Rick James: The Motown Deal That Took Eleven Years

Rick James got a Motown record deal in 1966.

He lost it a few weeks later, arrested by the U.S. Navy for desertion.

His bandmate Neil Young watched the whole thing collapse.

It took him eleven more years to get Motown to say yes again.

When they finally did, in 1977, he showed up with a sound the label had never released before.

Most write-ups jump straight to the 1980s, to "Super Freak" and the leather and the headlines that followed.

This one stays inside the decade that actually built him, verified against real chart data.

Hitsville U.S.A., Motown's original Detroit headquarters, the label that signed Rick James twice a decade apart

Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit, Motown's original headquarters. The label signed Rick James here in 1966, and again in 1977.

Image credit: Photo by TMPeukert, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

1966: The Mynah Birds and Motown's First Yes

A Singer Called Ricky James Matthews

Rick James was born James Ambrose Johnson Jr. on February 1, 1948, in Buffalo, New York.

By the mid-1960s he had relocated to Toronto and was performing under the stage name Ricky James Matthews.

He saw a young guitarist named Neil Young playing a Toronto coffeehouse and asked him to join his band.

That band became the Mynah Birds, with James as singer and frontman and Bruce Palmer on bass.

Toronto's mid-60s scene was thick with future names, and the Mynah Birds were one of its more promising acts.

An Audition Straight to the Top

In October 1965 the band drove to Detroit and auditioned in person for Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson.

Motown signed the Mynah Birds in early 1966, one of the first largely white acts on the label.

The band began recording, cutting a song called "It's My Time."

For a few weeks, it looked like the start of something big.

One Phone Call Ends It

The band's manager had been mishandling their Motown advance.

The Mynah Birds fired him over it.

He retaliated by reporting Rick James to military authorities as AWOL from the Navy.

James was taken into custody and convicted on desertion-related charges.

Motown scrapped the album on the spot, and "It's My Time" stayed unreleased for decades.

The Mynah Birds broke up in March 1966.

Neil Young and Bruce Palmer left for Los Angeles and co-founded Buffalo Springfield that same year.

Rick James went to serve his sentence with no record deal left to come back to.

1966-1977: Eleven Years Back to Detroit

Most accounts skip straight from the Navy arrest to his solo debut.

The real gap between the two Motown deals ran eleven years.

Working the Fringes

After his release, James worked the fringes of the music business rather than walking away from it.

He wrote songs for Motown acts including the Miracles and the Spinners.

Sometimes he used pseudonyms rather than his own name.

He also formed a blues-rock band called the Main Line, playing rooms across Toronto and London.

None of it produced a hit.

Back to Buffalo, Back to Motown

By 1976 he had moved back to Buffalo, his hometown.

There he put together a new touring band called the Stone City Band.

In 1977 that band signed with Gordy Records, a Motown imprint.

It gave him a second Motown contract, eleven years after the first one collapsed.

This time nobody called the Navy.

1978: Come Get It! Rescues a Flagging Motown

You and I Breaks the Silence

Rick James released his debut solo album, Come Get It!, on April 20, 1978, on Gordy Records.

The lead single, "You and I," came out weeks earlier, on March 26, 1978.

It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It also spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B singles chart.

It peaked at number three on Billboard's disco chart that same year.

A second single, "Mary Jane," followed that September and became a signature song in its own right.

Come Get It! went on to sell more than two million copies.

A Sound Motown Hadn't Tried Before

Motown's roster had been leaning heavily on smooth soul and disco-era productions through the mid-70s.

Rick James built his songs around hard, rock-edged funk grooves and blunt, street-level lyrics instead.

He fronted the Stone City Band live.

That gave the whole project the feel of a touring rock act, not a studio soul group.

That mix later earned the "punk funk" label.

The term became most closely tied to his 1981 album, Street Songs.

The sound itself was already fully formed on Come Get It!, three years earlier.

1979: Proving It Wasn't a Fluke

A debut hit can always be written off as a one-time fluke.

Rick James spent 1979 making sure nobody could say that about him.

His second album, Bustin' Out of L Seven, arrived January 16, 1979, also on Gordy Records.

It climbed to number two on the Billboard R&B albums chart.

It also reached number 16 on the Billboard 200, his best pop-album showing of the decade.

Its single "Bustin' Out (On Funk)" reached number eight on the R&B singles chart.

A third album, Fire It Up, followed later that year.

It reached number five R&B and number 34 on the Billboard 200.

Two albums in one year, both real R&B hits, confirmed the sound wasn't a one-off.

See how his chart run stacks up against other funk acts of the era with the Random Artist Picker.

Rick James's Real 1970s Chart Record

This site's own Billboard R&B data only tracks albums that reached number one.

None of his 1970s albums hit that exact mark.

His real chart record still tells a strong story once the full numbers are laid out.

"You and I" (1978): Hot 100 #13, R&B singles #1 for two weeks, disco chart #3.
Come Get It! (1978): R&B albums #3, sold over two million copies.
Bustin' Out of L Seven (1979): R&B albums #2, Billboard 200 #16.
"Bustin' Out (On Funk)" (1979): R&B singles #8.
Fire It Up (1979): R&B albums #5, Billboard 200 #34.

Two albums in a single year, both inside the R&B top five, is a real run by any measure.

It just never fully crossed into the Hot 100's upper reaches the way his 1981 breakthrough eventually would.

Read about another funk act who split one band into two in George Clinton.

Or see where his sound fits against the genre's full picture in 70s Funk.

Test what you know about the decade with the 70s Music Trivia Quiz.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Rick James's connection to Neil Young?

Rick James and Neil Young were bandmates in a Toronto group called the Mynah Birds.

That was 1965 and 1966, years before either found fame.

James was the singer and frontman, going by the stage name Ricky James Matthews.

Young and bassist Bruce Palmer left when the band collapsed.

Both went on to co-found Buffalo Springfield that same year.

Why did Rick James's first Motown deal in 1966 fall apart?

Motown signed the Mynah Birds in early 1966.

Rick James and his bandmates had auditioned in person for Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson.

Weeks into recording, the band fired its manager over misappropriated funds.

He retaliated by reporting James as AWOL from the U.S. Navy.

James was taken into custody and convicted on desertion-related charges.

Motown shelved the entire project.

What was Rick James's first hit single in the 70s?

"You and I" was Rick James's debut solo single.

It came out March 26, 1978, from his first album, Come Get It!

It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It also spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B singles chart.

The song peaked at number three on Billboard's disco chart that same year.

Did Rick James invent punk funk in the 1970s?

Rick James built his signature sound in the late 1970s.

He mixed hard funk grooves with rock guitar and street-level lyrics.

That hybrid gave his label an alternative to the era's polished disco sound.

The "punk funk" label became most closely tied to his 1981 album, Street Songs.

The sound itself was already in place on 1978's Come Get It!

What are Rick James's biggest Billboard chart hits from the 1970s?

Rick James's strongest 1970s chart run came from two albums on Motown's Gordy label.

Come Get It! (1978) reached number three on the Billboard R&B albums chart.

That's behind the singles "You and I" and "Mary Jane."

Bustin' Out of L Seven (1979) climbed to number two R&B.

It also reached number 16 on the Billboard 200, his highest pop-album placement of the decade.