Day 20: Motown

Eddie Kendricks
People...Hold On

Throughout the history of popular music, more than a few record labels have tackled particular styles of music with such singular approaches that their names have become synonymous with their respective idioms. Few, if any of these labels, however, have cultivated sounds as distinct or as wildly successful as the Motown sound during its heyday from the 1960s through the early 1970s. The empire whose timeline begins with the incorporation of Tamla Records in January of 1959, and whose history begins in earnest with Barrett Strong's #2 R&B hit "Money (That's What I Want)" which appeared later that year, eventually developed a house sound like no other. The extraordinary songwriting trio of Holland, Dozier and Holland wrote an inordinate number of Motown's hits, and the Funk Brothers, a select group of studio musicians whose ranks changed somewhat over the course of Motown's history, performed on the majority of records produced at the height of the label's popularity. A number of the early Funk Brothers, such as Benny Benjamin (drums) and James Jamerson (bass) were considered so crucial to the Motown sound that Barry Gordy and other producers refused to record without them. This is the stuff of legend. A Motown hound I met in Memphis last summer told me a story in which Gordy held up a recording session for hours waiting for Jamerson, who Gordy insisted should play even when he was eventually found in an advanced state of inebriation. I don't doubt the veracity of the story--in fact, such events probably happened frequently given that both Benjamin and Jamerson were documented fiends for the bottle.

Though the records of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Four Tops epitomized the Motown sound, the label continued to achieve significant commercial and artistic successes into the 1970s when artists such as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder broke away from the hit-making recipe of the 60s. Even as such artists took the reigns of their careers and broke new sonic ground, however, records put out on Motown retained the fundamental element of the formula that intially made the label so successful: an instantly accessible fusion of rhythm and blues and pop songcraft. This duality remained even as Motown began producing classic albums (What's Going On, Innervisions, Songs in the Key of Life) rather than just an endless string of chart-toppers.

One of the great, overlooked Motown albums of the early 70s was Eddie Kendrick's People... Hold On. An original member of the Temptations who frequently sang in falsetto, Hendricks took the lead on the classic "Just My Imagination (Runnin' Away With Me)" before he left the Temptations in 1971 to begin a solo career. Leaving the Temps, who were still enjoying incredible popularity at the time, was a risky move, but Kendricks disproved his doubters by recording not only a number of hits, but also one of the best later-period Motown LPs. Beginning with the funky groove of the otherwise straightforward pop opener "If You Let Me," People...Hold On is a rhythmic tour-de-force with addictive melodies to boot. "Day By Day" sounds like it could have been written by Stevie Wonder though it was actually penned by Terry McFaddin. The album's four Caston/Poree compositions are also extremely successful, especially the somewhat experimental "My People Hold On," which, with its chants and African drumming, may be as close as Motown ever got to roots music.

To hear audio clips of Eddie Kendricks, click here.