Fever ch. 4

In chapter 4 of Fever by Tim Riley it mentions the beginning steps of how Mowtown records came to be. It all began when Berry Gordy started Tamla records and used to write songs. Tamla records eventually became Mowtown records and Berry switched over to producing music. His first success group was Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. They were a sensational hit, but Smokey decided to leave singing career for awhile and decided to write some songs of his own. All the songs that he wrote he would sell to groups in Mowtown. This was great for Gordy because all the groups that sang Smokeys songs would become chart topping hits.

What i find interesting is when the book states how Smokey came up with the idea of writing "My Girl". "My Girl" is a famous song performed by the temptations, but apparently before he wrote that song he wrote another song called "My Guy". This song is performed by an all female group called The Marvalletes. That is when it hit Smokey, if he could write that song for girls he could easily make it for guys. He then decided to write "My Girl". Both were sensational hits because of Smokey's Genius writing.