Marv Johnson

R&B singer Marv Johnson was born in Detroit, MI, in 1938. In the mid-'50s he began singing with a local "doo-wop" group called The Serenaders. While performing at a carnival, Johnson was discovered by future mogul Berry Gordy. Gordy had just formed his record label Tamla but had not released anything on it yet. He and Johnson wrote a song, "Come to Me", which became Tamla's first release in May of 1959. Lacking a national distribution network, Gordy worked a deal with United Artists Records to release it nationally, and it eventually reached #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Gordy and Johnson would go on to write four more songs together, and Johnson would eventually have nine songs reach the Billboard Top 100 chart, including two in the Top 10. His first top-ten single was also his best-known, "You Got What It Takes", which hit #7, sold more than a million copies and earned Johnson a gold record. His final Top 40 single was in 1960, "You've Got to Move Two Mountains", which also sold more than a million copies, earning him another gold record. Johnson was especially popular in Australia, where he had a string of Top-40 hits, including three that reached #1. He appeared on the rock show "The Big Show" hosted by Lee Gordon, along with such stars as Bobby Rydell, Chubby Checker and James Darren. In 1968 Johnson went to work for Motown Records, in sales and promotion, and also continued writing songs, including ones for such artists as Tyrone Davis and Johnnie Taylor. He also issued a solo album in the 1990s, He died in Columbia, SC, of a stroke on May 16, 1993, at 54 years of age.