This Tuesday, a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Motown records kicks off with the release of Motown: The Complete Number Ones, a 10-disc set with every record that the label and its subsidiaries put at the top of any music chart around the world. What will follow will be a flurry of reissues, salutes, books, documentaries and even a Broadway musical.
The man doing the most celebrating, Barry Gordy, founded the label with an $800 loan from his family on January 12, 1959. Gordy talked to Billboard magazine on what it means to him. "I've been fighting to protect the legacy for 50 years, and now it seems that after 50 years we can go and talk about the real deal, what really happened ... and how it happened, my story and everything that goes with it. And I'm just thrilled that I'm here to enjoy now what I couldn't enjoy while I was doing it."
Included in the new material will be a documentary made by Gordy and Suzanne DePasse, who was responsible for the label's 25th anniversary special. "It's about me and ... not only what I did and how I did it but how I felt doing it and what it was that happened, from my standpoint."
Also look for online podcasts from Universal Music, who is in charge of Motown's older material, special events at the Motown museum in Detroit and that Broadway musical, which should hit the stage in 2010.
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