Imagine motown without smokey

[arr&bee]

Yes berry is the one who started motown and discovered the miracles,but suppose that smokey had not gone to motown,would we be having these discussions today?would hdh have been able to sustain the demand for hits that berry would've needed to stay on top?..my answer is no!!!

[marv2]

Impossible to imagine that here.

[Motown Eddie]

Yes berry is the one who started motown and discovered the miracles,but suppose that smokey had not gone to motown,would we be having these discussions today?would hdh have been able to sustain the demand for hits that berry would've needed to stay on top?..my answer is no!!!

My answer is no-I can't imagine Motown Records without Smokey Robinson. After all, he encouraged Berry Gordy to set up his own record company when he was receiving very little in the way of money for the work he was doing for others labels [[for example, the infamous check that Berry got for $3.19).

[arr&bee]

Hey marv,you know me-always going where no poster would dare,besides it's food for thought.

[Bluebrock]

Smokey is a crucial part of the Motown story. It is impossible to imagine Motown without his invaluable contributions in so many different ways, Therefore i agree with the rest of you and answer a resounding NO!!

[marv2]

Hey marv,you know me-always going where no poster would dare,besides it's food for thought.

I know man! I was almost afraid to read the last lines of your post. I thought you were going to say something like put "this person" in the place of "Smokey Robinson"etc,etc,.....................

[arr&bee]

Hey marv,i ain't that drunk-hehe..nobody is smokey!!!

[marv2]

Hey marv,i ain't that drunk-hehe..nobody is smokey!!!

Well it's Friday..............................what are you waiting on? LOL!

[tjl]

I was just remembering an interview we did with one of the great Philly Motown & Doo Wop DJ's on WOGL, Harvey Holiday. We asked him about the influences of Motown on Philly and he recounted a story from an earlier interview he did with Mr. Gordy, where Mr. Gordy talked about how he and Smokey were hand delivering records to radio jocks in the early days and skidded off the road in an ice storm [[around the time of "Bad Girl").

Harvey asked, "Mr. Gordy - can you imagine what would have happened if you and Smokey got seriously injured or worse in that wreck - - there never would have been a Motown, Smokey never would have wrote "The Way You Do The Things You Do" or "My Girl'....all that happened with the artists we love might not have followed in the way we know Motown today".

That thought still leaves me with a chill when Harvey re-told that story on one of our tv specials.

[robb_k]

Yes berry is the one who started motown and discovered the miracles,but suppose that smokey had not gone to motown,would we be having these discussions today?would hdh have been able to sustain the demand for hits that berry would've needed to stay on top?..my answer is no!!!
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I agree. If not for Smokey, Berry may never had had money coming in to continue operating Tamla Records, and enjoy the later success of HDH, Norman Whitfield, etc. Tamla might have gone bust, and Gordy may have had a 40 year career with Ford [[or was it GM)?