Editing Doo-wop (section)

===Detroit===
In 1945,<ref name="Stone2017">{{cite book|author=Marsha Music|editor1=Joel Stone|title=Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLK1DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT63|date=5 June 2017|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-4304-3|page=63|chapter=Joe's Record Shop}}</ref> Joe Von Battle opened Joe's Record Shop at 3530 Hastings Street in Detroit; the store had the largest selection of rhythm and blues records in the city, according to a 1954 ''Billboard'' business survey. Battle, a migrant from Macon, Georgia, established his shop as the first black-owned business in the area, which remained primarily Jewish up to the late 1940s.<ref name="Fletcher2017">{{cite book|author=Tony Fletcher|title=In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=92d4DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-025294-6|page=27}}</ref> Young aspiring performers would gather there in hopes of being discovered by the leading independent record company owners who courted Battle to promote and sell records, as well as to find new talent at his shop and studio. Battle's record labels included JVB, Von, Battle, Gone, and Viceroy;<ref name="BjornGallert2001">{{cite book|author1=Lars Bjorn|author2=Jim Gallert|title=Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K11GJ-xaEcoC&pg=PA173 |year=2001 |publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-06765-6|page=173}}</ref><ref name="Komara2006">{{cite book|author=Edward M. Komara|title=Encyclopedia of the Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&pg=PA555|year=2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-92699-7|page=555}}</ref> he also had subsidiary arrangements with labels such as King and Deluxe. He supplied Syd Nathan with many blues and doo-wop masters recorded in his primitive back-of-the-store studio from 1948 to 1954. As the pivotal recording mogul in the Detroit area, Battle was an important player in the independent label network.<ref name="Broven2011">{{cite book|author=John Broven|title=Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3zdJ66VAOQC&pg=PA321|date=11 August 2011|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-09401-9|pages=135, 321}}</ref>

Jack and Devora Brown, a Jewish couple, founded [[Fortune Records]] in 1946 and recorded a variety of eccentric artists and sounds; in the mid-1950s they became champions of Detroit rhythm and blues, including the music of local doo-wop groups. Fortune's premier act was the [[Nolan Strong & the Diablos|Diablos]], featuring the soaring tenor of lead vocalist Nolan Strong, a native of Alabama. The group's most notable hit was "[[The Wind (Nolan Strong & The Diablos song)|The Wind]]".<ref name="Ward1998464">{{cite book|author=Brian Ward|title=Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibrrPmSpLTAC&pg=PA464|date=6 July 1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21298-5|page=464}}</ref> Strong, like other R&B and doo-wop tenors of the time, was profoundly influenced by [[Clyde McPhatter]], lead singer of the Dominoes and later of the Drifters. Strong himself made a lasting impression on the young [[Smokey Robinson]], who went out of his way to attend Diablo shows.<ref name="Liebler2016">{{cite book|author1=M. L. Liebler|author2=S.R. Boland|title=Heaven was Detroit: From Jazz to Hip-hop and Beyond|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIUyjwEACAAJ|year=2016|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-4122-3|pages=100–104|chapter=3: The Pre-Motown Sounds}}</ref>

In late 1957, 17-year-old Robinson, fronting a Detroit vocal harmony group called the Matadors, met the producer [[Berry Gordy]], who was beginning to take up new styles, including doo-wop.<ref name="Flory2017">{{cite book|author=Andrew Flory|title=I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LEc_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |date=30 May 2017|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-03686-8|page=26}}</ref> Gordy wanted to promote a black style of music that would appeal to both the black and white markets, performed by black musicians with roots in gospel, R&B, or doo-wop. He sought artists who understood that the music had to be updated to appeal to a broader audience and attain greater commercial success.<ref name="StuessyLipscomb2006">{{cite book|author1=Joe Stuessy|author2=Scott David Lipscomb|title=Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YUUYAQAAIAAJ&q=%22roots%20were%20in%20gospel%22|year=2006|publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall|isbn=978-0-13-193098-8|page=209}}</ref> Early recordings by Gordy's [[Tamla Records]], founded several months before he established the [[Motown Record Corporation]] in January 1959,<ref name="Cotten1989">{{cite book|author=Lee Cotten|title=The Golden Age of American Rock 'n Roll|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IyLaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22first%20single%20on%20Motown%20Records%22|year=1989|publisher=Pierian Press|isbn=978-0-9646588-4-4|page=169}}</ref> were of either blues or doo-wop performances.<ref name="MacKenzie2009">{{cite book|author=Alex MacKenzie|title=The Life and Times of the Motown Stars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yik3AQAAIAAJ&q=%22started%20Tamla%20Records%22|year=2009|publisher=Together Publications LLP|isbn=978-1-84226-014-2|page=146}}</ref>

"[[Bad Girl (The Miracles song)|Bad Girl]]", a 1959 doo-wop single by Robinson's group, [[the Miracles]], was the first single released (and the only one released by this group) on the Motown label—all previous singles from the company (and all those following from the group) were released on the Tamla label. Issued locally on the Motown Records label, it was licensed to and released nationally by Chess Records because the fledgling Motown Record Corporation did not, at that time, have national distribution.<ref name="Larkin1997309">{{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HLo7AQAAIAAJ&q=%22doo-wop%20novelty%22|year=1997|publisher=Virgin|isbn=978-0-7535-0149-8|page=309}}</ref> "Bad Girl" was the group's first national chart hit,<ref name="Dahl2011">{{cite book|author=Bill Dahl|title=Motown: The Golden Years: More than 100 rare photographs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qsCrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT243|date=28 February 2011|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4402-2557-4|pages=243}}</ref> reaching number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100.<ref name="Simmons2018234">{{cite book|author=Rick Simmons|title=Carolina Beach Music Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BE1nDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT234 |date=8 August 2018|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-6767-6|page=234}}</ref> Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records' president Berry Gordy, "Bad Girl" was the first of several of the Miracles' songs performed in the doo-wop style during the late 1950s.