Music / Business & brands
Raynoma Gordy Singleton
1937–2016 · songwriter, arranger, producer
Detroit-born arranger and producer, Berry Gordy's second wife, who found the West Grand Boulevard house that became Hitsville U.S.A. and set up Motown's publishing arm.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Woodland Hills, California
aged 79- Birth name
- Raynoma Mayberry
- Also known as
- Miss Ray · Ray Singleton
- Detroit years
- 1937–early 1960s, 1968–
- Field
- Music, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Raynoma Mayberry grew up in Detroit, the daughter of a Cadillac janitor. In 1958 she auditioned as a singer for Berry Gordy, then a struggling songwriter, and quickly became his arranger and partner. She organized the Rayber Voices backing group, with Brian Holland and Robert Bateman among its singers, and the couple formed the Rayber Music Writing Company. She and Smokey Robinson urged Gordy to start his own label, and she located the two-story house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard that became the company's headquarters. Gordy put her in charge of publishing, the operation later called Jobete. The two married, then separated; running a Jobete office in New York, she bootlegged copies of Mary Wells's "My Guy" to keep it afloat. She returned to Motown in 1968 and later served as executive producer of Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me".
Highlights
- Found the house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard that became Hitsville U.S.A.
- Led the Rayber Voices, Motown's first backing group
- First head of Motown's publishing (later Jobete)
- Executive producer of Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me (1984)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1959–early 1960s
Motown Museum
She found this house for Gordy's new company and ran its publishing office here.