By what collective nickname were the studio session musicians who played on many Motown hits known?

The studio musicians who played on many Motown hits were known collectively as The Funk Brothers. They were Detroit-based session players who supplied the backing tracks for most Motown recordings from 1959 until the label moved much of its operation to Los Angeles in 1972.

The group was not a fixed touring band with a single permanent lineup. Its core players included bassist James Jamerson, drummers Benny Benjamin and Richard “Pistol” Allen, guitarist Robert White, pianist Earl Van Dyke, and percussionist Jack Ashford. Their work helped shape the unmistakable Motown sound on songs such as “My Girl,” “Baby Love,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and “The Tears of a Clown.”

For years, Motown’s studio musicians received little public credit, so many listeners knew the singers but not the instrumentalists behind the records. The name is also sometimes confused with Booker T. & the M.G.’s, associated with Stax Records in Memphis, or the Wrecking Crew, the Los Angeles session collective that worked on many West Coast recordings. The Funk Brothers’ story was brought wider attention by the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown.