MOTOWN: THE HOUSE THAT ROARED

The first record I ever bought was the Contours' "Do You Love Me," a snappy R&B dance hit on Gordy Records, in the fall of 1962. Me, a 10-year-old, upper-middleclass white kid from suburban New Jersey. I offer this item from my past as one piece of evidence that Motown Records (encompassing the Motown, Tamla, Gordy, Soul, and other smaller labels) was in line with truth-in-advertising laws when it adopted the slogan "The Sound Of Young America" in the mid-'60s.