1963 became a phenomenal year for Motown,with three recording acts topping the Billboard Hot R&B Side Singles Chart. The first artist to achieve the feat was the late Mary Wells with the first number one of her career, produced and written by Smokey Robinson. The single “Two Lovers” peaked at number one week-ending 19th January 1963 (4 weeks).
The number one single "Two Lovers" was taken from this album This was followed by the then newly-signed Little Stevie Wonder with a single entitled “Fingertips (Part 1)” which topped the singles charts on two Billboard listings: the Billboard Hot R&B Side ���“Two Lovers” – Billboard Singles Chart week-ending 3rd August 1963 (6 Hot R&B Side Singles Chart weeks) and the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart th 1963 (4 weeks) week-ending 10 August 1963 (3 weeks). Also the single achieved similar success on the Cash Box Pop Singles Chart survey week-ending 3rd August 1963 (4 weeks). It was the first live single in Billboard history to go to number one. The parent album “The 12 Year Old Genius” became the first live album according to Billboard to peak at number one on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, week- ending 24th August 1963 (1 week). The entire album was produced by the legendary Berry Gordy Jr.
The single “Fingertips (Part 1)" was taken from this number one album
���“Fingertips (Part 1)” – Billboard Hot R&B Side Singles Chart 1963 (6 weeks) Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart 1963 (3 Weeks) Cash Box Pop Singles Chart 1963 (4 weeks) Martha Reeves & the Vandellas were the first female group to have a major hit with Holland- The following month, on 14th September 1963, Dozier-Holland with "Heat Wave" Martha Reeves & the Vandellas were at number one on the Billboard Hot R&B Side Singles Chart ���“Heat Wave” – Billboard Hot (4 weeks) with their single “Heat Wave”, produced R&B Side Singles Chart 1963 by Motown’s main song-writing and music- (4 weeks) production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the premier hit-making team at the label.
The label dominated the number one position that year for a total of 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot R&B Side Singles Chart. All these brilliant tracks and albums featured The Funk Brothers with vocal support from The Andantes. There are currently six e-books in the collection all written by music historian Kevin Tomlin:
Also available is Kevin Tomlin’s new book about Motown Records:
Published by Filament Press.
You will also enjoy exploring this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSignaturesounds/about Kevin Tomlin has been studying music with a signature sound for the last thirty plus years based around Soul and R&B music originated from America, especially music from America’s inter-cities and urban areas such as New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Detroit and Philadelphia.
Kevin started his journey from personal experiences living in Jamaica from the early 1970s until 1979 when Disco ruled the charts. He was listening to music coming out of America via radio and seeing performances on television and at live concerts at the music theatre at college and at other live venues by many great legends, during a time when black music made inroads into popular culture globally.
While he was living in America, he began teaching music history. During this period Kevin was involved in the creation of special training programmes and workshops for music teachers in South Florida schools, using music history as the foundation, to build exciting programmes of study and support for education professional.
Kevin provides consultancy services for multi-media organisations, schools, recording artists, cultural and faith-based groups, and entertainment professionals all within the framework of “arts and cultural history”. His breadth and depth of knowledge is part of the reason his writings are sought after and particularly favoured by music students of all types, and those who really want to know real music gold nuggets.
In recognition of his work as a music historian Kevin was appointed in 2015 onto the Executive Board of the UK based GMIA (Gospel Music Industry Alliance), serving and representing British Gospel Music in its relationship to Gospel Music sectors in other territories across the world.