464 PART 4 | SINCE WORLD WAR II
The company’s blend of pop lushness with rhythmic bite and imaginative
harmonies proved appealing to white and black listeners alike. In the racial cli-
mate of the 1960s and after, white teenage audiences were ready to respond to
black performers. Such Motown stars as Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey
Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and
the Jackson Five enjoyed great success in the marketplace.
Even more than Phil Spector or Stewart and A xton, Berry Gordy exercised
control over every aspect of creating a hit record. He not only supervised the
work of his staff song writers, arrangers, producers, vocalists, and instrumental-
ists, but also took an active role in distribution, marketing, and even the dress
and deportment of his singing stars. “I Heard It through the Grapevine” (LG
18.6), the work of two of the company’s staff song writers, the prolifi c Norman
Whitfi eld and Barrett Strong, is an example of Motown’s methods of creating
memorable soul records. In a practice not unusual at Motown, it was recorded
by more than one artist—in this case, by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, then
by Marvin Gaye, and then by Gladys Knight and the Pips. The third version was
the fi rst to be released, in September 1967. Emphasizing Knight’s gospel-style
vocal, backed with a funky beat and plenty of percussion, it reached number 1
on the R&B charts and number 2 on the pop charts. Just over a year later, Marvin
Gaye’s more brooding version was released and became one of the most success-
ful Motown singles of all time.
Like many popular songs from the 1960s to the present, “I Heard It through
the Grapevine” is cast in compound A A BA form. That is, a series of verse- chorus
pairs (the A sections) is broken up by a contrasting passage (the B section, or
bridge), which typically commences somewhere between halfway and two-thirds
through the record. The result combines features of a verse-chorus song, such as
“Mama Tried,” with the aaba structure of the classic popular song, such as “What
Is This Thing Called Love?” But whereas the classic aaba chorus is a thirty-two-
bar unit that typically is stated more than once to fi ll out a record, the compound
A ABA structure describes the entire record. Thus, the term bridge becomes rede-
fi ned, no longer as a segment within the chorus, but as a larger contrasting sec-
tion within the song as a whole.
Signifi cantly, the rise of compound A ABA form in the 1960s closely follows
the emergence of the songwriter-producer team. One of the fi rst top hits in
compound A ABA form was “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” which reached
number 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart early in 1965. Sung by the Righteous Broth-
ers, a white duo that specialized in “blue-eyed soul,” the song was written by a
Brill Building team, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, in collaboration with Phil
Spector, who produced the record w ith his characteristic Wall of Sound. T he ear-
lier Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths had written songs that were fl exible in structure,
adaptable to the needs and tastes of performers. In contrast, popular songwrit-
ers since 1960 have realized the need to craft a song in the newer sense: a specifi c
recorded performance, typically built up track by track in the recording studio,
using all the artifi ce of modern technology yet exuding an atmosphere of spon-
taneous music making: a recorded performance that listeners will come to think
of as the defi nitive version.
Compound AABA form is thus one of many aspects of music making pro-
foundly infl uenced by recording technology in the 1960s. From minimalism to
the Nashville sound, and from the records of Phil Spector to those of Berry Gordy,
style changes in the 1960s were closely related to activities in the sound studio. OfLG 18.6compound AABA formK Gladys Knight and the Pips
(from left: Edward Patten, Bubba
Knight, Gladys Knight, William
Guest). The poses, costumes,
and hairstyles refl ect Motown
founder Berry Gordy Jr.’s concern
that his label’s acts should appeal
to a broad swath of the popular
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