Motorcity Records

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

Motorcity Records

Founded	1987
Founder	Ian Levine
Distributing label	PRT, Pacific, Charly, Total/BMG
Genre	R&B/soul music, pop music, Motown
Country of origin	United Kingdom

Motorcity Records is a British record label formed by producer Ian Levine in 1989. The label aimed to record new material with former Motown artists.

1 History
2 See also
3 Links
4 Sources

[edit] History

Levine, a Motown fan since his childhood in the 1960s, was offered to record Kim Weston on his Hi-NRG label Nightmare in 1987. The result Signal Your Intention topped the UK Hi-NRG charts and met with enthusiasm from Motown fans. Kim Weston brought other former Motown acts to the label, including Mary Wells (of My Guy fame), The Velvelettes and Marv Johnson. Mary Wilson of The Supremes followed next and during 1988, a full Motown reunion began to take shape. In April 1989, more than 60 artists gathered in front of the legendary Hitsville studios in Detroit, receiving ample media coverage. Later in the year, Levine changed the label name to Motorcity Records.

The various artists compilation Motorcity Magic, 1991

Joined by former Motown writers like Sylvia Moy, Johnny Bristol and Ivy Jo Hunter, Levine and his crew wrote and produced around the clock, getting the backing tapes recorded in London while vocal sessions took place in both Detroit and Los Angeles, but despite the media attention and prominent artists in the roster of the likes of Martha & The Vandellas, five of the eight original members of The Supremes to solo contracts, and signed Jean Terrell, Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence as Jean, Scherrie & Lynda of The Supremes (besides the late Florence Ballard, only short of Diana Ross and Cindy Birdsong), it proved harder than expected to get the product released. In the U.S., the record companies were reluctant to invest in artists of yesteryear.

In the UK, Levine released several singles and albums - both studio albums and various artists compilations but ran into a string of bad luck with shifting distributors (PRT, Pacific and Charly) early on. Furthermore the records, although heavily supported by UK magazine Blues & Soul, were often criticized for having the music recorded with Fairlight synthesizers rather than using real musicians, a fact that Levine himself has also regret years later. "The sound of these records often didn't sit well with old Motown fans that wanted to hear a live rhythm section as much as they did the outstanding unimpaired vocals of many veteran soul singers", former Motorcity employee Ralph Tee said. "At the time it meant that much of the music didn't unfortunately reach its potential". (Quote from The Strange World of Northern Soul box set, 2003) Levine relentlessly continued during 1990-91 with the number of artists growing to 108 former Motown acts signed while sinking deeper into financial problems. In 1991, however, Motorcity had a hit single with Footsteps Following Me - performed, ironically, by one of the least known artists Frances Nero who made it to No. 17 in the national charts. Still most releases continued to sell disappointingly, "some of the Motorcity albums sold less than a thousand copies each", Levine revealed in an interview in Manifesto magazine in September 2007 as a response to later royalty disputes with some of the artists who claimed not to have been paid.

After a deal with Total/BMG, everything began to fall apart during 1992. After a final single Darling Darling Baby (MOTC 114) with Edwin Starr, it was all over, Levine close to being declared bankrupt. By that time, a total of 770 songs had been recorded.
Levine managed to get a US deal with Miami-based Hot Productions which began releasing a Motorcity anthology plus Best of compilations by the artists and succeeded in getting much of the previously unreleased material out. 20 Best of Motorcity Records volumes were released over the years 1993-96 and 30 more had been planned to follow during 1997-98, including 80 new tracks Levine would record with Pat Lewis and Brenda Holloway during those years. Hot Productions, however, closed down towards the end of 1997 before all 50 volumes had been released.
Levine's Motorcity recordings continue to be released on various compilations, and Levine himself has recorded new backing tracks for more than 120 of the songs to create a more authentic sound. Songs like Ronnie McNeir's "Lucky Number", Carolyn Crawford's "Timeless" and The Elgins' "Don't Wait Around" have since received more praise on the UK soul scene than the first time round. The fact remains that a lot of these artists were recorded for the very last time, many of them have since died - including Mary Wells, Herman Griffin, David Ruffin, Hattie Littles, Saundra Edwards of The Elgins, Edwin Starr and many more. In November 2007, a new 3DVD box with 100 videos from the Motorcity period were released. Ian Levine was also instrumental with the several successful mulit-artists package tours, similar in style and format to the 1960's Motown Revue. A month long tour in November 1990 featured The Elgins, Kim Weston, Syreeta, Carolyn Crawford, Marv Johnson and was headlined by Jean, Scherrie & Lynda of The Supremes. The final night of the tour was video taped and released the following year as The Legends of Motorcity USA on two videos.