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It was originally made in 2019 for Showtime, a U.S. pay cable movie channel. Now it's turning up on free TV.
CHCH has scheduled the great documentary "Hitsville: The Making of Motown" on Monday night from 8-10:30 PM. It features historic footage from the record company that changed pop music and brought Black artists into the highest reaches of the charts. And it features those who were there - including Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and more.
If you're in the mood for some nostalgia and a fascinating story of how this record company reigned supreme with The Supremes, it's worth a spot on your DVR.
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Or you could just watch it online. A search of YouTube shows the doc is already online for free, and is actually longer than the CHCH run.
If that's more your speed, you can see it at the link below.
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I was watching this online ahead of its showing on CHCH Monday night. It's incredible. It tells the story of not only the record company, but looks deeper into the hits that came out of there, with the actual artists who recorded those classic tunes.
My favourite part had to be "My Girl" by the Temptations, and how that famous intro, one of the greatest riffs in music history, happened almost by accident. They also isolate the various parts of the song, from the vocals to the background strings and horns so you can hear how it was put together. And they relive the debate about whether it was worthy of even releasing, which seems almost unbelievable today. It was great.
Can't recommend this enough. It was really enjoyable. One note for those DVR-ing it off of CHCH vs. online. The Channel 11 version runs for 90 minutes. The entire documentary is 1 hour and 50 minutes, so something is getting cut out. Better to watch it online, but if you were a fan of Motown, it's worth whatever time you can give it.
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Standing In The Shadows Of Motown is also worth a look.
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The Weed wrote:
Standing In The Shadows Of Motown is also worth a look.
Agreed. I'd forgotten about that one, but it was also very good.
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That was definitely one hour and firty minutes of my life that was NOT wasted.