Saturday, February 01, 2014

Songwriter and record label founder Anna Gordy Gaye has passed away





But it's one thing I want you to remember
If you ever leave, I believe I'll go insane
Darling, I'll never hear the bells again
Darling, I'll never hear the bells again



In 1971, Laura Nyro recorded Gonna Take A Miracle with Labelle (Patti LaBelle, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx).  The ten track album included many covers of  classic songs including "The Bells" (video above) which was written by Marvin Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Iris Gordy and Elgie Stover and was a top five R&;B hit and a top 20 pop hit  in for The Originals in 1970.

Anna Gordy has passed away.  The sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, Anna was married to Grammy winning singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye for 14 years and the two were  the parents of Marvin IV.  With Roquel Billy Davis and her sister Gwen Gordy, Anna formed Anna Records in 1958.  In 1961, the label would be absorbed by Motown Records.  Prior to that, artists recording for the label included soul legend Joe Tex, David Ruffin (who would find later success as a member of The Temptations), the Falcons and Barrett Strong whose recording of Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford's "Money (That's What I Want)" would become both a smash hit and a standard for its era.


Anna and Marvin would marry  in 1963.  In her memoir Secrets of a Sparrow, Diana Ross notes, "The Gordy family had a unique makeup of tough and loving.  The women, Anna, Gwen, Esther and even Mother Gordy, were powerful and strong at a time when few women were [. . .]"

Anna and Marvin also wrote the hit "Baby, I'm For Real" for The Originals (Michael McDonald later covered the song).

By herself she wrote David Ruffin's "I Let Love Slip Away."





She wrote many songs.  With Allen Story, she wrote Stevie Wonder's "What Christmas Means To Me" and the Four Tops' "Same-O-Same-O."  She and Marvin wrote Diana Ross &  the Surprmes "Baby It's Love" (on the Love Child album).

Anna Gordy Gaye died at the age of 92, after raising a family, running a label, writing many songs and, taking the same page from her mother that her sisters and brothers did, giving back to the community around her. She was a trailblazer in every sense of the word.

For Diana Ross & the Supremes' Let The Sunshine in album, she, Allen Story, Lawrence Brown and Horgay Gordy wrote "I'm So Glad I Got Somebody (Like You Around)."






(I knew Anna and, like everyone who knew her, I will miss her.  But the main reason I wrote this is because of the tacky, catty and sexist obit that a music 'magazine' delivered.  You'd think after all this time, they'd have learned better but they still haven't.)




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