Joe Messina Webquest

Joe Messina (born in Detroit, Michigan on 13 December 1928) is an American guitarist. Dubbed the "white brother with soul", Messina was one of the most prolific guitarists in Motown Records' in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers.
Messina started playing guitar as an adolescent. By his mid-twenties, Messina was playing in the ABC Television studio band, accompanying guests that included Sonny Stitt, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Jack Teagarden, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Giuffre, Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Eddie (LockJaw) Davis, Frank Rosolino and Dizzy Gillespie, among others.
Also while at ABC, he played on the nationally televised Soupy Sales Show alongside notable guests such as Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.
In 1958, Motown Records founder Berry Gordy recruited Messina for his Hitsville U.S.A. studio musicians group, known as the Funk Brothers. In the 1960s and early 1970s, they recorded the instrumentals for hundreds of Motown hit records. During this time, Messina worked with performers such as Diana Ross & the Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. Among Messina's most notable performances are his turns on hits such as "Dancing in the Street" (Martha & the Vandellas, 1964), "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" (Four Tops, 1965), and "Your Precious Love" (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, 1967).

Want to read about Soupy? Here are some excellent links:
Soupy Sales http://www.detroitkidshow.com/soupys_on.htm
POV Online - http://www.povonline.com/cols/COL018.htm
White Fang's Page - http://www.thewho.info/wfc/soupysales.html
TV Party Article - http://www.tvparty.com/soupy.html
In January 1965 on his morning children's show, the performer Soupy Sales suggested to his young viewers that they find the wallets of their sleeping fathers and take out "some of those funny green pieces of paper with all those nice pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Hamilton, and send them along to your old pal, Soupy, care of WNEW, New York.

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