The Nation's Favourite Motown Song

So, didi you watch it last night? The Nation’s Favourite Motown Song told the story behind 20 of Motown’s best-loved songs. It explored the label which became the American soundtrack of the Sixties and beyond, creating a one-stop factory of hit songs and a sophisticated style which set the agenda for generations of pop stars to come. The documentary special featured new interviews with Motown stars alongside footage of the greatest hits from the label’s iconic artists. The Motown label was founded by Berry Gordy II who was the victim of an Internet death hoax earlier this month. He is happily alive and well.

Mark Robinson, Creative Director, Shiver (ITV Studios' factual division) said: “Motown is ideally suited to the The Nation’s Favourite… format, which celebrates the greatest popular music acts of our lifetimes. This special explores the fascinating background to some of the best-loved Motown songs and will ultimately reveal The Nation’s Favourite Motown Song.”

Richard Klein, Director of Factual for ITV said: "If you don't like Motown you don't like pop music - or dancing. Motown is the distilled essence of 60s urban pop music, and no label has ever quite matched it. The Nation's Favourite Motown Song is a brilliant and delicious way to celebrate 20 three-minute slices of musical genius."

I recall some great times in the Swinging Sixties when the hits just kept coming from the likes of The Supremes, Four Tops, the Temptations, Jackson Five, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and solo stars such as Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye (my particular favourite, everyone should have a copy of his album 'What's Goin' On') and Jimmy Ruffin. So many songs often written by Holland, Dozier and Holland, helped provide the soundtrack for an era and are still highly regarded.

This wonderful TV programme told the stories behind 20 of the label's greatest hits, told by those who helped to make pop history. And the voting public got the number one exactly right: Marvin Gaye's 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'.

A most enjoyable 90 minutes of TV.