Hitsville USA Studios, Detroit

The original Motown recording and mastering studios in Detroit, Michigan (USA). For the Hollywood, Los Angeles, use Motown/Hitsville U.S.A. Recording Studios.

Hitsville U.S.A. was the name of the Motown Headquarters, purchased by founder Berry Gordy in 1959. The original recording studio was located in a backroom of the property (previously a photo studio) with the Gordys occupying the living quarters on the second floor. (Before opening his own recording studio, Gordy made use of United Sound Systems.)

Within seven years the complex expanded to the neighbouring houses on West Grand Boulevard. Hitsville U.S.A. remained for the administrative office and what became known as Studio A, with Jobete Music Co., Inc.'s publishing office, Berry Gordy Jr. Enterprises, International Talent Management Inc. and finance, sales and A&R departments in the surrounding converted homes. Since 1966 mixing and mastering took place in the additional administrative buildings.

In 1967 Gordy moved to what is now known as the "Motown Mansion" and his sister Anna Gordy and her husband Marvin Gaye moved into the Hitsville apartment. In 1968 purchased the Donovan building on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Interstate 75, which became known as the "Motown Center" and moved the offices there. In the same year Gordy purchased [l837919], and its recording studio became Motown's [url=https://www.discogs.com/label/2784569-Studio-B-Detroit-MI]Studio B[/url].

The Mastering Lab (technically not part of Hitsville) was housed in the Motown Center and included two cutting facilities: a stereo room on the 10th floor and a mono facility in the basement. The stereo mastering system consisted of a Neumann AM-32b lathe, a Neumann SX-68 helium-cooled cutting head, a Studer C-37 tape machine that was modified for tape-to-disc transfer, and a custom-designed electronics rack built by the Motown technical department. The mono mastering system consisted of a Neumann AM-131 manual lathe, with either a mono Grampian or Neumann ES-59 cutting head.

In mid-1970 Gordy purchased Poppi Studios in Hollywood and renamed it MoWest Studios. The last recordings in Detroit's Hitsville studio took place in late 1971, before operations moved westward to what eventually became Motown/Hitsville U.S.A. Recording Studios. Esther Gordy Edwards remained in charge of what was left of the Motown office at Hitsville. She took care to preserve Studio A and in 1985 the Motown Museum opened on the site.

Studio B was vacated ca. 1974. The Donovan building was eventually demolished in January 2006 to provide parking spaces for Super Bowl XL. In 2019 LTJ Bukem was the first artist in almost half a century to do a recording at Studio A.

Chief engineer: Cal Harris.
Recording/mixing engineers: Ken Sands, Larry Miles, Russ Terrana, Ralph Terrana, Don Gooch, James Green (35), Art Stewart, Steve Smith (7), Nate Jennings, Sam Ross (2), John Lewis, Orson Lewis, Austin Lewis, Donald Brown, Robert Gavin, Vincent Shensky.
Mastering/cutting engineers: Bob Olhsson, Joe Atkinson, Leonard Wisniewski, Norman Elder.
Technical department: Mike McLean, Don Boehret, Leonard Kosloski, Ronald Lynch, Gurdev Sandhu, Don Fostle, Michael Grace.