Over the next few weeks, WTFDetroit.com posters will identify Detroit's Top 25 Recording Artists of All Time.

Here is how the process will work:

1. Using this thread, posters can nominate any Michigan born/based recording artists for inclusion in the final ballot. Please note that artists from any part of Michigan are eligible for nomination. This nomination period is open from now until July 25, 2006.

2. Posters are encouraged to nominate artists/groups that they view as the most significant in Detroit music history.

The criteria is simple:
a) quality of artist/group's overall body of work
b) overall influence on the music industry
c) all/any genres are acceptable
d) must be Michigan born and/or based

3. Posters can nominate as many acts as they would like over the nomination period. The Syndicate will judge whether or not nominations are valid, and if they are, they will be added to the official nomination ballot (a running list that will be updated frequently).

4. Once the nomination period is over, an official final ballot will be posted. We will then enter the voting/balloting period where people can email or PM their lists (in ranked order) of up to 25 nominees. They can also send in fewer if they'd like to.

5. Once the voting period ends, the results will be compiled, and they will be unveiled in a full length WTF Front Page feature article.

6. As a special bonus, one voter will be selected at random to receive a valuable prize (prize TBD).

We're really hoping to get a lot of participation on this so we can produce the best quality list at the end, and it could make for some great debate/conversation as well.

With that, it's time to start nominating acts for Detroit's Top 25 Recording Artists of All Time. Feel free to discuss your own nominations and the nominations of others in this thread.

Thanks!

#1
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/jm_phenom23/KidRock150x2.jpg

#2
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/jm_phenom23/em1.jpg

I gotta throw in Seger in at #3.

Those are my three!

Off the top of my head in no particular order...

Aretha Franklin
Madonna
Anita Baker
Stevie Wonder

...now we're talking^

Iggy Pop
MC5
The White Stripes
Alice Cooper

George Clinton
Alice Cooper
Madonna
The Syndicate (for obvious reasons)
Taproot
The Verve Pipe
The White Stripes

Stevie Wonder
George Clinton
Madonna
Anita Baker
Bob Seger
Eminem
Kid Rock
Diana Ross
Iggy Pop
White Stripes
Xzibit
John Lee Hooker
Ted Nugent
Slum Village
MC5
MOLA1

Updated list:

Kid Rock
Eminem
Aretha Franklin
Madonna
Anita Baker
Stevie Wonder
Iggy Pop
MC5
The White Stripes
Alice Cooper
George Clinton
Taproot
The Verve Pipe
Bob Seger
Diana Ross
Xzibit
John Lee Hooker
Ted Nugent
Slum Village

Jay Dee - http://www.stonesthrow.com/jdilla/discography.html he IS Detroit Hip-Hop. Nuff said.

MC Breed - Ain't No Future in Yo Frontin' and Let's Go to the Club might not guarantee
him to go to the top 25. I know you gotta get yours, but we ain't frontin' Breed.

Royce Da 5'9" - He's short and his career has been pretty short compared to
some of these old timers, but once the "no brainers" were laid out, I thought
that Royce'd be a good choice simply because he's one of the illest in the D.

Obie Trice - Real name, no gimmicks. I love Obie but with a discography
shorter than Chumawumba's, a top 25 is too much too soon for my man.
I'll buy you a drink for leaving you off the list homie Obie.

Top 3


Stevie Wonder
Bob Seger
Eminem

Let's pull out some huge Detroit music folks that y'all forget about:

The Belleville Three (Atkins, Saunderson, May) are responsible for Detroit techno and unquestionably deserve to be listed.

Bill Haley (of Bill Haley and the Comets -- first big rock and roll band in history, Rock Around The Clock, etc.) was born and raised in Detroit.

? and the Mysterians ("96 Tears") was THE first group ever labelled as "punk rock", among the first Latino rock bands, and legitimately spacey dudes!

The Funk Brothers: They're the studio band for damn near every Motown song you ever heard, and a ton you didn't. Played on more #1 hits than any band ever.

Thanks Mxy, that's the kind of stuff we're looking for.

George Benson, Jackie Wilson, The Spinners, Be Be & Ce Ce Winans,
Ray Parker Jr., Temptations, Sonny Bono, The Four Tops, MOLA1
The Reflections, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, The Vandellas,

I think the first word that everyone thinks of when the hear "Sonny Bono" is "Detroit". lol

Nice additions, M1.

If you want to count Windsor as "south Detroit" (that song by Journey still cracks me up), Shania Twain was born there.

Wilson Pickett belongs on the list, and isn't conveniently lumped with the Motown greats.

For Jazz, Miles Davis lived in Detroit, briefly. Betty Carter was born around here. Get Ed Love to sign on here. :)

I thought we were going by birthplace.

Pickett got his start here, but Alice Cooper started out in Tempe, if I'm not mistaken.

"born or based"

"born or based"
Seriously? Everyone's going to die. This top 25 will take years.
I say we should go with born in. There are a lot of people that were "based"
here during the Motown era. Leaving people like Gladys Knight and The Pips
off the top 25 list would be ridiculous, so I think to avoid complications, born
in Michigan is what we should roll with. Thoughts?

Raised in Detroit -or- did significant amounts of musical work in Detroit makes more sense to me. There's a number of quintessential Detroit folks like Aretha Franklin who weren't born in Detroit, but any list without her is bogus.

There's an out to avoid weighing the Motown bands -too- heavily -- just have a slot be "The Funk Brothers (and everyone who sang with them)". That way you don't have to decide between The Supremes and the Four Tops. Somewhere along the way, Holland-Dozier-Holland deserves some mention, though... hmmm...

One other name that hasn't been mentioned is Glenn Frey, best known as being a backup musician for Bob Seger and Linda Ronstadt. Oh, and this little group called the Eagles...

Does anyone want to claim the Jackson 5? What about ICP?

Raised in Detroit -or- did significant amounts of musical work in Detroit makes more sense to me. There's a number of quintessential Detroit folks like Aretha Franklin who weren't born in Detroit, but any list without her is bogus.


I'm inclined to agree. Lots of great artists that made their mark in Detroit but where born elsewhere.

As far as the MoTown stuff being dominant in the list, I think that is entirely appropriate. Besides cars, it's what the city is known for. Those MoTown artists are amongst the most influential and revered in music history, not just Detroit music history.

Detroit is where that history was made.

Jackson 5? Sure.
What about ICP?No.

Anyone else starting to think that the pool isn't big enough for a top 25 to spark any interesting debate about who gets left off the list?

Another angle is old school vs new school.

For old school I'd rank Stevie Wonder as #1 weighing the born-and-raised factor strongly and his overall standing/impact.

New school I think would be a good cage match between May/Saunderson/Atkins, the White Stripes and Eminem. Even though Eminem is a megastar and the White Stripes gave a tepid detroit rock scene a serious shot of adrenalin and national exposure... I'd give the edge to the belleville three for really making detroit the cradle of house/techno in much the same way that new york is broadly viewed as the birthplace of rap/hip hop.

Overall I like to give a lot of weight to what the artist/act did to put the detroit music scene on the map in their time. A lot of the nominees so far made it big but none of that star power ever really shined locally except as a biographical footnote.

After listening to Baby Let Me Take You on my ipod,
I realized that we missed the “Detroit Emeralds” for this list.
This is still a jam. People have sampled this song for years.

Geerussell. I think this pool is maybe halfway filled. More to come...

Uncle Kracker

You're also missing a lot of motown guys. I don't know much about them, but Smokey Robinson is one of them.

Updated verified list:

Kid Rock
Eminem
Aretha Franklin
Madonna
Anita Baker
Stevie Wonder
Iggy Pop
MC5
The White Stripes
Alice Cooper
George Clinton
Taproot
The Verve Pipe
Bob Seger
Diana Ross/Supremes
Xzibit
John Lee Hooker
Ted Nugent
Slum Village
Jay Dee
MC Breed
Royce Da 5'9"
The Belleville Three
Bill Haley
? and the Mysterians
The Funk Brothers
George Benson (the sax player, not the singer)
Jackie Wilson
The Spinners
Be Be & Ce Ce Winans
Ray Parker Jr.
The Temptations
Sonny Bono
The Four Tops
The Reflections
Smokey Robinson
The Vandellas
Wilson Pickett
Glenn Frey
Insane Clown Posse
Betty Carter
Uncle Kracker
Detroit Emeralds

Can anyone expand on the Jackson 5's Detroit connection other than being signed to the MoTown label and doing some recording there?

I've always thought about them as a Gary, Indiana act that later moved to California. They may have had a Detroit base for some time, but I'm hoping that someone here knows more specifics and can enlighten us on the history before we add them to the list.

Also, I don't see Grand Funk Railroad yet, so I'll add them on the next update.

Uncle Kracker

You're also missing a lot of motown guys. I don't know much about them, but Smokey Robinson is one of them.
I threw him in earlier.

The Dayton Family

I think the pool is pretty huge. I could come up with 25 great acts of just the Motown era and they'd be reasonably well-known names with songs everyone would know to sing to and identify with Motown. Indeed, probably the only reason you wouldn't know which name to associate with which song is because there's so many of 'em:

1) Stevie Wonder
2) Aretha Franklin (who never was part of Motown Records proper)
3) Marvin Gaye
4) Smokey Robinson + Miracles
5) The Temptations
6) Four Tops
7) Diana Ross + Supremes
8) Edwin Starr
9) Gladys Knight + Pips
10) Mary Wells
11) Martha Reeves + Vandellas
12) The Marvelettes
13) Isley Brothers
14) Tammi Terrell
15) The Contours
16) Junior Walker + All Stars
17) The Spinners
18) Barrett Strong
19) Kim Weston
20) Wilson Pickett
21) The Capitols
22) The Originals
23) Jackie Wilson
24) Brenda Holloway

But -- can I hit #25? Perhaps I should reserve #25 for:

The secret weapons behind the scenes:

Holland-Dozier-Holland
Ashford+Simpson
The Funk Brothers
The Andantes
Norman Whitfield

Or, the Motown acts that were bigger in the U.K. than the U.S., like the Velvelettes and Chris Clark.

Nahhh... I'll let someone tell me which big Motown-era act(s) I missed for #25.

Can anyone expand on the Jackson 5's Detroit connection other than being signed to the MoTown label and doing some recording there?

I've always thought about them as a Gary, Indiana act that later moved to California. They may have had a Detroit base for some time, but I'm hoping that someone here knows more specifics and can enlighten us on the history before we add them to the list.
They lived in Detroit for a few months between Indiana and California. Berry Gordy moved them to California shortly after he moved himself to California, owing to the riots.

The Jackson 5's first couple big singles were recorded at Hitsville, along with sporadic material going through Hitsville. Hitsville was often batting cleanup since they couldn't get the sound quite right at Motown-West, with tapes often flying back and forth. The last big act to have any recorded material go through Hitsville was the Commodores, and they were never part of the Detroit scene.

I'm going to rephrase my post about the Jackson 5 from earlier.

Here:

With all do respect, I don't think the Jackson 5 belong,
but if it bumps ICP off the top 25, I'm all for it.

Heh... I'm just suggesting acts worthy for being on the ballot, not saying they're Top 25. Honestly, the chain of thought that led me to ICP was:

Jackson 5 -- Michael Jackson -- Fucked-up clown -- ICP

While I wouldn't vote them Top 25, I'll admit that some ICP songs like "Everybody Rize" amuse the heck out of me.

They (ICP) actually have been pretty influential, for shitty bands that is. No worries, I doubt they crack the top 25 unless some ballot stuffing goes on.

Here's another:

http://www.michaeljacksoncatalog.com/somebody's%20watching%20me%20Motown%20ZC%206914%20 Z.jpg

Rockwell's arguably the penultimate Motown act.

The Romantics, anyone?

Good call on The Romantics.

I've been laying low hoping that more people would chime in, but I can't take it anymore because this is fun to me.

Here's a few West Michigan entrants:

Rev. Al Green
Del Shannon
Debarge (all of them)

West Michigan seems like it's pushing it. I'm not sure if we can even count Windsor or Toledo as the Detroit area. Jewel and Norah Jones were at Interlochen -- do we count that?

How long do you have to have been in town to count in the Detroit music scene? Miles Davis and Meat Loaf (on Motown Records, no less) were on the scene for six months.

We're still missing entire genres, here... there's a lot of jazz greats from the '50s like Barry Harris and Ron Carter (one of the Miles Davis quintet), Detroit techno greats like Plastikman, etc.

Aaliyah and Was (Not Was) probably belong on the nomination list.

Mitch Ryder

The Rationals

Tommy James

Del Shannon

M1,

I got Del Shannon two posts ago, but those are good additions.

Mxy,

re: West Michigan entries (more specifically, non-Detroit)

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Madonna in Bay City, Iggy Pop in Muskegon, you mentioned Aretha was not a Detroiter.

Those are some of the reasons why we decided to allow any Michigan born/based on the list (see first post in this thread).

It does make for some gray areas and some debate, which we have no problem doing here. Would you be willing to help us define this further? It seems like we've found something else that you are an expert in.

no tekno love here...

Jeff Mills

Wikipediea - Jeff Mills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Mills)


Jeff Mills is credited with laying the foundations for legendary Detroit Techno collective, Underground Resistance, alongside 'Mad' Mike Banks, a former Parliament bass player.... Three decks, a Roland 909 drum-machine and seventy records in one hour: at breakneck speed Mills manipulates beats and basslines, vinyl and frequencies.

i gotta have about 50 jeff mills records, they are some of the hardest to DJ with that i own, and he flies through them flawlessly. he is Richie Hawtins idol, who i would have included but hes technically from windsor although he spent a lot of time in detroit before being banned from the country.

aside from the old school new school debate and whatnot, some consideration should be taken for musical style as well. just because hes not 'famous' by media standards, does not mean that he isnt a legend for millions that put detroit on the map for the whole world. id also like to add that i have three turntables, drum machines, fx processors, the whole deal. its hard as shit to mesh all that together and not have records slippin off-beat like crazy, and im not bad at mixing at all.

I saw they got nominated, but I'll second The Verve Pipe.

An extremely underrated band that had the potential to hit it big, but for some reason didn't.

Also, Brian VanderArk (lead singer) released a solo album, so I guess he needs consideration as well.

Didn't The Verve Pipe break-up after the were successfully sued for ripping off their big single? Also, they'er name was too close to The Verve who had a bigger (though terribly worse) single out just a bit earlier than them.

Didn't The Verve Pipe break-up after the were successfully sued for ripping off their big single? Also, they'er name was too close to The Verve who had a bigger (though terribly worse) single out just a bit earlier than them.

How can you bash the Verve? Bitterweet Sym, and the drugs don't work were solid singles.

Yes the band did break up not long after FWIW a very close HS friend of mine is in a indy rock band with former members of Verve Pipe.

Not sure if mention but Sponge and Charmfarm from the 90's, more recently Thunderbirds are now!

Mustard Plug

Mustard Plug

Seconded, along with the Skolars (Changed name to Telegraph).

Bob Seger

end list.

Suicide Machine

Suicide Machine

Good call. I still have their first tape lying around somewhere, I think, when they still had "Jack Kevorkian" in the name.

Black Dahlia Murder

Nominations close Tuesday.

We'll try and get an updated/verified list posted ASAP.

I still don't see MOLA1 nominated.

I thought it was a givin?


Ok, MOLA1

Drfitwood




http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=60130030



Complete sensation.

When's the ballot coming out? :)

later this week

It's been a really long week.