was a giant dominating the radio waves of America, and soon enough, the world. The honed soul it produced mimicked the life of its creators: you had the steady backbeat that transfigured the pulsing piston of the factories that sounded off all over Detroit.
Then, you had the danceable sense of weekend reverie that these hardworking folks were living for. And the sultry undertone symbolised the sexual awakening sweeping over the world since the rise of the pill and over contraceptives. It all blended together into a perfect pop formula, and the label was soon endowed with 32 number one hits by the time the 1960s came to a close.
It was all pretty simple. As Stevie Wonder put it, “Motown brought people together; it had this infectious kind of music, and before you knew it, you were clapping along to it and rocking to it, and the songs were all positive. Even if you had a love song, there was something to learn from it.”
In fact, Gordy sadly confessed that he thought the whole thing was a little too simple and pure to ever be replicated in the world that has unravelled in its wake. “Motown educated people through song. You have no control over your emotions when you hear a song,” he said, “It makes you dance, makes you sing, makes you happy, sad. We just wanted to do music for the world.”
Adding, “Motown is a magical something that has never been seen before and will never be seen again. Because the world has changed for the worse. And to have a company like that is probably impossible now. It was too simple to be believed.”
That ability to be knowable and infectious made it perfect for the radio. Not to mention the fact that Gordy also enforced a pretty strict radio-friendly policy. So, it’s perhaps no surprise that when BMI – “a performing rights organisation that represents more than 250,000 songwriters, composers and publishers with a repertoire of more than three million songs and compositions from around the world and in all genres of music” – compiled the most played songs in America in the 20th century on radio and TV, a track from Hitsville was right near the top.
What was the most popular Motown song?
Written and produced by the label’s classic songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’ would be passed onto the new (old) kids on the block, The Four Tops, and it became the perfect launchpad. Released in 1964, it was the group’s first single, and it instantly rose to 11th in the charts. But its story didn’t stop there.
The song’s simple cha-cha beat ensured that it was widely covered, and each new version only further asserted the superiority of the original. So, despite failing to break into the top ten, it continued to receive extensive airplay. It became a staple soppy love song – the signature track of the 20th century.
So, it achieved a rather definitive nature and ramped up plays, found itself plonked on TV shows, and caused the nation to swoon countless times. In fact, only seven songs were heard more than ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’ in the whole century. Not bad for a song recorded in a single night after Brian Holland saw the quartet, who had already been around on the scene for 11 years at this stage, performing it on an idle night in a Detroit bar. If that’s not a symbol of the times, then what is?
