Book Review: It’s No Wonder: The Life and Times of Motown’s Legendary Songwriter Sylvia Moy by Margena A. Christian
As a Baby Boomer, I grew up on some of the best rhythm and blues, soul, and funk music produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Motown artists were a huge part of the soundtrack of my teenage and college years. During that time period, perhaps no record label aimed at young people was more successful, formidable, or popular than Motown.
Motown was originally founded as Tamla Records in January 1959 by native Detroiter and music lover Berry Gordy, III. In 1960 Gordy incorporated Tamla as Motown Record Corporation. The name is a nickname for the city of Detroit, which at that time was the heart and soul of the American automobile industry. Motown boasted a robust roster of talented singers and musicians that was the envy of the entertainment business. The famed “Motown sound” was a unique blend of R & B, soul and gospel that for more than a decade ruled popular music.
Moy was born in 1938 in Detroit into a house that was filled with music. Her mother loved gospel and her father was a huge fan of jazz. Her eight siblings were also musically inclined, each of them played at least one instrument. Sylvia sang locally in various clubs, her church choir, and sometimes sang opera with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She attended high school with William “Smokey” Robinson, who became the lead singer of the Miracles and later a highly ranked executive at Motown, and Erma Franklin, the younger sister of Aretha Franklin. She also studied music at the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts after being rejected by the Music Department at Wayne State University.
In 1964 Moy auditioned at Motown, singing two songs that she had written herself. She was so impressive she was immediately hired. Gordy convinced her to put her singing career on the back burner and work as a songwriter. Moy was initially disappointed, as she very much wanted to sing. Even though some of the men at Motown did both, that was not an option available to Moy. Furthermore, since she not only sang but played keyboard, guitar and drums by ear, she understood music. Motown had many singers but not enough writers, so it appears that Gordy fit Moy in where he thought the need was greatest.
While there were female executives at Motown, female writers and producers had a difficult time being taken seriously at the company. There was very little respect or support for their talent and work during this time period. Indeed, it was years before Moy’s name was listed on a Motown record as the producer.
According to It’s No Wonder, much of that opposition can be laid at the feet of Mickey Stevenson, who was the head of the Artists and Repertoire (A & R) Department. Stevenson reported to no one. Gordy gave him free reign to run A & R as he saw fit, and he did so with an iron fist. Indeed, he was sometimes referred to as “Il Duce.” He openly expressed that women writers were not as talented as the men and that they did not understand the requirements of their jobs.
However, Moy’s quiet demeanor and prodigious work ethic greatly impressed Stevenson and he also noted her ever present desire to improve on every level and her high work standards. This gave her an in with Stevenson that other female writers lacked.
While Moy wrote songs for a variety of Motown acts–the Isley Brothers, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston, among them–perhaps her most fruitful partnership was with Stevie Wonder. Referred to originally as Little Stevie Wonder and “the boy genius” when he started at Motown, he scored a surprise hit with his harmonica driven, live recording of the instrumental “Fingertips” at the age of twelve. The massive success of the record caught Motown executives by surprise and they had difficulty in developing him as an artist. Moreover, for some at Motown, his blindness seemed to be an impediment to his developing a strong stage presence.
Wonder played five instruments and was extremely talented, but as his voice changed during puberty, the company struggled with helping him to transition into an adult artist. Many at Motown thought of him as a one-hit artist and he was mostly ignored. There were rumors that he was going to be let go by the company. His career stalled and he became discouraged. Moy knew that Wonder was extraordinarily talented and convinced Motown to allow him to work exclusively with her. Her faith in him was not misplaced.
He got rid of the “Little” moniker and beginning with “Uptight” in 1965, a song Moy coauthored, Wonder churned out a string of almost a dozen hit singles through 1969–everyone of which I love to this day. Barack Obama continues to use Stevie’s 1970 hit song, Signed, Sealed Delivered (I’m Yours), as his theme song.
After Moy died in 2017, Wonder said of her, ““How do you stop loving the ones you loved for a lifetime – you don’t! Sylvia Moy has made it possible to enrich my world of songs with some of the greatest lyrics. But, not only that, she, through our participation and our co-writing those songs, helped me become a far better writer of lyrics.”
It’s No Wonder was an eye-opening read for me. Moy was an extraordinarily talented song writer who penned some of the most popular contemporary music of the mid-20th century. Motown would not have been nearly as successful without her contributions. The book has rescued her and her work from the dustbin of history and given her the credit she so richly deserves.
At the height of Motown’s popularity while I was in my teens and early twenties, I gave little or no thought to who was behind all those hit records I bought, danced to, and sang alongside. To this day I still remember the lyrics to many of them–much to the amazement of my nephew, Rob–and the entire time I was reading the book, there was a soundtrack of Moy-written songs running through my head.
It’s No Wonder is well-written and was a lovely trip down memory lane. I experienced a jumble of emotions and fond memories while reading it. My two older sisters will definitely be getting the book from me for Christmas.