Motown: 50 Videos for 50 Years

The Detroit Free Press (freep.com) once again shows us how a newspaper can create great video stories when it puts its heart and soul into it. To the rest of the world, Detroit evokes images of an auto industry in crisis -- or at best the current Detroit Auto Show. But today marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of Detroit's Motown record label, and the paper is celebrating in style -- with 50 (count 'em!) video vignettes that take us behind the scenes of that legendary musical playground.

They kick off with a guided tour of the fabled Motown vaults, including rare outtakes of classic songs and sessions. Another video features the hitmaking Motown songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland reflecting on their success -- for the first time in 40 years. A third illuminates the legacy of a powerhouse Motown bass player known simply by his surname, Jamerson. The ambitious newspaper team, which traveled coast to coast to report and shoot these video stories, will post three per week until they hit the magic 50.

We'll be watching... and listening!