Motortown Revue

The Motortown Revue was the name given to the package tours of Motown artists in the 1960s. Early tours featured The Miracles, Mary Wells, The Marvelettes, and The Contours as headlining acts, and gave then-second-tier acts such as Martha & The Vandellas, The Supremes, and The Temptations the chances to improve their skills.

Related Topics:
Motown - 1960s - The Miracles - Mary Wells - The Marvelettes - The Contours - Martha & The Vandellas - The Supremes - The Temptations

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Motown's entire roster, and occasionally non-Motown performers such as Dusty Springfield, were featured on the tours. Most of the venues for the early Motortown Revue tours were along the "chitlin' circuit" in the eastern and southern United States. In the Deep South racism became an issue, as the mostly African American performers were sometimes attacked or threatened by local white residents. While in the north the Motown artists generally played to mixed audiences, in the South, white and black audiences either attended seperate shows, or were allowed to attend the same show as long as each race stayed on either side of a police-guarded rope that divided the performance hall.

Related Topics:
Dusty Springfield - Chitlin' circuit - United States - Deep South - Racism - African American

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It was from a live Motortown Revue performance that Little Stevie Wonder got his first big hit, the 1963 #1 hit "Fingertips (Pt. 2)". Also, Smokey Robinson and the other Miracles composed songs such as "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "My Girl" while on the road, compositions later recorded as hits for The Temptations.

Related Topics:
Little Stevie Wonder - 1963 - Smokey Robinson - The Way You Do the Things You Do - My Girl

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After becoming a major force in the music industry during the mid-1960s, Motown continued to organize group tours under the "Motortown Revue" name. Later tours from the mid-1960s on covered the entire United States, and the rest of the world as well.

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