April 29, 1972: A Detroit, Michigan band called Gallery enters the Billboard Hot 100 with "Nice To Be With You"

April 29, 1972:

A Detroit, Michigan band called Gallery enters the Billboard Hot 100 with "Nice To Be With You", which will rise to #4 during its 13 week run…

 They will follow with two more Top 20 hits,

 "I Believe In Music" (#22) and

"Big City Miss Ruth Ann" (#23) over the next eight months….  

Gee, wonder why they didn’t become a big time Motorcity act!?!

Maybe ‘cause it sounds NOTHING like Motorcity Rock ‘n Roll!!!

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February 12, 1958: The Silhouettes hit causes Barry Gordy to get rolling with Motown...

February 12, 1958:

The Silhouettes hit #1 with "Get a Job"…

In January 1958, knowing the Silhouettes tune was a major hit, Barry Gordy recorded the Five Chimes’ first recording, "Got a Job", as an answer song to the Silhouettes' tune...

 

Gordy shortly thereafter struck a deal with George Goldner's End Records to distribute the single…

Before the song was released, the Five Chimes changed their name to the Miracles, taking it from the moniker "Miracletones", with the "'Tones" taken out…

 After earning only $3.19 for his production success, Gordy was told by Robinson to form his own label, which Gordy did, forming Tamla Records in 1959…

The rest, as they say, 

is MOTOWN MAGIC…

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June 14, 1936: Renaldo "Obie" Benson Born in Detroit...

Renaldo "Obie" Benson

(June 14, 1936 – July 1, 2005) 

 Founding member and bass voice of The Four Tops, which he joined in 1953, Obie continued to perform with the group for over five decades, until April 8, 2005…

 Obie, was born in Detroit as were all the FOUR TOPS…

Obie wrote "What'sGoing On" which became a #2 hit for Marvin Gaye in 1971, and which Rolling Stone rated as #4 on their List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time released in 2004…

When Barry Gordy moved Motown Records to Los Angeles in 1972,
 the Four Tops stayed in Detroit and joined the Dunhill label, continuing making hits like

 “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I Got)"…

 

Benson died of lung cancer and other illnesses on July 1, 2005. His leg had been amputated earlier in 2005 due to circulation problems and he’d suffered a heart attack during that surgery and lung cancer was also detected at that time…

 So HAPPY BIRTHDAY OBIE and R.I.P.

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