The Best Motown Songs of the '60s

Norman Whitfield cut this with Gaye in 1967 and Motown shelved it for a year, letting Gladys Knight chart the song first; Tamla finally issued 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' in October 1968 and it sat at No. 1 for seven weeks. Whitfield pitched the key high on purpose — the electric piano stalks in, the tambourine cracks, and Gaye sounds cornered.

Smokey Robinson wrote it with Ronald White and handed the Temptations their first No. 1, out on Gordy in December 1964, with David Ruffin taking his first lead. 'My Girl' opens on a climbing bass figure alone, then a guitar answers it, then strings arrive, then the key lifts near the end — an arrangement that adds one thing at a time and never crowds.

Holland-Dozier-Holland offered it to the Marvelettes, who turned it down; the Supremes took it to No. 1 in August 1964 and never looked back. That thudding four-to-the-floor stomp under 'Where Did Our Love Go' is what makes the thing work, because Diana Ross sings the whole song low and almost bored while a baritone sax mutters underneath. Restraint as a hook.

Marvin Gaye co-wrote it with William 'Mickey' Stevenson and Ivy Jo Hunter, and Gordy released it in July 1964; it stopped at No. 2 and has outlived every record that beat it. 'Dancing in the Street' starts on a brass fanfare and then simply accelerates, Martha Reeves calling out city names over a beat that keeps threatening to tip over and never does.

Marv Tarplin brought Robinson the guitar figure first and the song was written backwards from it; Pete Moore shares the writing credit and Tamla put it out in 1965. What lands hardest on 'The Tracks of My Tears' is the moment Robinson lifts into falsetto at 'take a good look at my face' — the smile and the crack in it arriving together.

Holland-Dozier-Holland built it for Levi Stubbs to sing at the very top of his range, where he half-shouts instead of crooning; Motown took it to No. 1 in October 1966. 'Reach Out I'll Be There' opens on a flute and a tambourine before any verse arrives, and Stubbs spends those verses nearly speaking so that the chorus has somewhere to go.

Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson wrote it, and Tamla issued it in April 1967 as the first Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet single. 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' works by keeping the two of them apart — each takes a line alone over a skipping guitar figure, and they meet only on the title, which is why the meeting feels earned.

That tremolo guitar hammering away like Morse code is the entire idea; Holland-Dozier-Holland put it at the front and left it running underneath everything else. Motown released 'You Keep Me Hangin' On' in October 1966 and it went to No. 1, then Vanilla Fudge slowed it to a crawl the following year and had a hit with that too.

Motown had come close to dropping Wonder when his voice broke; he wrote his way out of it with Sylvia Moy and Henry Cosby, and Tamla put 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)' out in November 1965. Drums come in swinging before anything else does, horns punch on the offbeat, and a fifteen-year-old bellows over the lot without straining. The linked album master carries a 1998 Motown copyright.

Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland wrote it, Gordy released it in May 1966, and this is where Whitfield's harder, drier Temptations start shoving Smokey Robinson's version of the group aside. David Ruffin sings 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg' with his voice audibly scraping, the backbeat stamping flat-footed on two and four. The link is the Expanded Edition master.

The Corporation — Freddie Perren, Fonce Mizell, Deke Richards and Berry Gordy — built it out of a song first aimed at Gladys Knight. 'I Want You Back' opens with a piano glissando falling down the keyboard into one of Motown's busiest basslines, and an eleven-year-old Michael Jackson arrives on top of it sounding entirely certain of himself.

Berry Gordy woke the group at three in the morning to cut it again faster, playing piano himself on the remake, and the second attempt gave Motown its first million-seller in 1960. Robinson delivers 'Shop Around' as advice from a mother, and the band behind him is still half doo-wop, handclaps and all. Streaming carries it via the 1992 Hitsville USA box.

Holland, Dozier and Holland wrote and produced it, Gordy shipped it in February 1965, and it reached No. 8. 'Nowhere to Run' drives a double-time tambourine against a bassline that keeps sliding downward, and Reeves sings it like somebody being followed rather than somebody dancing — which is why it plays as the group's most claustrophobic record.

Motown's first pop No. 1 came in 1961 from a group of teenagers out of Inkster, Michigan, with Marvin Gaye sitting behind the drum kit for the session. Gladys Horton pleads her way through 'Please Mr. Postman' over handclaps and a beat that barely changes for two minutes, which is exactly the point. Spotify's copy comes off the Hitsville USA singles box, tagged as the mono single version.

Smokey Robinson produced it and Wells took it to No. 1 in May 1964, then left Motown at twenty-one over a contract dispute and never had another hit on that scale. 'My Guy' ambles rather than drives, all lazy shuffle with a saxophone loafing behind her, and she sings it as though addressing one person. Linked here from the Hitsville USA compilation.

Border case, and a deliberate one: Whitfield and Barrett Strong pushed the group into psychedelic soul here, and 'Cloud Nine' won Motown its first Grammy, in 1969. Wah-wah guitar and congas take the place of strings, five voices trade lines instead of harmonising, and Dennis Edwards fronts a group that has stopped courting anybody at all.

Levi Stubbs shouts the name rather than singing it, which is why 'Bernadette' still sounds unhinged; Holland-Dozier-Holland produced it for Motown in early 1967 and it reached No. 4. The arrangement drops out completely before the final verse and leaves him alone for a beat — a silence no other Motown single of the period was willing to risk.

Walker only took the lead vocal because the singer he wanted never turned up, and the Soul label got a No. 1 R&B hit out of it in 1965 regardless. 'Shotgun' opens on a gunshot crack and then hands the record to his tenor saxophone, which honks the same few notes with enough conviction that the missing tune stops mattering.

Older brother of the Temptations' David Ruffin, Jimmy talked his way into a song written for the Spinners; Soul put it out in June 1966 and it reached No. 7. 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted' begins with him half-speaking over strings before any beat has arrived, so the drums entering feels like a door opening. Spotify dates its copy 2004.

Gordy wrote it for the Temptations, who could not be found on the day of the session, so the Contours got it instead and took it to No. 3 in 1962. 'Do You Love Me' opens on a spoken line with no music behind it, then everything crashes in at once. Spotify tags the album cut as the mono single.