
Berry Gordy Net Worth: Berry Gordy is an American record executive and producer who has a net worth of $400 million. He is most famous for being the founder and president of Motown Records, and for being behind the careers of megastars like Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and The Jackson 5.
Berry Gordy
Net Worth: | $400 Million |
Date of Birth: | Nov 28, 1929 (92 years old) |
Gender: | Male |
Profession: | Entrepreneur, Record producer, Songwriter, Businessperson, Film Producer, Television producer, Musician, Music executive |
Nationality: | United States of America |
Early Life: Berry Gordy III, known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., was born on November 28, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan. He was the seventh of eight children. Gordy and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter share the same great-grandfather, the Georgian plantation owner James Gordy. Gordy’s grandfather was born to James Gordy and an enslaved woman on his plantation.
Gordy dropped out of high school in 11th grade in order to pursue a career as a professional boxer. That career did not last long and soon he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. When he returned from the war, Gordy opened a record store called 3-D Record Mart. The store specialized in selling jazz albums to a largely African-American customer base. In his free time, Gordy also wrote songs, one of which “Reet Petite” became a hit for singer Jackie Wilson. Using the profits earned from “Reet Petite”, Gordy began writing and producing full time. Career: Between 1957 and 1959, Gordy produced tracks and albums for a number of up-and-coming artists, including The Miracles (originally known as the Matadors), led by a young musician named Smokey Robinson. Smokey knew a good thing when he saw it, and encouraged Gordy to think bigger. In 1959, with an $800 loan from his family, Gordy launched Tamla Records, an R&B label. The first track released by Tamla was Marv Johnson’s “Come to Me”, and it was a success. The song “Bad Girl” by The Miracles, was released the same year under Gordy’s second label, Motown, and proved to be a success as well. He soon merged Tamla and Motown into the Motown Record Corporation in late 1959.
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