A professional boxer whose career was cut short when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Berry sang at religious services and wrote music as a young adult, including songs he penned for Jackie Wilson and Etta James.

But it was a check for $3.19 that would go on to revolutionize the music world. After receiving a royalty check for that amount for some of his early songs, Berry decided it was time to start his own label. An US$800 loan that Berry borrowed from his family in 1959 would go on to usher in The Motown Sound that placed African Americans at the center of pop music for the first time.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1929, Berry was 30 years old when he used the loan to launch Tamla Records, a name he later changed to Motown Records, derived from Detroit’s nickname, the Motor City. Berry wrote music, signed acts, produced records, managed events and TV appearances, and studied the automotive industry, looking for ways to make his studio even more efficient.

And it paid off. For a decade, starting in 1961, Motown landed 110 songs in the Billboard top ten and not only dominated the airwaves, but also influenced the legendary Beatles, who covered the Marvelettes’ “Please Mister Postman,” the Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” and Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want),” a song also covered by The Rolling Stones.

The Motown Sound Gordy created was a mix of soul, pop, and gospel music, featuring tambourines, horns, and orchestral strings, overlaid with a “call and response” singing style that made it easy for audiences to participate and to sing along to records. Berry’s studio, known as “Hitsville USA,” churned out hit after hit and hit, relying on a large songwriting team, nearly 24-hour-per-day sound mixing in the studio (it was closed only for two hours of cleaning every day), and long national and world tours by Motown artists.

While on tour, Berry insisted that every act wear elegant suits and gowns with perfectly groomed hair, and instructed younger artists on how to walk, talk, eat, and shake hands like royalty. Not only did this sophistication come to be equated with Motown Records, but it also began to change the way white Americans thought of their African American counterparts.

In the early 1970s, Berry moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began his career as a movie executive, producing his Billie Holiday biopic, Lady Sings the Blues, staring Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams (later of Star Wars fame). Although most of the Motown staff moved with Berry, Esther Gordy Edwards, one of his sisters, decided to stay in Detroit and soon found herself preserving the studio and its memorabilia, eventually leading to the Motown Museum, which opened in 1985 and remains one of Detroit’s most popular tourist attractions. In 1988, Michael Jackson donated personal items (including his white glove and black fedora), along with a large monetary donation; in 2011, Paul McCartney took a personal tour of the museum and was instrumental in refurbishing the Steinway known as the Motown Piano, on which McCartney and Berry played a duet in 2012. Berry himself gave a US$4 million donation to the museum in 2019.

In 1988, Berry was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in, 1994, he penned his autobiography, To Be Loved. In 1998, he was inducted in the Global Business Hall of Fame.