The Credits Of Liner Notes

[ajk93]

I'd like some more info on some of the most notorious Motown employees who seemed
to be credited on almost EVERY album's back. What do you guys know about:
-Billie Jean Brown
-Bernard Yeszin
-Scott St. James
I read in Ribowsky's Supremes book that Brown had many jobs at Motown, and they
used her to "create" stories for artists on their albums. However, that book is just
as bad as a thread about The Supremes here on SDF, so I can't believe a word he
says without some backup
Yeszin I know was a photographer, but was he actually employeed by Motown? Who
is he, and what's his deal?
Based on Scott St. James' wording, I'd assume he was a DJ. But I'd never heard of
him so if he was, where at and on which station?

Thanks in advance.

[ajk93]

BUMPIN' for some attention. Surely someone out there has something on one of these folks...

[bankhousedave]

I can tell you Bille Jean was the 'ears' of Motown. At the Quality Control meetings, producers brought their latest productions in for Billie Jean to listen to. If she nixed it, nixed it remained until HW and the Motown time team dug it out of the vaults. She wasn't always right, but she was never wrong.

SDF's own stalebagel, the legendary Al Abrams, can probably put you in the picture on the other two suspects.

[stalebagel]

Thanks Dave.
Bernard Yeszin was Motown's Art Director and we shared the attic office space directly over the studio. He was also my partner-in-crime in helping create the classic Tommy Good March on Hitsville in 1964.
Do not confuse Scott St. James with iconic Detroit DJ Scott Regen. Scott St. James was an in-house creation.

[Hotspurman]

A former student at Cass Technical High School, Billie Jean Brown [[born on 12 May 1941) joined Motown in 1960 as an assistant to Loucye Gordy, writing sleeve notes and sending out letters chasing payment for records sold. She would eventually become head of Quality Control, a position that would make her one of the most important executives at Motown, especially during the company’s early days. It was Billie Jean’s job to have all the week’s recordings ready for appraisal at the meeting, and she would often select records based on what she thought might sell, irrespective of the opinions of the artists and producers themselves; Beauty Is Only Skin Deep by The Temptations was her choice as a single, even though the group wanted to issue something else. The group appealed the decision directly to Berry Gordy, who called Billie Jean into his office, together with copies of Beauty Is Only Skin Deep and the group’s preferred choice. After listening to the two songs, he agreed to issue Billie Jean’s choice, which eventually topped the R&B chart. As Berry Gordy said of her, ‘Billie Jean was feared by almost every producer in the room because they knew she ‘had my ear.’ She had as keen a sense of what was a hit as anyone I knew. And she knew it. That’s why she sat there like a diva in the last act waiting for her solo. She was expressionless, nothing moving except her squinting eyes, which darted back and forth from one hopeful producer to another as if to say ‘Yes, I hold your fate in my hands.’ Billie Jean held the fate of the producers in her hands for nineteen years, during which time she also sat in judgement on several of the songs she wrote, including Here Comes The Judge by Shorty Long and I Promise To Wait My Love by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, before leaving Motown in order to take up a law degree.

[bankhousedave]

Nicely put, Hotspur. She also seemed to be right more often than not, bizarre though the arrangement might seem. What's more, the arbitrary nature of her original decision making process [[intended or otherwise) now means that we have almost as many great records still waiting to escape.