Anniversary special can’t conjure Motown’s magic

What a difference two decades can make. Back in 1983, Motown once again made music history simply by celebrating the label’s 25th anniversary with a television special starring its still-vibrant alumni, including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and a moonwalking Michael Jackson.

Nothing like that happened Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium, where a very mixed bag of talent gathered to honor 45 years of Motown songs in a television special taped for airing in May. The magic was gone. And not just because two of the most compelling acts on the bill -- India.Arie and Erykah Badu -- did not appear, but because the night lacked any real insight into Motown’s lasting influence.

A signal of where the show was going came in the very first moments, as cohost Lionel Richie stepped onstage singing the soft and airy “All Night Long,” one of many massive hits he provided the label in the ‘80s, but hardly representative of Motown’s best.

Where was Wonder? Diana Ross? The Jacksons? Instead, fans got TV husband Nick Lachey flattening out “I’ll Be There” in a duet with Jermaine Jackson. There were some memorable moments: Smokey Robinson, still the ultimate smooth operator, purring through “Just to See Her”; Thelma Houston stirring up a disco inferno on “Don’t Leave Me This Way”; and Gladys Knight wailing through a wounded “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye).”

Surviving members of the Funk Brothers, the backing band that played on so many Motown hits, inspired Gerald Levert through a fiery “Do You Love Me?” And Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child stepped in for Ross on a medley of Supremes hits, which was as unsatisfying as medleys often are. Macy Gray’s restrained reading of Gaye’s torrid “Let’s Get It On” was hobbled by a gathering of hired guns reading charts, not playing from the soul.

Robinson did stop and wave up at the balcony and Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., who this year finally cut all remaining ties to the label when he sold EMI the publishing rights to Motown’s biggest hits. Maybe he saw this tribute coming, a misguided, uninspired night that left the impression that Motown was the sound of mediocrity. Which is no tribute at all.