I blame the UK radio of the day for the failure of Motown to take so long to start making regular and sustained visits to the UK top 20. We missed out on so many great hits. It was like we were late to the party. We even overlooked 'Dancing In The Street' first time around as it only made the top 10 in 1969!

As a child I had to tune into Radio Luxembourg, whose signal quality ranged from fairly good to non-existent, in order to hear what I now know as Motown. At school my love for Motown was not shared by my classmates as no one else had heard anything other than ‘My Guy’ and the Supremes two hits ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ & ‘Baby Love’! It wasn't until 1966 that I bought my first Motown albums which were compilations, ‘Motown Magic’ & ‘Hitsville USA’. Once RSG started plugging Motown, in particular the special which was hosted by Dusty Springfield, the Motown bandwagon started to roll slowly across the UK. The pirate radio station DJ’s loved Motown too especially Tony Blackburn. When they were closed down by the government in mid 1967 Tony joined the brand new BBC Radio 1 and continued to play Motown on his breakfast show.

For a couple of years the UK Motown office then played catch up with many earlier Motown single failures being re-issued and becoming hits at the second attempt. I think that's when many young teenage Brits took Motown to their hearts and started listening to what they had missed out on in the bad old radio days. I know that’s when I discovered many ‘lost’ classics.

All of Motown’s big names had numerous UK hits, all bar one that is. The Marvelettes who once reigned supreme as Motown’s premier girl group were one hit wonders reaching #13 in the summer of 1967 with ‘When You’re Young And In Love’! They were not part of the initial UK tour in 1965 but they did come over later. ‘I’ll Keep Holding On’ should have been a massive hit in 1965 but it bombed! I may be wrong but didn’t they perform it on ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ and RSG! or was just played?

Motown does have a special place in the hearts of the majority of UK baby boomers, I'm no longer on my own, but I’m sure that it’s loved the world over. Maybe it’s because that the UK is such a small country that it makes our love seem bigger! I just hope that when we are gone the next generation will continue to fly the flag. Is that too much to wish for I wonder?