By the start of 1963, Berry Gordy was conscious of the need to improve Motown’s presence in the two biggest centres of music production in the USA, Los Angeles and New York, and also to develop overseas markets. The strongest European market was in the UK and it made sense to send Motown artists to perform in the UK, since it was and still is the third biggest music market in the world. Other European countries were added to the tour schedules in order to build a strong fan base in some of the world’s strongest economies. The wisdom of these business moves soon brought great rewards.
Raynoma Liles (Photo: Amsterdam News, Wikipedia)
The first decision Gordy took was to open an office in New York. He entrusted the task to Raynoma Liles, who was now his second wife, following his divorce from Thelma, and Stanley “Mike” Ossman, Raynoma’s half-brother, who was managing Jobete, writing a few songs and working behind the desk in Studio A. Raynoma Gordy was a talented singer and vocal coach, who was also involved in writing and arranging songs. She was a good choice for the job, but it may seem a little odd to send her away to New York. It seems that Berry Gordy had been reluctant to tie the knot in 1960 and by 1963 had more interest in a young lady called Margaret Norton. Raynoma, meanwhile, was attracted to Sonny Saunders.
Things came to a head early in 1963 when Raynoma followed Gordy and Norton to a bowling alley and took out a gun. Fortunately Smokey Robinson was on hand to calm things down, but Raynoma’s days in Detroit were numbered.
The office was duly set up in the Brill Building, where Raynoma appointed George Kerr and Sidney Barnes as Motown songwriters. The two men were members of the Serenaders, along with Andre Wilson, who, in 1964, recorded the first single released on the VIP label.
The Serenaders
Also working as songwriters alongside Kerr and Barnes were George Clinton, who had signed with Jobete in 1962, and Stanley Ossman. Raynoma also hired a number of session men, plus singer Sammy Turner, with recording sessions booked in a nearby studio, A-1 Studio, where Kerr and Barnes spent many hours recording demos. Unfortunately, the output was extremely thin in terms of Motown releases, but some of the Jobete songs, especially those written by Kerr and Barnes, were picked up by other artists on other labels.
Nevertheless, Berry Gordy had expected better results. When the initial funding ran out, he refused to send more money. Faced with imminent failure, Raynoma arranged for five thousand bootleg copies of Mary Wells’ hit “My Guy” to be pressed, which she was planning to sell to certain distributors. When Berry Gordy discovered what she had done, he reported the fraud to the authorities. Raynoma was arrested and later paid off by Gordy. Barney Ales was sent to New York to close the operation down in 1964.
Fortunately for Motown, the office that was later opened in Los Angeles met with greater success, thanks to Hal Davis, Marc Gordon and Frank Wilson, who thus laid the foundations for Motown’s move to the West Coast in 1972.
Developments in the UK also proved extremely successful. Berry Gordy, Barney Ales and Esther Gordy Edwards came to London in March 1963, to meet with Morris Levy at Oriole Records, who were at that time holding the licence to market Motown recordings. The aim of the visit was to end the deal with Oriole and then investigate other options that would involve Decca or EMI taking over the licence. Gordy was keen to move from a small distributor to a much bigger company. Decca turned down the offer from Gordy, but EMI seemed keen to replace Oriole. The Motown team decided to take the proposals back to the USA for discussion with attorney George Schiffer.
From London, the team travelled to France, Germany and Holland, in order to explore options for record distribution and music publishing across Western Europe. Deals were struck with Pathe-Marconi and Barclay in France, with CBS in Germany, and with Artone in the Netherlands. Aberbach agreed to take on the music publishing contract for the four countries plus Italy.
The most significant development came a few months later, when EMI signed a contract to take over from Oriole, starting in September 1963, with plans to issue the Motown recordings on their Stateside imprint. The first record that they handled was Martha & the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave”. It was a hit in the USA but failed to chart in the UK! Things got better in 1964, when Mary Wells’ “My Guy” went to number five on the Official UK Pop Singles chart, and then Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” went to number four, earning a gold disc in the UK. Gordy, Edwards and Ales must have felt pleased with the decision they had made.
