With educator/musician Glenn Bulthuis hosting a Motown class in March, Local Spins on WYCE digs into Motown’s impact while also debuting new music by Michigan artists.
Hitsville U.S.A.: The place that started it all for Motown Records in Detroit. (Photo/Local Spins)
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Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Martha & The Vandellas, The Jackson 5 … and the list goes on.
“The impact of Motown on American culture is almost impossible to calculate,” Glenn Bulthuis says of the Detroit record label that changed the face of modern music in the 1960s.
“Can you imagine pop music without Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Jackson 5, and by extension, Michael Jackson? Motown music softened the hearts of white America to the plight of black America – breaking down all sorts of barriers.”
Legendary: Glenn Bulthuis, at right, with Smokey Robinson, center, and Debra Perry, at left, in 2012 at Meijer Gardens. (Courtesy Photo)
Indeed, the legendary, Michigan-based label and recording studio produced so many enduring songs and influenced so many artists in the generations to come, that Motown remains synonymous with soul music and industry success.
In the 1960s alone, Motown produced 79 Top 10 Billboard hits and made The Supremes the top female group in the world, eventually elevating Gaye’s “What’s Going On” to No. 1 on Rolling Stone magazine’s top albums of all time.
That amazing run fueled by the Detroit recording studio dubbed “Hitsville U.S.A.” long ago inspired Bulthuis as a young fan growing up in California and later as a student at Grand Rapids’ Calvin College, where he formed the band Glenn Bulthuis & The Tonedeafs.
Now, as a 66-year-old educator and veteran musician, it’s motivated him to establish “The Music of Motown” class hosted by Calvin University’s Calvin Academy for Lifelong Learning.
A CLASS EXAMINING THE ‘POWERFUL STORY’ OF MUSIC THAT CHANGED AMERICA
Kicking off with the first Tuesday session on March 15, Bulthuis will unfurl lectures, videos and remote interviews with key performers boasting Motown ties (Dorian Holley, Michael Norfleet), culminating in a Motown-propelled performance on April 19 by Grand Rapids musician/composer/arranger/producer Debra Perry and friends.
The afternoon classes will be taught at Grand Rapids’ Oakhill Evangelical Presbyterian Church at 1930 Leonard St. NE. The class costs $30 and interested attendees can sign up at calvin.edu/call. So far, more than 100 people have signed up, with a capacity of 250.
“When you talk about ’60s music, you have to talk about what Motown did and the impact they had,” said Bulthuis, who’s taught past classes on The Beatles and 1960s folk music.
“It’s a powerful story about how that music changed America, and certainly white America’s perception of black America.”
To close out Black History Month, Local Spins on WYCE this week not only focused on Motown’s industry-altering influence, but showcased some classic Michigan-made Motown tracks by Wonder, Gaye and Robinson. Scroll down to listen to the full radio show podcast.
LISTEN: Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On”
At the center of it all, of course, was producer, songwriter and record executive Berry Gordy Jr.
“It was Berry Gordy who was able to find and nurture this talent,” Bulthuis said of the incredible roster of artists spotlighted by Motown.
“I still find it amazing to even contemplate that people like The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder – they all came through that Motown studio, but it was really Berry Gordy who recognized what they could do and shaped them and created them, got their songs together for them and presented them to the world.”
Another important thread connecting nearly all of the Motown artists? The Funk Brothers, those Detroit-based session musicians who provided their backing talents on most Motown recordings over a 13-year period, starting in 1959.
Icons All: Some of Motown’s biggest stars.
They included Joe Hunter, James Jamerson, Earl Van Dyke, Richard Allen, Benny Benjamin, Mike Terry, Paul Riser, Eddie Willis, Joe Messina and several others.
And it all happened in a very small room that served as Motown’s main recording studio.
Following completion of his class, Bulthuis plans a separate June visit to that “very small room” as part of a field trip to Hitsville U.S.A in Detroit, now operating as the Motown Museum.
It will wrap up what he hopes is an educational tribute to one of American music’s most important eras, adding that he’s convinced there’s still a treasure trove of unreleased Motown recordings that didn’t make the cut in the 1960s – a tantalizing notion, to be sure.
“I’ve got to imagine there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Motown songs by Motown greats that we never heard,” said Bulthuis, music director at Oakhill Church who released his most recent album, “Gloryland,” in 2012.
(By the way, Glenn Bulthuis & The Tonedeafs – who last played a tribute to the Beatles as a 13-piece band in October 2021 – will play a free concert for Byron Days on July 30.)
In addition to its nod to Motown classics, this week’s episode of Local Spins on WYCE – which focuses on music by Michigan artists at 11 a.m. Fridays on WYCE (88.1 FM) and online at wyce.org – also featured new music by Max Lockwood, Stonehengz, Debra Perry & Majestic Praise (this week’s musician’s pick by Bulthuis), Ajax Stacks, Vespre, Ernie Clark & The Magnificent Bastards, North Country Rounders, DL Rossi, FINKEL and The American Hotel System. Listen to the show here.
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (2/25/22)
VIDEO/LISTEN: “Motown’s Greatest Hits”
VIDEO: The Supremes, “Stop! In the Name of Love”
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