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The Rev. Prentiss Anderson, who was a member of Lee and the Leopards, sings during an interview Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, at the J. Frank Troy Senior Center in Toledo.
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Motown moment: Toledo's Prentiss Anderson recalls local hit that came out of historic label

THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH

Motown moment: Toledo's Prentiss Anderson recalls local hit that came out of historic label

Motown is almost intrinsically tied to the Motor City, where its distinctive sound developed inside the studios of Hitsville U.S.A. in 1959. The record company headquarters is today the heart of the Motown Museum, which last year broke ground of a $50 million expansion.

But the Glass City claims a tie, too, according to Toledo's Prentiss Anderson.

He was there in the label’s early days.

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Anderson, 80, is today a reverend at New Bethel Church of God in Christ in Toledo, where he serves under Bishop Rance Allen. (Allen himself brings a noteworthy musical pedigree to the congregation: The gospel vocalist heads the Grammy Award-winning Rance Allen Group.) But in the early 1960s, Anderson was one-third of Lee and the Leopards, one of the early groups to sign with Berry Gordy at Motown Records.

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Their song “Come Into My Palace” was the second release on the Gordy label, which followed the record company's earlier imprints Tamla and Motown. Anderson recalls it as the label’s first chronological release, as disc jockeys had it on the radio before its scheduled release date in April, 1962.

Still drawing heavily on the doo-wop sound of the preceding decade, “Come Into My Palace,” never brought nationwide acclaim to Lee and the Leopards. But it did in Toledo, their hometown, rising to the top of the local pop radio charts through the late spring of 1962.

“They flooded the radio with the new song,” Anderson said.

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Motown is credited with an enormous influence on popular music and culture, in part for the way it reached across the still-sharp lines of racial segregation in the U.S. in the 1960s. Among its legacies is its artists’ ability to cross from rhythm and blues to pop, according to Adam White, who with Barney Ales authored Motown: The Sound of Young America.

The label’s earliest releases, such as singles by the Miracles, “could be reasonably assured of airplay and rhythm and blues stations,” White wrote in an email from London. But to reach the young, white listeners of pop radio took a more conscious approach.

“When it came to pop radio, Motown really began to make inroads when Gordy recruited Barney Ales as national sales manager and promotion director in mid-1961,” White wrote. “Ales had previously worked for Capitol Records and Warner Bros. Records, and so he had experience and existing relationships with pop radio DJs, which helped place Motown’s records on stations in Detroit and elsewhere. Plus, he knew many of the country’s independent distributors, and so was in a position to make sure they promoted Motown releases effectively in their markets.”

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Add that approach to pop radio’s awareness of the increasing enthusiasm that its listeners had for the rhythm and blues sound associated with African American artists, and Motown Records was set to surge.

In 1961, Motown scored two Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, White said. By 1962, there six; by 1963, seven; by 1964, 11, including now-classics like Mary Wells’ “My Guy,” the Supremes’ “Baby Love,” and the Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Loving.”

In Toledo, Anderson was able to leverage personal relationships at pop stations WOHO and WTOD. He can describe in detail his memories of handing a freshly cut record to WOHO’s Fred Mitchell in February, 1962, for example. There was no need for an introduction: He knew the disc jockey because he'd performed with earlier musical groups at his record hops at a local venue known as the Pink Palace.

“Back in those days, the kids loved to see the black groups come, because the black groups would also dance and sing,” he said, “So the white kids could learn the new dances.”

In his recollection, Mitchell liked their 45 so much he put it on air immediately, Lee and the rest of the Leopards listening excitedly in the car they’d just driven from Detroit.

Their radio play that week, coupled with a performance that Anderson recalled Mitchell set up for them by the weekend at the Pink Palace, created a surge in local demand for the record. Record shops couldn’t keep up, given that it wasn’t technically released yet, Anderson recalled.

“So I went back to Detroit that next Tuesday,” he recalled, describing Gordy's reaction to the sudden demand for their single. “I walked in the door and Berry said, ‘Come in, What did you do?’ I said, ‘Berry, I told you … I had radio stations that I could get the record played on.’ ”

Their moment was in many ways tied to a moment years earlier in Baltimore: It was there that Anderson first met Gordy. Gordy was in the city with the Miracles. Anderson was on tour with the Del-Rios. Since he knew a few members of the higher-profile group – they'd roller skated together in Detroit – he headed to a show and was introduced to Gordy.

After bonding over mutual acquaintances — Anderson realized he'd met Gordy's sister in Detroit – Gordy gave his phone number to Anderson.

He wouldn’t have occasion to call until 1961, after he’d left the Del-Rios, his ambition in making it big no longer jiving with that of his bandmates. When friends back in Toledo convinced him to join Lee and the Leopards, they were clear in their intentions to record.

They put a few songs together, then they called his connection in Detroit.

After some massaging with some of the folks at Hitsville, they recorded “Come Into My Palace” in 1961. By February, 1962, they were back to see their song cut on a record — and, to their pleasant surprise, under a brand-new label. Multiple imprints were a way to ensure that radio stations already overwhelmed with stacks of 45s didn't realize how many songs were coming out of the same company, Anderson explained.

“So he changed and got that pretty purple and yellow label,” he said of the brand-new Gordy. “It was so pretty, it was good to the eyes.”

Archival radio surveys suggest that the popularity of their record was limited to the local market, and it was leased to Laurie Records in October, 1963. Lee and the Leopards would go on to record under Fortune Records, also in Detroit. And after they'd split up, Anderson continued to work in backup vocals in Motown, including with Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations. He later invested his royalty checks in tuition at the University of Toledo.

The preacher and retired teacher is still involved in the music scene, just last year releasing a single, "For All We Know," that he expects to promote on radio this year.

And he's still proud of his early role in Motown.

“We had a good run,” he said of the iconic company that last year celebrated its 60th anniversary.

First Published March 8, 2020, 12:00 p.m.

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The Rev. Prentiss Anderson, who was a member of Lee and the Leopards, sings during an interview Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, at the J. Frank Troy Senior Center in Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)  Buy Image
Prentiss Anderson, who was a member of Lee and the Leopards, sings during an interview Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, at the J. Frank Troy Senior Center in Toledo.  (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)  Buy Image
Copy photo of Lee and the Leopards, who are credited with the first chronological release on Gordy Records, "Come Into My Palace," in 1962.  (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)  Buy Image
Prentiss Anderson's medal from the Motown Museum  (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)  Buy Image
Berry Gordy and Prentiss Anderson, 2004.
THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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