To Be Loved

October 3, 1994
As founder and president of Motown Records, Gordy launched and developed the careers of many of the most talented pop musicians of our day, including Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. He here recounts how, in 1959 with a $800 loan from his family, he started the label he ultimately expanded into an entertainment empire, despite the racial prejudices he and his staff encountered. In 1988, he sold Motown to MCA for $61 million. His self-portrait, not surprisingly, is more flattering-many will consider the book an apologia-than the blistering memoirs written by several Motowners, among them Martha Reeves's Dancing in the Streets, coauthored with Mark Bego; and his former wife Raynoma Gordy Singleton's Berry, Me, and Motown. On his part, though, the 56-year-old Gordy is blithely generous to all: ``I've seen how important family always was to me, whether it was the family I grew up with, the Motown family or my family today of eight children and ten grandchildren.'' Photos. Author tour.

June 1, 1994
The founder of Motown tells of working with stars like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Diana Ross. A 150,000-copy first printing.

November 15, 1994
Founder of the Motown empire, Gordy has written a revealing autobiography dealing with the interplay between his private life and his recording and motion picture ventures. He begins with his childhood in Detroit and his forays into music as owner of a jazz-record store and successful songwriter for singer Jackie Wilson. Citing civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the auto assembly lines as inspirations, Gordy charts the rise of the Motown hit machine, which manufactured a close-knit stable of well-groomed African American performers-including the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Jackson 5-who brought a gospel-based pop to white America during the Sixties and Seventies. Throughout the book, the music entrepreneur portrays his personal life and his business as inseparably connected, including comments about his five-year affair with Diana Ross. He ends with the sale of Motown in 1988. Though offering little new information, this believable and highly readable account of the most successful African American- owned entertainment operation will be requested by Motown fans. Recommended for most public libraries. [This should complement the regrettably out-of-print story of Motown, Berry, Me and Motown by Raynoma Gordy Singleton, Gordy's wife and business partner.-Ed.]-David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle