Berry Gordy is a celebrated music executive and producer, songwriter, TV and film producer who has a net worth of $400 million. Gordy gained fame after founding an R&B record company called ‘Motown Records’ in 1959.
Since 1957, Gordy has written and co-written a full of 240 songs of the roughly 15000 songs which were released by Motown Record Corporation.
In his long 64 years of career, he has won only four awards including Grammy Trustees Award in 1991, American Music Award in 1975, R&B Foundation Pioneer Award in 2006, and the Bet Honors Entrepreneur Award in 2014.
Berry Gordy achieved the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from the hands of President Barack Obama because of songwriting to help to create a trailblazing new sound in American music.
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How Much Does Berry Gordy Make?
Berry Gordy founded the Tamla Records and later on, named Motown Records was a game changing company for the black people living in the US. Motown records broke the barrier between the black and white in the music industry.
Gordy earned a huge deal of money before and after selling the company. Besides, he made films in the 80s, track sounds in TV shows, and by appearing in movies as a guest. His income is given below in a timely basis:
- Yearly Income: 63.84 million
- Monthly Income: 5.32 million
- Weekly Income: 1.33 million
- Daily Income: 189.95K
- Hourly Income: 7.9K
How Does Berry Gordy Make Her Money?
Berry Gordy is a record executive and producer, songwriter, TV and film producer at a time. He has devoted his whole life to carry out this kind of project. His sources of earnings are listed below:
- Working as a songwriter and song co-writer
- Carrying out as a music producer and executive
- Working as a film producer
- Doing the job as a television producer
- Selling Motown Record Corporation and songs
Working as a songwriter and song co-writer
Song named ‘Reet Petite’ was co-written by Berry Gordy along with his sister Gwen and writer-producer Billy Davis was Gordy’s first song he wrote in 1957 and it was an absolute hit in the music industry as it reached the top ten in the UK and again hit the chart at re-issue in 1986.
He founded an R&B record company in 1959 named ‘Tamla Records’ and started his songwriting career. Later on the name Tamla Records was changed and named ‘Motown Record Corporation’. He has written and co-written a total of 240 songs till now.
Though his songs are quite vintage, still some songs of his are popular. Besides, songs were at the top of the chart at that time. Some songs are given below:
| Name of the song (Year) | US pop chart rank |
| Reet Petite (1957) | 62 |
| Lonely teardrops (1958) | 7 |
| You got what it takes (1959) | 10 |
| Shop around (1960) | 2 |
| Do you love me (1962) | 3 |
| ABC (1970) | 1 |
| The love you save (1970) | 1 |
| I’ll be there | 1 |
| Mama’s pearl (1971) | 2 |
Carrying Out as a Music Producer and Executive
Berry Gordy is not only a songwriter but also a prominent music producer. He could not sing himself but he gave the direction while making songs.
He started Tamla Records in 1959 taking an 800 dollars loan from his family. Later on, he changed the name to Motown Record.
Motown had almost 420 employees and made revenue a total of 20 million dollars in just 16 years which is worth 144 million dollars in today’s dollars. In other words, he was a total success in his career.
Working as a Film Producer
Berry Gordy came to Los Angeles, California in 1972 and made some commercially successful films. Billy Dee Williams is also known as Lando Calrissian from the Star Wars Franchise and first entered the film industry through Gordy by casting in a role in his film called the Four Tops.
His well-known movies are listed below:
| Name of the movie | Worked as | Release Year |
| Lady Sings the Blues | Producer | 1972 |
| Mahogany | Director | 1975 |
| The Last Dragon | Executive Producer | 1985 |
Selling Motown Record Corporation
Though Motown had genuine talented artists like the Jacksons, Rick James, and Lionel Richie in the 1970s to 1980s, it did not go well in the 80s. MCA Records bought his industry for 61 million dollars on 28 June 1988.
Later on, he had sold almost all of his interests in Jobete publishing to EMI publishing. The Jobete had around 15000 songs of which 240 songs were written by Gordy himself. After a few years, Polygram took the Motown catalog by giving 330 million US dollars.
Thus his net worth’s eighty percent came from selling a song catalog to Polygram.
Biography of Berry Gordy
| Full Name | Berry Gordy III |
| Gender | Male |
| Date of Birth | 28 November 1929 |
| Birth Place | Detroit, Michigan |
| Height | 5 feet 9 Inch |
| Weight | 80Kg |
| Marital Status | Divorced (Married three times) |
| Nationality | American |
| Net Worth | 400 million USD |
Early Life
Berry Gordy was born in Detroit, Michigan and later on, his family moved to Oconee in Washington County, Georgia. He was born in a middle-class family and had eight siblings.
He always thought of how to become rich quickly. So, he dropped out of high school to become a boxer when he was in eleventh grade. He even became a professional boxer before 1950.
But in 1951, he left boxing because of the US Army to give service in the Korean War. After returning from the war in 1953, he became very obsessed with the music and started writing songs and opened a record store featuring jazz music. But it was a failed project.
In 1957, he met Jackie Wilson and recorded a song co-written by him named Reet Petite which gave him huge success and eventually his career began.
Real Estate
Berry Gordy sold Malibu Mansion in 1997 to Michael Ovitz, an entertainment executive for 6 million dollars. The mansion was bought by Berry in 1975. Also in 2014, he sold an apartment block in exchange of 2 million dollars which is located in Century City, California.
The king of all real estate he owns is his Bel-Air accommodation that he first bought in 1976 and by the years he increased its area. Today, the land area is around 4 acres. The main house of the property is around 10000 square feet.
The property has another house nearby and is established on a 5000 square feet area. Real estate costs around 60 to 70 million dollars.
Sources:
- https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/berry-gordy/credits/3000238815/ — Films and TV shows
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0330700/ — Berry Gordy IMDb
- https://www.songhall.org/profile/berry_gordy — Songwriters Hall of Famehttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0330700/awards — Awards
