# What is the best Motown act of all time?

> Detroit's hit factory ran on harmony groups, teenage prodigies and a house band nobody put on the sleeve. Decide who actually carried the label.

*By YPB Team · Published August 16, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-motown-act-of-all-time*

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## Current results (0 votes)

1. **The Jackson 5**
   The Gary, Indiana brothers whose first four Motown singles all went to number one in 1970.
2. **The Supremes**
   Motown's biggest chart act, with twelve US number ones between 1964 and 1969.
3. **The Temptations**
   Five-part harmony and footwork, from My Girl to the psychedelic soul of Papa Was a Rollin' Stone.
4. **Stevie Wonder**
   Signed at eleven, and by the 1970s writing and producing his own run of classic albums.
5. **Marvin Gaye**
   Motown's most searching voice, who fought the label to release What's Going On in 1971.
6. **Smokey Robinson & the Miracles**
   Gave Motown its first million-seller and its most-covered songwriter.
7. **The Four Tops**
   Levi Stubbs' lead voice on Reach Out I'll Be There and a lineup that held for four decades.
8. **Gladys Knight & the Pips**
   Took I Heard It Through the Grapevine to number one before Marvin Gaye's version.
9. **Martha and the Vandellas**
   Dancing in the Street became both a summer single and a civil-rights anthem in 1964.
10. **Diana Ross**
   Left the Supremes in 1970 for a solo run of number ones and an Oscar nomination.
11. **The Commodores**
   Funk band turned ballad machine, and Lionel Richie's launch pad.
12. **The Marvelettes**
   Please Mr. Postman in 1961 gave Motown its very first number-one pop single.
13. **Jr. Walker & the All Stars**
   The label's rawest act, built on Walker's honking tenor saxophone.
14. **Mary Wells**
   Motown's first star, whose My Guy topped the chart in 1964.
15. **Rick James**
   Brought punk-funk and Super Freak to the label in the early 1980s.
16. **Boyz II Men**
   Signed to Motown in 1991 and broke the record for weeks at number one twice.

Tags: r&b, music, 60s, bands, soul