“Bouncing” Cornell Blakely was born in Greenville in 1928. He cut his first record for the obscure Fulton label of Detroit in 1958. Others followed on the Carrie label out of Greenville. then Nashville’s Rich Records. At the time that the Blakely sides were released, the Rich label was out of business. But Rich had a contract with a Detroit studio owned by one Berry Gordy. Gordy had already recorded the Cornell Blakely singles in his Hitsville, USA studio. When Rich went bust, Gordy put up the money, used the old Rich label art, and shipped out the Blakely disks. So, in a round-about way, Greenville’s Cornell Blakely is part of the Motown family.