Marvin Gaye, who had a bitter break-up with Motown years earlier, was not originally scheduled to perform.

Nostalgia addicts were equally out of luck in a “battle of the bands” featuring The Four Tops and The Temptations – neither group seemed to be in top spirit for the show.

In both cases, the presentations seemed perfunctory, as if none of the singers were too eager to revisit their classic work.

Pryor lamely joked about the star-studded evening by claiming, “I’ve seen stars and I’ve seen studs.”įor those looking to enjoy a memory lane stroll, “Motown 25” provided a reunion of The Miracles, who performed a medley of four of their classic tunes, and Stevie Wonder performing a medley of six of his top-charting songs. The show got off to a bad start with an opening number featuring the Lester Wilson Dancers performing a cheesy interpretation of “Dancing in the Street.” The show’s host, a visibly ill-at-ease Richard Pryor, followed them by reading his lines off a TelePrompTer with wide-eyed discomfort. The resulting production was called “Motown 25 – Yesterday, Today, Forever” and it is mostly remembered for two sequences: the extraordinary performance of a non-Motown song and a smackdown between the members of one of Motown’s most celebrated acts.īeyond those legendary moments, however, “Motown 25 – Yesterday, Today, Forever” was a fairly mundane production that offered a bumpy celebration of the record label’s illustrious history. On March 25, 1983, California’s Pasadena Civic Auditorium was home to a one-shot TV special that reunited several of the major stars of the Motown record label. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The lack of a DVD release may be tied to problems with the clearance of music and performance rights.ĬHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It is possible. LAST SEEN: The full show is available in a six-part installment on YouTube.ĪMERICAN HOME VIDEO: A VHS version was released, but no official DVD version has appeared.

THE BOOTLEG FILES: MOTOWN 25 – YESTERDAY, TODAY, FOREVERīOOTLEG FILES 410: “Motown 25 – Yesterday, Today, Forever” [[1983 TV special featuring Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye and the Supremes).

Motown macdown 2012