MARY WELLS
One evening in 1960, Berry Gordy was at a Detroit nightclub where a couple of the acts on his recently-formed record label were performing. A 17-year-old girl boldly came up and told him she had written a song. He told her to sing it for him, and she did, quite well in fact, so he then told her to stop by his offices on West Grand Boulevard the next day. When she arrived with her mother at the house that had been converted into a recording studio and would later be christened "Hitsville U.S.A.," she explained that the song was written with singer Jackie Wilson in mind. Why Wilson? Well, she was certain that Gordy worked with the famous singer (but didn't realize their affiliation had ended more than a year earlier). No problem, though; Gordy had already ... MORE ››
