South Carolina ETV
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ETV Celebrates 50 Years of Motown with “Motown Memories”
For Immediate Release
July 21, 2009
Columbia, SC…On Saturday, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m., ETV honors the 50th anniversary of Detroit’s 1960s soul with My Music: Motown Memories.
Mary Wilson, an original member of the Supremes, returns to the celebrated Detroit recording studio to host this timely retrospective of the greatest stars and songs from the era when Detroit was the center of the musical universe.
Affectionately known as Hitsville, Motown nurtured the careers of many artists still heard on the radio today, including such legendary stars as Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross & the Supremes, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and the Four Tops.
This 90-minute-long program pays tribute to a body of music that has endured for half a century, bringing soul music to the mainstream. Among Motown’s earliest successes were the Miracles with lead singer Smokey Robinson, who gave the company its first million-seller with “Shop Around” in 1960. The string of smashes continued with “Ooo Baby Baby” and “I Second That Emotion.”
The late Marvin Gaye was another driving force in Motown’s rise to fame with “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” a number-one standard from 1968. Gaye also partnered with Tammi Terrell for a series of popular duets, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
The Four Tops is a Motown group who stayed together for five decades. Their first hit record was the often-covered “Baby I Need Your Loving” from 1964. “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” another fan favorite, topped the record charts in 1966.
The Temptations were another long-lived male ensemble and are probably best-remembered for the number-one masterpieces “My Girl” from 1965 and “Just My Imagination” from 1971.
No Motown act is more beloved than the Supremes, the “girl group” that made Diana Ross an international superstar. Among the trio’s many hits were “Where Did Our Love Go” (1964), “I Hear a Symphony” (1965) and their swan song, “Someday, We’ll Be Together” (1969).
South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.
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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.
Photos may be downloaded for the sole purpose of publicizing this program. To download an image, click on the picture below. A new Web page will open containing the hi-res version. Right click on the hi-res image, and select "Save As" or "Save Picture As."
Host Mary Wilson at the historic Hitsville, USA building. Photo credit courtesy of TJL Productions.
Photos may be downloaded for the sole purpose of publicizing this program. To download an image, click on the picture below. A new Web page will open containing the hi-res version. Right click on the hi-res image, and select "Save As" or "Save Picture As."
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