Gwen Gordy Fuqua (November 26, 1927 – November 8, 1999) was the elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, sister of Motown songwriters Anna Gordy Gaye, Robert Gordy and George Gordy, sister of Motown Museum founder Esther Gordy Edwards, sister of Fuller Gordy and also Loucye Gordy, and the former wife of Harvey Fuqua . She was also an important contributor to the early years of the label as a songwriter herself.
Fuqua began her music career in the mid-1950s co-writing hit singles for Jackie Wilson with boyfriend Roquel Billy Davis (who then went by the pseudonym Tyran Carlo) and her brother Berry. Fuqua and Davis soon departed to form Anna Records (with sister Anna as a limited partner) in 1959, around the same time Fuqua's brother Berry formed Motown's first label, Tamla Records.
That year, when Gordy co-wrote and produce the Barrett Strong single, "Money (That's What I Want)", he asked Fuqua and Davis to distribute the song for national release. Released on Anna Records, the song rose to the top thirty on the pop charts in 1960 and became Anna's biggest hit and Motown's first hit single.
In 1960, after breaking up with Davis romantically, Fuqua befriended Harvey Fuqua, former co-lead singer of The Moonglows and soon the two became a couple. They married in 1961. That same year, Anna Records folded. The couple started Harvey Records and Tri-Phi Records, signing The Spinners, Shorty Long and Junior Walker & the All Stars, all three bands later leaving to join Motown.
In 1963, the labels folded and the couple found work as Motown staffers. In the late 1960s, Gwen and Harvey Fuqua divorced though she still kept Harvey's last name. In the late 1970s, Fuqua discovered the disco group High Inergy, who had a Motown hit in 1977 with "You Can't Turn Me Off (In the Middle of Turning Me On)". She was also credited for co-writing her old friend Marvin Gaye's 1973 song, "Distant Lover", from his Let's Get It On album.
Fuqua succumbed to cancer at her San Diego home on November 8, 1999 at the age of 71. She was buried in Detroit.
|
||||||||||||||||||||