Music is a unifying art form, capable of connecting complete strangers under a common adoration of one artist, song, or label; you could be on the other side of the planet, but if you bump into somebody with the same band splashed across their T-shirt as you, you have made an ally.
Back in the early days of The Beatles, it was the sweet sounds of Motown soul which unified the Fab Four.
Like virtually every British band of the early 1960s, The Beatles looked almost exclusively towards the United States for their musical influences. After all, it was that side of the Atlantic Ocean which had produced the revolution of rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, soul, and blues – all of which were far more exciting than anything happening in the suburbs of Liverpool at that time. Still, the ‘mop tops’ seemed to take a deeper interest in the sounds of the States than most other young people at the time, particularly with regard to the emerging dominance of Motown Records.
By the time The Beatles officially formed in 1960, Motown was already well on its way to becoming one of America’s biggest independent labels. From its humble beginnings in Detroit, Berry Gordy’s enterprising label had sought to become the definitive voice of American soul and R&B music, and early hits by the likes of Barrett Strong or The Marvelettes set the label on a path which would eventually see them produce utterly iconic stars ranging from Little Stevie Wonder through to Diana Ross and The Supremes.
Despite this now-legendary reputation surrounding Hitsville USA, though, the label’s notoriety over in the UK was severely lacking. While Motown had an infallible grasp on the US pop charts for much of the early 1960s, it was only during the latter half of the decade that those records began to infiltrate the mainstream of the UK, which makes The Beatles’ unifying adoration of the label all the more impressive.
In fact, The Beatles were instrumental in establishing the sounds of Motown on British soil, introducing audiences to its pop-soul power by covering three different Motown tracks on their 1963 record With The Beatles – for which Berry Gordy offered them reduced royalty rates, in the hopes that their covers would boost the label’s presence in the UK.
“The cover songs recorded for With The Beatles were chosen by whoever liked them,” Ringo Starr later recalled for Anthology.
Those three tracks, originally recorded by Barrett Strong, The Miracles, and The Marvelettes, respectively, had a much deeper importance within the history of The Beatles, though. “It was interesting that when I joined The Beatles, we didn’t really know each other, but if you looked at each of our record collections, the four of us had virtually the same records,” Starr continued.
“We all had The Miracles, we all had Barrett Strong and people like that,” Ringo added. “I suppose that helped us gel as musicians, and as a group.”
Not only did those beloved tracks help Motown to emigrate over the Atlantic – as well as forming some of the key highlights on that sophomore album – but they were also essential in helping to forge the initial bonds between The Beatles themselves. For that reason alone, the Fab Four will be forever indebted to the infectious soul mastery of Motown Records.
