[Otis Williams:]
Detroit, Michigan
The year? 1960
Motown Records
At that time, my group was called Otis Williams and the Distants
Now, we were recording for a little small label
Getting ready to do for you, called 'Come On'
Now, 'Come On' did quite a bit of business, maybe somewhat of a ruckus
So much so that we used to have to do record hops
Now, record hops is when you have a record out
You have to go 'round to whatever noted disc jockey was having on Friday or Saturday, even a Sunday
Um, gathering, you'd have to go there so you can get your record played
So this one particular night, we were at St. Steven's Community Centre
The Distants were on stage, so we're doing 'Come On' and people are going crazy
But enter walk Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, who are with Mr. Berry Gordy
Now, Smokey and them were very hot, because they had, uh, 'Shop Around' out
So, when the audience finally let us up, 'because they kept us on, calling us back for two-to-three different times
And when we finally came off, I'm standing in the crowd, watching Smokey and the Miracles
It just so happened Mr. Gordy was standing next to me, and he said
"Man, I like that record you guys have out. Come see me, I'm starting my label"
And as fate would have it, I kept it, kept the card, and it didn't go too well for the label that we were recording
So I call Mickey Stevenson, who was the A