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The Funk Brothers



The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. They are considered one of the most successful groups of studio musicians in music history. The Funk Brothers played on Motown hits such as "My Girl", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Baby Love", "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", "The Tears of a Clown", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", and "Heat Wave".

The role of the Funk Brothers is described in Paul Justman's 2002 documentary film Standing in the Shadows of Motown, based on Allan Slutsky's book of the same name. The opening titles claim that the Funk Brothers have "played on more number-one hits than the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys combined."

In 2008 surviving members recorded Live in Orlando, an album and video.

Youtube plays from the documentary Standing In The Shadows Of Motown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-PNmGM ... 3715718E09



Selected list of hit songs on which the Funk Brothers played

(Tamla) Motown
"Please Mr. Postman" - The Marvelettes
"Fingertips Pt. 2" - Stevie Wonder
"My Guy" - Mary Wells
"Where Did Our Love Go" - The Supremes
"Baby Love" - The Supremes
"Come See About Me" - The Supremes
"My Girl" The Temptations
"Stop! In the Name of Love" The Supremes
"Back in My Arms Again" The Supremes
"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" - The Four Tops
"I Hear a Symphony" - The Supremes
"You Can't Hurry Love" - The Supremes
"Reach Out I'll Be There" - The Four Tops
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" - The Supremes
"The Happening" - The Supremes
"Love Child" - Diana Ross and the Supremes
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" - Marvin Gaye
"I Can't Get Next to You" - The Temptations
"Someday We'll Be Together" - Diana Ross and the Supremes
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Diana Ross
"The Tears of a Clown" - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
"Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" - The Temptations
"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" - The Temptations
"Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
"Just a Little Misunderstanding" - The Contours
"Shop Around" - The Miracles
"Shotgun" - Junior Walker & the All Stars
"How Sweet it Is (To Be Loved by You)" - Marvin Gaye
"The One Who Really Loves You" - Mary Wells
"The Way You Do The Things You Do" - The Temptations
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
"(I'm A) Road Runner" - Junior Walker & the All Stars
"Ain't too Proud to Beg" - The Temptations
"I Wish It Would Rain" - The Temptations
"Reflections" - Diana Ross & The Supremes
"(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" - Martha & the Vandellas
"Hitch Hike" - Marvin Gaye
"What's So Good About Goodbye" - The Miracles
"I Was Made To Love Her" - Stevie Wonder
"It's The Same Old Song" - The Four Tops
"You've Really Got A Hold on Me" - The Miracles
"Standing In The Shadows Of Love" - The Four Tops
"If I Were Your Woman" - Gladys Knight and the Pips
"Going To A Go-Go" - The Miracles
"Heaven Must Have Sent You" - The Elgins
"Dancing In The Street" - Martha & The Vandellas
"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" - Marvin Gaye
"Cloud Nine" - The Temptations
"What's Goin' On" - Marvin Gaye
"Do You Love Me" - The Contours
"Get Ready" - The Temptations
"Function At The Junction" - Shorty Long
"My World Is Empty Without You" - The Supremes
"The Tracks Of My Tears" - The Miracles
"Can I Get A Witness" - Marvin Gaye
"Nowhere To Run" - Martha & the Vandellas
"Here Comes The Judge" - Shorty Long
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" - Stevie Wonder
"Beachwood 4-5789" - The Marvelettes
"Bernadette" - The Four Tops
"Two Lovers" - Mary Wells
"What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" - Jimmy Ruffin
"My Cherie Amour" - Stevie Wonder
"I Second That Emotion" - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
"(I Know) I'm Losing You" - The Temptations
"First I Look At The Purse" - The Contours
"Ooo Baby Baby" - The Miracles
"25 Miles" - Edwin Starr
"I'll Be Doggone" - Marvin Gaye
"Pride and Joy" - Marvin Gaye
"Ball Of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" - The Temptations
"It Takes Two" - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
"This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)" - The Isley Brothers
"Uptight" - Stevie Wonder
"Devil With A Blue Dress On" - Shorty Long
"Jimmy Mack" - Martha & the Vandellas
"Since I Lost My Baby" - The Temptations
"War" - Edwin Starr
"Stubborn Kind Of Fellow" - Marvin Gaye
"Don't Mess With Bill" - The Marvelettes
"You Beat Me To The Punch" Mary Wells
"Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" - The Four Tops
"Walk Away Renee" - The Four Tops
"Mickey's Monkey" - The Miracles
"Ain't That Peculiar" - Marvin Gaye
"Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day" - Stevie Wonder

Other labels

"Cool Jerk" - The Capitols (Atlantic)
"Whispers (Gettin' Louder)" - Jackie Wilson (Brunswick)
"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher" - Jackie Wilson (Brunswick)
"Band Of Gold" - Freda Payne (Invictus)
"Crumbs Off The Table" - Glass House (Invictus)
"Give me Just A Little More Time" - Chairmen Of The Board (Invictus)
"Someone's Been Sleeping In My Bed" - 100 Proof (Aged in Soul) (Hot Wax)
"Boom Boom" - John Lee Hooker (Vee-Jay)






A must see documentary on cable station Starz now...
Standing in the Shadows of Motown

https://www.starzplay.com/Movies/Details/22435

Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-PNmGM ... 3715718E09

So interesting that these diverse southern jazz musicians who came north for the work (mostly in the auto factories) while playing clubs in the off hours, and how they were discovered by Gordy and played the all sessions at Motown for hundreds of records, unheralded and uncredited until Marvin Gaye's "What Goin' On" LP.

They told of how they would get a few bars of a song and told to run with it, and man did they!...setting the beat and arrangement of every song they touched...many times totally changing the original concept and making a hit that would have been a hit, regardless of who sang it..the music's the THING.


Listen to these tracks, that were totally created by the genius of The Funk Brothers!

Some of the hottest and most original licks ever created.

Papa Was Rolling Stone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJV2pWFyfn4

Cloud Nine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7svkki14zbk

Shotgun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMs9NudasVI

What's Going On...the whole album...they created a whole new sound and what Smokey Robinson called the greatest album ever produced at Motown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Z-kjr ... aQ4twFobRe

..................................................

The Funk Brothers, we hardly knew ye.
By MEREDITH BORDERS Aug. 20, 2015

© 2015 birthmoviesdeath.com

Name a motown song. That was The Funk Brothers. Name another - hey, that's The Funk Brothers, too. Now name ten more: those are all Funk Brothers songs.

So how is it that most people have never heard of The Funk Brothers? They were a large group of session musicians who played the backing music to nearly every Motown Records hit from 1959 to 1972, when Motown moved from The Funk Brothers' Detroit to Los Angeles without a word of warning to the musicians, most of whom learned by arriving at the studio for a recording session and finding a note pinned to the door.

Even before this unceremonious parting, The Funk Brothers (whose primary members include Joe Hunter, Earl Van Dyke, Clarence Isabell, James Jamerson, Benny "Papa Zita" Benjamin, Richard "Pistol" Allen, Paul Riser, Robert White, Eddie Willis, Joe Messina, Jack Ashford, Jack Brokensha, Eddie "Bongo" Brown, Johnny Griffith, Uriel Jones, Bob Babbitt and Dennis Coffey) remained largely unheralded for their contributions to the internationally growing pop soul movement - until 2002, when Paul Justman directed Standing in the Shadows of Motown, a documentary (based on Allan Slutsky's book) with the express purpose of bringing The Funk Brothers out of anonymity and into the spotlight.

For some of them, by then, it was too late. Before filming, many of The Funk Brothers' members, including Benjamin, Jamerson, Brown, Van Dyke and others, had died in bankruptcy and obscurity, often due to complications arising from addiction. Motown Records did not treat its less notorious musicians kindly, and the compensation was haphazard and minimal. But, though Standing in the Shadows of Motown never shies from the dismal reality of Motown's business dealings, the film itself is more a celebration of music than an indictment of the music industry. This is a movie that loves motown, acknowledging the corruption of Motown Records but honoring the power of its music, with one of the greatest soundtracks boasted by any film in recent memory.

The Funk Brothers made music because they loved it, because they were born for it, because it's all they've ever wanted to do. And many of them are still making music together, thanks in large part to the efforts of Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the last act of which is dedicated to the staging of a reunion concert of all surviving members (and with framed photos and chairs reserved onstage for those Funk Brothers who did not survive to participate). On a large stage in front of a wild audience, The Funk Brothers performed the songs we've known all our lives, backing vocals performed by the likes of Chaka Khan, Bootsy Collins, Joan Osborne, Montell Jordan, Ben Harper and more.

As these men stand onstage, playing the hell out of some of the most popular songs ever written, grins on their faces a mile long, it becomes clear that this is where they're meant to be, and whatever they've been doing in the decades since Motown Records moved to Los Angeles is a meaningless detour on the paths they've always intended to take. Standing in the Shadows of Motown is great entertainment, a piercing and well-executed look at a previously undistinguished subject, with clarity of direction and an appealing voice-over by actor Andre Braugher. But the film becomes more than that when we realize that it's the impetus for The Funk Brothers' reunion and current tours, for their long belated recognition and our own appreciation of the men behind the music. It's crucial viewing for any fan of motown, because it allows you to see - and hear! - what you've really been a fan of this whole time.