Billboard's Most Popular Motown Songs

[jobeterob]

Just another list, but comparing decades to decades:


Top singles of the 60's:

8. I Heart it through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
21. Love Child - Ross & Sups
36. I Can't Get Next to You - Tempts
52. Someday We'll Be Together - Ross & Sups
66. My Guy - Mary Wells
84. Baby Love - Sups
86. Come See About Me - Sups


Top Singles of the 70's

20. I'll Be There - J5
28. Let's Get it on - Marvin
41. Three Times a Lady - Commodores
50. Don't Leave me this Way - Thelma
51. Keep on Truckin - Eddie
74. Touch me in the Morning - Diana
78. Still - Commodores
85. War - Edwin

Top Singles of the 80's

5. Endless Love - Ross & Richie
19. Upside Down - Diana
55. Hello - Lionel
69. I Just Called to say I Love You - Stevie
74. Say You Say Me - Lionel
84. Being with You - Smokey
100. Cruisin - Smokey

[soulster]

Man, the 80s list is depressing.

[roger]

It would be interesting to know on what basis these positions have been compiled .. sales? airplay? personal nominations?

Roger

[kenneth]

Without the link to the original article, it's impossible to know the context.

[florence]

If these are the original decade lists the way Billboard calculated such was to give the #1 song each week 100 pts, the #2 99 pts etc down to 1pt for #100.

Then it ran in points order. I would guess any ties might be decided by highest position reached, weeks onchart.

[jobeterob]

It's just the original Billboard Charts, compiled as Florence sets out, put together by Joel Whitburn. There isn't an article - I just picked out the Motown songs - this one is Billboard Hottest Hot 100 hits.

I'll take a look tonight and throw in some non Motown songs for context - like Billie Jean and Midnight Train to Georgia.

The 1980's does look pretty smaltzy; but nothing compared to what was coming in the 2000's.

[marybrewster]

The 90's had to have been very strong with Boyz II Men.

[jobeterob]

That book didn't do the 90's or beyond. But probably I'll Make Love to You and One Fine Day are in the Top 5. Beyond that and another Boyz2Men song or two, there wouldn't be much Motown. Maybe I Love Your Smile by Shanice????

[marv2]

That book didn't do the 90's or beyond. But probably I'll Make Love to You and One Fine Day are in the Top 5. Beyond that and another Boyz2Men song or two, there wouldn't be much Motown. Maybe I Love Your Smile by Shanice????

For the life of me, I don't know why it just escapes people that BoyzIIMen's mega-hit "End of the Road" never listed or talked about especially here. It stayed at number 1 longer than any other record ever released by Motown. I think it maybe the longest at number one overall! That's "End of the Road"!

[jobeterob]

I'll Make Love to You tied The End of the Road in weeks at the top and I believe ranked a little bit higher than The End of the Road overall; then One Fine Day surpassed them; but The End of the Road will be right up there.

By the 90's, the singles were staying on the charts forever and so if you lump them all together, the 90's ended up with far more singles on these lists than other decades ~ a good reason to break it into decades ~ because you then compare apples to apples.

[jobeterob]

Here's a 90's list but I dont think it is from Billboard; I see the BoyznMariah song is actually called One Sweet Day ~ shows how much I know about music from that era.

And I see there is a mistake on this list about who sang I'll Make Love to You.

#1 One Sweet Day - Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men
#2 Macarena - Los Del Rio
#3 I'll Make Love To You - Elton John
#4 Candle In The Wind 1997/ Something About The Way You Look Tonight - Elton John
#5 I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
#6 End Of The Road - Boyz II Men
#7 The Boy Is Mine - Brandy & Monica
#8 Smooth - Santana w/ Rob Thomas
#9 Un-Break My Heart - Toni Braxton
#10 I Swear - All- 4- One

[marybrewster]

A few songs that come to mind:

Rub You the Right Way - Johnny Gill #3 Hot 100 / #1 R & B
My, My, My - Johnny Gill #10 Hot 100, #1 R & B
I Love Your Smile - Shanice #2 Hot 100 / #1 R & B
Dial My Heart - The Boyz #13 Hot 100 / #1 R & B
U.N.I.T.Y - #30 Hot 100 / #7 R & B [[Grammy Award winner)
Motownphilly - B2M #3 Hot 100
It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday - B2M #2 Hot 100 / #1 R & B
Uhh Ahh - B2M #16 Hot 100 / #1 R & B
End of the Road - B2M #1 Hot 100 / #1 R & B [[Listed as #43 Billboard's All Time Top 100)
I'll Make Love to You - B2M #1 Hot 100 / #1 R & B
On Bended Knee - B2M #1 Hot 100 / #2 R & B
Water Runs Dry - B2M #2 Hot 100 / #4 R & B
4 Seasons of Loliness - B2M #1 Hot 100 / #2 R & B
A Song for Mama - B2M #7 Hot 100 / #1 R & B

"One Sweet Day" [[Boyz II Men / Mariah Carey) is not a Motown song; it was released on Columbia.

[milven]

For the life of me, I don't know why it just escapes people that BoyzIIMen's mega-hit "End of the Road" never listed or talked about especially here. It stayed at number 1 longer than any other record ever released by Motown. I think it maybe the longest at number one overall! That's "End of the Road"!

I think End of the Road was Motown's most successful single displacing Endless Love, which displaced Grapevine by Marvin Gaye. End of The Road also stayed at number one longer than any other single - at least for a few weeks til Whitney Houston's I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU came out. But these are just numbers on a chart that are easily manipulated by everyone in the industry from the President of a record company to promotional people, to every one else on down in the industry.

I can remember how hard people in the industry worked to keep the song at number one to beat some record. It may have been Elvis. And then a month or so later, Clive Davis pulled out his bag of tricks to make Whitney beat Boyz II Men.

Other artists who had a lot of help with their records were Michael and Mariah. I looked at the charts every week, but don't have much faith in what they say

[soulster]

It would be interesting to know on what basis these positions have been compiled .. sales? airplay? personal nominations?

Roger

Sales and airplay. That's how Billboard used to rank songs. It is considered the industry bible.

[soulster]

It's just the original Billboard Charts, compiled as Florence sets out, put together by Joel Whitburn. There isn't an article - I just picked out the Motown songs - this one is Billboard Hottest Hot 100 hits.

I'll take a look tonight and throw in some non Motown songs for context - like Billie Jean and Midnight Train to Georgia.

The 1980's does look pretty smaltzy; but nothing compared to what was coming in the 2000's.

One thing to keep in mind is that the R&B version will be different.

For the 80s, the Joel Whitburn R&B rankings for Motown are:

1. That Girl - Stevie Wonder
2. Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Ritchie
3. All Night Long [[All Night) - Lionjel Ritchie
4. Master Blaster [[Jammin') - Stevie Wonder
5. Let's Get Serious - Jermaine Jackson
6. Part-Time Lover - Stevie Wonder
7. Cold Blooded - Rick James
8. Time Will Reveal - DeBarge
9. Let It Whip - Dazz Band
10. Give It To me baby - Rick James
11. Being With You - Smokey Robinson
12. Somebody's Watching me - Rockwell

Now, that's a list I can live with!

[soulster]

The 70s:

1. The Love You Save - The Jackson 5
2. Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
3. Signed Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours - Stevie Wonder
4. I'll be There - the Jackson 5
5. Got To Give It Up [[Pt. 1) - Marvin Gaye
6. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
7. I Wish - Stevie Wonder

[soulster]

The 60s:

1. I Can't Help Myself - Four Tops
2. Shop Around - The Miracles
3. Ain't Too Proud to Beg - The Temptations
4. Please Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes
5. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
6. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Gladys Knight & The Pips
7. Too Busy Thinking About My baby - Marvin gaye
8. Fingertips - Part 2 - Little Stevie Wonder
9. My Girl - The Temptations
10. Uptight [[Everything's Alright) - Stevie Wonder
11. Beauty's Only Skin Deep - The Temptations

Notice a certain group's not here? These are the stats.

[Glenpwood]

The last Motown label Hot 100 top 10's came back in 2000 with "Back at One" by Brian McKnight and Erykah Badu's "Bag Lady."

Charts are a great indicator of success but they can be manipulated. Most of Mariah Carey's Number One's in the 1990's were helped along by the use of free goods to stores that could be sold for $0.49 or $0.99 cents. Granted you can't force someone to ultimately buy it but having worked in CD stores for 10 years if a customer had four dollars to waste on singles they would buy 4 $0.99 sale ones before splurging for just 1 $3.49 full price one. The charts don't end up meaning much as far as what ends up getting recurrent airplay as an oldie. One of the most commonly played Motown family of label hits today is "Super Freak" which stopped at #16 Pop in 1981. The Dave Chappelle association helped bring it back certainly but it also helped that its a great song that didn't get burned out by becoming a multi week chart topper like "I Just Called To Say I Love You" or "Endless Love" that got played to death.

[motony]

Billboard did not have an R& B chart in 1964. "My Guy" was a much bigger seller then those Supremes records[[45's).

[roger]

Glenpwood ..

I suspect that the enduring appeal of "Super Freak" by RICK JAMES owes quite a lot to the success of "U Can't Touch This" by M.C.Hammer in 1990 [[#8 "Pop" and #1 "R&B" on the Billboard charts), which used the instrumental version of the song as its music.

Roger

[soulster]

Glenpwood ..

I suspect that the enduring appeal of "Super Freak" by RICK JAMES owes quite a lot to the success of "U Can't Touch This" by M.C.Hammer in 1990 [[#8 "Pop" and #1 "R&B" on the Billboard charts), which used the instrumental version of the song as its music.

Roger

I doubt it. "Super Freak" was wildly popular way back in 1982, when it was first released. In fact, the reason for it's popularity was the appearance of The Temptations. On top of that, it was more new-wavish sounding, which saved it from the R&B ghetto of the early 80s.

[soulster]

Billboard did not have an R& B chart in 1964. "My Guy" was a much bigger seller then those Supremes records[[45's).

Billboard retired it's R&B chart in late 1963 because it was felt that it was no longer needed, due to the frequency in crossover hits. In late 1964, they reversed their decision.

But, "My Guy" still did not make the 60s list, perhaps because of this.

[jobeterob]

From reading the essays that go with the Complete Motown singles and Where Did Our Love Go, the Limited Edition, I believe Where Did Our Love Go was the best selling single out of Motown in 1964 and the album Where Did Our Love Go outsold nearly every other album of any kind that year.

[soulster]

That makes sense...

[Ngroove]

I doubt it. "Super Freak" was wildly popular way back in 1982, when it was first released. In fact, the reason for it's popularity was the appearance of The Temptations. On top of that, it was more new-wavish sounding, which saved it from the R&B ghetto of the early 80s.

Yeah, even myself, on my initial listens / watching of Superfreak and it’s music video, I was kinda scratching my head on the part of “Temptations sing!”, with that use of stock vintage Ruffin-days Temptations footage – THE Temptations – the “My Girl” Temptations?

But hey, listening deeper into the Rick James catalog, as well as Teena Marie’s “It Must Be Magic” album, the Tempts were apparently back and hot in high demand in the early eighties– and their uses were never more fun!

Also, highly cracked me up on Melvin Franklin’s part in “Give It To Me Baby” - “ Hey Girl” – HAHAHAHA, pimpin’ it out with the best of em’!

[soulster]

That's probably why they signed a new contract with Motown in the 80s and came up with "Treat Her Like A Lady" in 1985. But, I still prefer their 1980 song "Power".

[jobeterob]

Others:

From the 60's

1. The Twist - Chubby
5. Aquarius, Let the Sunshine In - 5D
22. Everyday People - Sly
32. Dock of the Bay - Otis
42. Will You Still Love me Tomorrow - Shirelles
54. Ode to Billie Joe - Bobbie G.
76. Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
87. Downtown - Petula C.
93. A Hard Days Night - Beatles

70s

1. You Light Up my Life - Debby Boone
4. Le Freak - Chic
7. Night Fever - Bee Gees
14. YMCA - Village P.
19. I Will Survive - Gloria
22. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta
31. Bad Girls - Donna S
36. Bridge Over Trouble Water - S & G
54. The Way We Were - Barbra
63. I'll Never Love This Way Again - Dionne
65. Ring My Bell - Anita Ward
75. Killing Me Softly - Roberta
77. Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys & Pips
82. I Gotcha - Joe Tex
88. Family Affair - Sly
100. Let it Be - Beatles


80s

1. Physical - Olivia
7. Flashdance - Irene Cara
14. Billie Jean - MJ
20. When Doves Cry - Prince
34. Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
36. Whats Love Got to do With it - Tina
58. Maniac - Michael Sembello
68. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker
90. Sexual Healing - Marvin
97. On My Own - Patti & Michael
99. I feel for you - Chaka