Berry Gordy
b. Berry Gordy Jnr., 28 November 1929, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Gordy took his first tentative steps into the music business in 1955, when he opened a jazz record store in Detroit. When it folded, he returned to the automobile assembly lines until he met the manager of young R&B singer Jackie Wilson. Gordy wrote Wilson's first major hit, the novelty and now classic Reet Petite, and joined the singer's entourage, composing four further chart successes over the next two years. In 1958, Gordy set himself up as an independent producer, working with young unknowns like the Miracles, Marv Johnson and Eddie Holland. That year he formed the Jobete Music company to handle songs by himself and his associates. At the suggestion of the Miracles’ vocalist Smokey Robinson, Gordy went a stage further in 1959 by launching his own record company, Tamla Records. This was merely the first of a succession of labels gathered under his Motown Records umbrella, which rapidly became one of America's most important independent concerns. 
Gordy masterminded Motown from the outside, choosing the artist-roster, writing and producing many of the early releases, and chairing weekly meetings which determined every aspect of the company's artistic direction. Having co-produced and co-written Motown's first major hit, the Miracles’ Shop Around in 1960, Gordy was also responsible for hits like Do You Love Me and Shake Sherry by the Contours, Fingertips (Part 2) by Stevie Wonder, Try It Baby by Marvin Gayeand Shotgun by Junior Walker And The All Stars. As Motown's influence and reputation grew, Gordy groomed a school of producers and writers to create the style which he dubbed ‘The Sound of Young America’. Gradually his own artistic input lessened, though he continued to collaborate on Supremes’ hits like Love Child and No Matter What Sign You Are until the end of the decade. His time was primarily devoted to increasing Motown's market share, and to dealing with a series of bitter clashes between artists and company which threatened to halt the label's progress by the early '70s. Anxious to secure new power bases, Gordy shifted Motown's main offices from Detroit to California, and inaugurated a new films division with the highly-acclaimed LADY SINGS THE BLUES. This movie starred former Supreme Diana Ross, with whom Gordy had long been rumoured to be enjoying a romantic liaison. Their relationship was part of the company backbone, and her eventual decision to leave Motown in the early '80s was read as an indicator of the label's declining fortunes. 
Having lost many of its major creative talents, Motown subsisted through the '70s and early '80s on the backs of several unique individuals, notably Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie. Gordy was no longer finding significant new talent, however; ironically, one of his company's most successful newcomers of the '80s was his own son , Rockwell. Gordy's personal career has long since been synonymous with the fortunes of his company, and he surprised the industry when he sold Motown Records to MCA in 1988—just weeks after he had been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame in recognition of his pioneering talents as a major songwriter, impresario and executive.