[1] Long was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and came to Motown in 1963 from the Tri-Phi/Harvey label, owned by Berry Gordy's sister, Gwen, and her husband, Harvey Fuqua.
[2] His first release, "Devil with the Blue Dress On" (1964), written with William "Mickey" Stevenson, was the first recording issued on Motown's Soul label, a subsidiary designed for more blues-based artists such as Long.
He acted as an MC for many of the Motortown Revue shows and tours, and co-wrote several of his tunes ("Devil with the Blue Dress On", "Function at the Junction", and "Here Comes the Judge").
Long was the only Motown artist besides Smokey Robinson who was allowed to produce his own recordings in the 1960s.
Writer Roger Green's epitaph stated: "So there endeth the career of a man who sang what he wanted to sing – everything from the blues to romantic ballads, from wild and crazy numbers to a utopian vision of Heaven on Earth.