The Miracle were on fire that night

Overall probably but do you really think Martha took on all those Ronettes, Crystals and Darlene Love songs by herself? Miracles, Supremes, Temptations and Marvin weren't really dropping bangers in '63

stax would be my other choice

You wilding it's definitely

Wrecking Crew
Funk Brothers
M.G.'s

Stax only really had Otis going still and only Martha and Marvin had classics for Motown that year. Wrecking Crew rekt em.

I definitely don't know everyone they played for then

They were on every hit for Spector, Lieber and Stoller before that, played on Pet Sounds while the Boys were on tour, played Mr Tambourine Man while the rest of the Byrds learned their instruments lol they have a long ass list of other hits through the 60s (including tv show themes like Bonanza, Mission Impossible, Batman etc which gave them a ubiquitousness even The Funk Brothers couldn't match). Drummer Hal Blaine and bass player Carol Kaye have played on more #1 hits than anybody iirc.

Tbh it's gonna take some srs a***ytics to figure out who reigned supreme in the end... I suspect Funk Brothers but it's close

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheWrecking_Crew(music)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BookerT.%26_the_M.G.%27s

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals_Rhythm_Section

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funk_Brothers

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nashville_A-Team

@rvi what you think

im not educated enough on the others besides the funk brothers and wrecking crew yet. kinda have a feeling funk brothers might be best

they all seem great tho ofc

yeah berry gordy had the funk brothers fully focused on his stable and unlike the other labels he had edgy new producers come in to keep the arrangements fresh through the funk and psych eras that norman whitfield stimulus put them on another level

The Supremes with three #1 singles in a row

Marvins one classic for the year

Smokey generously gave away nearly all the classics he wrote to other motown artists that year (My Girl notably) but he got this one in at least

And Martha had one of the all time anthems

Motown found their groove with the full stable this year

Cash really didnt give f*** about keeping any southern racist fans holy s***. Neil Young thought he was being edgy but Cash already let em have it.

"Now Custer split his men
Well, he won't do that again"

"General George A. Custer
Oh, his yellow hair had lustre
But the General he don't ride well anymore
For now the General's silent
He got barbered violent
And the General he don't ride well anymore"

top 3 motown song for me could even be #1

the chords on the "It doesn't matter what you wear" part are so beautiful to me and the swelling of the horns along with how she sings it more passionately the 2nd time absolutely slays me and the lyrics too, one of the essential songs written about music itself, one of my favorite subject matters

you can hear it so clearly at 1:00 and 2:00 in this. yeah the funk brothers are insane

makes me cry

gonna try too cook up a nice ranked list for this year. gonna be hard tho

You should try and find cool performances of the songs you like as well looking for them is one of my favorite aspects of this thread

You get it tbh I think best of the vandellas was the first Motown cd I had for some reason and Marthas voice couldn't be lodged deeper into my psyche even named my first cat after her

Definitely motowns first icon

thought you guys stanned?

really cool to hear them covering Smokey so early knowing that Townshend was such a stan that he wrote the classic '66 Who single Substitute directly inspired by the way Smoke enunciated the word in Tracks Of My Tears;

"Although she may be cute, she's just a substitute"

Roy Orbison the only 50's goat that managed to keep his sound really fresh that year Pretty Woman sold more copies in its first ten days than any single ever had at that point and only the Beatles outsold him that year. Incredible achievement for anybody let alone a dusty Sun Records rocker back when even a couple years in the business was a long career.

Amazing performance, the band having so much fun

young producer George "Shadow" Morton giving Spector some competition in the "little symphonies for the kids" department with The Shangri-Las's

they actually sound amazing live here

best soul song ive found so far this year @rvi

Canada's G.O.A.T. writes his first classic on his 19th birthday

1964

1. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Part 1: Acknowledgement
2. Luigi Nono - La Fabbrica Illuminata
3. Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman
4. The Kinks - You Really Got Me
5. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Part 3: Pursuance
6. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Part 4: Psalm
7. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Part 2: Resolution
8. Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch
9. Albert Ayler - Ghosts Second Variation
10. Petula Clark - Downtown
11. The Beach Boys - I Get Around
12. Karlheinz Stockhausen - Mikrophonie I
13. Bob Dylan - Times they are a-changin
14. Supremes - Baby love
15. The Beatles - It's A Hard Day's Night
16. Shangri-las - Leader of the pack
17. Supremes - Baby love

It's too funny to me that at the same time Roy was recording these earth shaking masterpieces he was hosting his own variety show casually performing these devastating songs in between introducing ventriloquists and goofy comedians and adult contemporary singers kinda surreal

proto-nugget