Berry Gordy's Real Name: Berry Gordy Jr.

Quick answer: The record executive is known as Berry Gordy and Berry Gordy Jr. Britannica says he is "also called Berry Gordy, Jr.," and dates his birth to November 28, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan. Encyclopedia.com and the Detroit Historical Society independently use Berry Gordy Jr. and the same birth date and city (Britannica; Encyclopedia.com; Detroit Historical Society).

Real name and early life

Independent publishers support the documented form Berry Gordy Jr. A longer numbered form sometimes appears in other reference listings, but it is not used by the sources cited here, so this page titles Berry Gordy Jr. Britannica says he dropped out of Northeastern High School in Detroit, pursued a featherweight boxing career, and joined the U.S. Army about 1951-53, then returned to Detroit to open a record store and produce recordings of his own compositions. The Detroit Historical Society independently says he dropped out of high school in the 11th grade, tried professional boxing, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1951, and served in Korea until he was discharged in 1953. Encyclopedia.com independently calls him a former professional boxer, failed record-store owner, and ex-automobile plant assembly-line worker before he founded his label.

Career highlights

Britannica says that in 1959 he founded the Motown Record Corporation, which became the most successful Black-owned music company in the United States, and that through Motown he developed performers including Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, and Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. Encyclopedia.com dates the opening of the Tamla Record Company to January 1959 and says he renamed the company the Motown Record Corporation in 1960, establishing offices in a house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, later known as Hitsville U.S.A. The Detroit Historical Society independently says that in 1959, after founding the publishing company Jobete, he founded Tamla and later that year Motown, and also purchased the Grand Boulevard house that became known as Hitsville USA. This page records Britannica's 1959 Motown Corporation wording alongside the Tamla-then-Motown sequence given by the other two sources rather than treating those founding labels as a single event.

Britannica also names early-1960s hits including Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street" and the Temptations' "My Girl."

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Berry Gordy or Berry Gordy Jr. are looking for the same Motown founder. Independent sources support the "Jr." form used in the title.