A sonic exploration and tonal analysis of contemporary creative music in a myriad of improvisational/composed settings, textures, and expressions.
Welcome to Sound Projections
I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.
Thus this magazine will strive to critically question and go beyond the conventional imposed notions
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'Rhythm and Blues’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Pop’, ‘Funk’, ‘Hip Hop’, etc. in order to search for what individual
artists and ensembles do cretively to challenge and transform our ingrained ideas and attitudes of what
music is and could be.
So please join me in this ongoing visceral, investigative, and cerebral quest to explore, enjoy, and pay
homage to the endlessly creative and uniquely magisterial dimensions of MUSIC in all of its guises and expressive identities.
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Holland, Dozier, and Holland (1962-1992): Legendary, iconic, and innovative musicians, composers, songwriters, lyricists, arrangers, ensemble leaders, producers, critics, and teachers
A Hall of Fame songwriting and production trio, this all-star lineup paired brothers Brian and Eddie Holland with Lamont Dozier. Berry Gordy put the three together in the early '60s, after it became evident that Eddie Holland wasn't going to last as a solo act. The laundry list of Holland-Dozier-Holland
hits seems endless; they include "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love,"
"Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "This Old
Heart of Mine," "Nowhere to Run," "I'm a Road Runner," and many others.
They produced gems for the Supremes, Junior Walker & the All-Stars, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, the Isley Brothers, and the Elgins until they left in 1968. After moving from Detroit to Los Angeles, the trio created the Hot Wax and Invictus labels. Freda Payne, the Chairman of the Board, Laura Lee, 100 Proof (Aged in Soul), and the Honey Cone were among the acts that scored hits in the early '70s. They also did outside productions for such artists as Dionne Warwick and issued their own hit single, "Why Can't We Be Lovers," in 1973. Lamont Dozier then decided to start a solo career, and the long partnership ended. Invictus remained in business until 1977, and Brian Holland produced the New York Port Authority.
Holland Dozier Holland, American production and songwriting team credited with largely shaping the sound of Motown
Records in the 1960s. Brian Holland (b. Feb. 15, 1941, Detroit, Mich.,
U.S.), Lamont Dozier (b. June 16, 1941, Detroit), and Eddie Holland (b.
Oct. 30, 1939, Detroit) crafted hits for nearly every major Motown
artist—including Martha and the Vandellas (“[Love Is Like a] Heat Wave”), the Miracles (“Mickey’s Monkey”), and Marvin Gaye (“How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You”)—but they were most closely associated with the Four Tops (“I Can’t Help Myself [Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch]”) and the Supremes.
Prior to the trio’s teaming, Dozier and Eddie Holland had both pursued careers as singers, while Holland’s brother Brian had collaborated with other Motown producers and songwriters, including Dozier. In 1963 Motown chief Berry Gordy, Jr., matched Holland-Dozier-Holland with the then hitless Supremes.
Beginning with “Where Did Our Love Go” (1964) and continuing through
“In and Out of Love” (1967), the trio wrote and produced more than a
dozen U.S. Top Ten singles for the Supremes. Dozier’s forte was
melodies, Eddie Holland’s was lyrics, and Brian Holland’s was producing.
Leaving Motown in 1968 after battling with Gordy over royalties, they
began their own record company, Invictus/Hot Wax, for which Freda Payne,
Honey Cone, and the Chairmen of the Board recorded.
Holland-Dozier-Holland were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1990.
The brothers Brian and Eddie Holland and their friend Lamont Dozier created the Motown Sound,
and an unusual sort of love song.
by Vinson Cunningham
December 19 and 26, 2016 issue
The New Yorker
llustration by Jasu Hu
Motown was headquartered in Detroit, and so the Motown metaphors are industrial: the record label was a machine, a factory, an assembly line fitting songs together, part by part. But the heart of the company was human, and much of the art it produced can be traced to the exertions of two brothers, Brian and Eddie Holland, and their friend Lamont Dozier. With all due respect to Smokey Robinson, the Motown Sound as we know it was created by Holland-Dozier-Holland. “Heat Wave,” “Baby Love,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” and all the others: looking over a list of their best songs is like reading a snatch of pages from the American Songbook.
In the eighth or ninth grade, when I decided to be the kind of person who “knew about music,” I listened to those songs over and over—and developed a reputation for singing them, too loudly, in student lounges and on playing fields and in hallways between classes. I filled my Discman with greatest-hits compilations and my notebook with hand-drawn charts, trying to glean what I could from these songwriters, whose names I didn’t yet know. Sometimes, I learned, you start a major-key piece with a blaringly gloomy minor chord, as in “Stop! In the Name of Love.” Part of love’s allure is its capacity—its threat, its guarantee—to someday let you down. Maybe I picked up more about love than I did about songcraft.
Between 1963 and 1967, almost fifty of H-D-H’s singles topped the pop or R. & B. chart, and occasionally both. In their hits, they found a way to express, through the subtleties of song structure, a strange vision of love. All three of them were church boys, and that vision has a faintly religious cast—a union of two lovers, one praising and pleading with the same fervent breath, the other mysteriously mute. H-D-H always wrote and arranged the music first, and even without lyrics their compositions speak of romance that is wrenching and helpless, though not always sexual. There’s certainly little foreplay to be found: the chorus often leads an H-D-H song, a bit of anti-magic that reveals the big trick at the outset but somehow manages to build on that foundation a structure for suspense. This is another thing I learned: to “show your cards,” in art or in life, isn’t always an act of total honesty.
My parents met in a church choir, and I was always enthralled with the voice. But through these songs I came to see how a good band, artfully choreographed, could surround a singer like a circle of friends, working to assure her success before she ever entered the scene. The arrangements are intricate but restrained—low, husky horns; strict drums; a daydreaming underlay of Hammond organ—leaving a surprising amount of space between instrumental layers. There’s enough for the melody and its accompanying harmony parts, and also for a curious interplay between grandeur (often pushed, chromatically, toward joy by James Jamerson, the bassist for the Funk Brothers, Motown’s legendary backing band) and a sweet sadness, framed cursively by strings or a chorus of flutes.
Then came the words. Eddie Holland used to go around asking women for the secrets of their relationships—inner thoughts, hidden hopes, deepest fears. “I always thought that females were the most interesting subjects,” he once said. This goes some way toward explaining why, although H-D-H wrote for almost every classic male Motown act, their most riveting work came with the Supremes, and through the odd instrument that is Diana Ross’s voice. That voice: it had little range or depth, none of the outright power of Martha Reeves’s or the athletic movement of Marvin Gaye’s, but there was something literary—a quiet clarity and a way of delivering phrases that made them sound half-remembered, as if they’d been plucked right out of a dream. Eddie’s lyrics had the same partly precise, partly mystified quality: “Where did our love go?" he had Diana ask, and the question made you turn your head and join the effort to locate that lost jewel. The resulting mood—an unlikely alloy of experience and naïveté, innocence and fatigue—is what drew me to Motown. Even today, as I try to fit the parts of my own work together—paragraph after unwilling paragraph; always failing to make of myself a machine—I am in some way striving to describe the kind of love that Holland-Dozier-Holland conveyed, the kind that lavishes its object with overwhelming light, then swings and bops away, impossible to keep for long. ♦
This article appears in the print edition of the December 19 & 26, 2016, issue, with the headline “Holland-Dozier-Holland.”
The
heart of the machine: H/D/H (as they are often known) were songwriters,
producers, magicians. They shaped “the Sound of Young America” and
skyrocketed Motown into the stratosphere with hits – no, popular music
milestones – for the Supremes, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, Jr. Walker & the All Stars
and more. Their work endures, both in the original recordings and the
many remakes by others, as part of the Great American Songbook.
Career highlight: induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
It’s 1957, and during a year in which Berry Gordy first meets Smokey Robinson,
he also becomes acquainted with Eddie Holland. While in high school,
Eddie (born in Detroit, October 30, 1939) wants to be an accountant –
until he realizes the earning potential of popular singers. Blessed with
a good voice, he auditions for a local talent manager. The latter
directs him to Gordy, who is making a name for himself writing material
for Jackie Wilson. Berry recognizes Holland’s vocal similarity to
Wilson, and recruits him to sing demos of his songs. Soon, Eddie brings
music-minded brother Brian (born in Detroit, February 15, 1941) into the
Gordy circle.
Another son of Detroit, Lamont Dozier (born June 16, 1941) is
striving for success as part of a vocal group, the Romeos. They record
“Fine, Fine Baby” for the local Fox label, which is picked up by
Atlantic Records for national release in 1958. That same year, Eddie
Holland debuts on Mercury Records with “You (You You You You),”
co-written by Gordy. Also released in ’58 is “(Where’s The Joy?) Nature
Boy” on Detroit’s Kudo label; the artist is billed as Briant Holland,
but it’s said to feature the voice of Eddie. The brothers continue to
gain music industry experience, and in early 1959, Eddie’s
“Merry-Go-Round” becomes the second 45 to be released on Tamla Records.
In 1961, Eddie’s “Jamie” becomes a Top 30 pop hit, while Brian works
with another early Gordy recruit, Robert Bateman. Known as “Brianbert,”
the pair writes and produces several hits, including the Marvelettes’
No. 1, “Please Mr. Postman.” When Bateman quits the company, he
suggests that Brian teams up to compose with Lamont Dozier, newly signed
to Gordy’s roster. Then Eddie suggests to Brian and Lamont that they
would be more prolific with him on the team, particularly with lyric
writing. And so the first Holland/Dozier/Holland collaboration is
“Dearest One,” recorded by Lamont and released in June 1962 on Motown’s
Mel-O-Dy subsidiary.
H/D/H step up the pace. In 1963, they create hits for the Marvelettes (“Locking Up My Heart”), the Miracles (“Mickey’s Monkey”), Mary Wells (“You Lost The Sweetest Boy”) and Marvin Gaye (“Can I Get A Witness”), while achieving their first Top 10 pop success with Martha & the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave.” They also deliver the Supremes’
top-selling hit to date, “When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His
Eyes.” The artists retain their individual vocal identities, but
Holland/Dozier/Holland pour the same high-octane fuel into every tank: a
bedrock bass line; an emphatic, metallic beat, accentuated by
tambourines; pounding percussion and piano tracks; growling saxes; and
female backup vocals in the classic call-and-response of gospel
performances. In songwriting, each of H/D/H contributes to the magic
with melodies, lyrics, inspiration and determination. In the studio,
Brian and Lamont handle production.
In 1964, the team takes Motown to new commercial heights as “Where Did Our Love Go” becomes the Supremes’ first No. 1, and the first of their five
consecutive chart-toppers. Those which follow: “Baby Love,” “Come See
About Me,” “Stop! In The Name Of Love” and “Back In My Arms Again.”
Eddie, Brian and Lamont sustain the momentum in ’65 with hits for Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas and the Four Tops.
In December, Berry Gordy appoints Brian as Motown’s vice president of
creative evaluation; five months later, Eddie is named head of the
A&R department.
During 1966 and into ’67, H/D/H cut three more No. 1 triumphs for the Supremes (“You Can’t Hurry Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” “Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone”) and three towering hits for the Four Tops
(“Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing In The Shadows Of Love,”
“Bernadette”). These records come to epitomize the threesome’s
creativity, imagination and commercial savvy. They motivate others, too:
one of their studio protégés is R. Dean Taylor. With them, he co-writes
“I’ll Turn To Stone” and “There’s A Ghost In My House.” The latter
becomes a Top 3 British hit for Taylor as a singer in 1974.
All things must pass: the Holland/Dozier/Holland relationship with
Motown turns sour, and in 1968 the trio leaves amid recriminations and
lawsuits. The next year, they form their own Detroit-based Invictus and
Hot Wax labels, scoring major hits with the likes of Freda Payne,
Chairmen of the Board and the Honey Cone. In 1973, Lamont embarks on a
successful solo career, but after a few years, all three are once more
making records with Motown artists: the Hollands with the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson and the Supremes, among others, while Dozier produces the Originals. In 1983, the Four Tops re-sign to Motown, and H/D/H reunite to produce their album, Back Where I Belong.
In 1988, Holland/Dozier/Holland are inducted into the Songwriters
Hall of Fame, and into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame two years later.
In 2009, they receive the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall
of Fame, while in 2015, they are recognized with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Helping them to celebrate that honor on the day
is Berry Gordy himself.
There were many independent labels competing for a share of the
soul music market in the early sixties. In Detroit, the competition was
fierce, with labels like Golden World, Tri-Phi, Chex and Fortune all
vying for potential hit makers, house musicians, and industry
connections. Motown Records would eventually overtake them all, becoming
the hub of local musical activity. It had a lot going for it: the
business savvy of founder Berry Gordy, a great roster of artists and
musicians, and a top staff of writers and producers. Equal parts
visionary and manipulator, Berry created a culture of competition where
quality-control meetings were mandatory, goals were redrawn from day to
day, and the stock of artists rose and fell with their chart positions.
It was a tense environment, often unfair, yet out of it came a
formidable group of songwriters, all with their own signature, such as
Norman Whitfield and Smokey Robinson. The kings of the lot, however,
were the team of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, who
cemented the Motown Sound and took the company to new heights. Holland-Dozier-Holland functioned like a well-oiled machine. Dozier
and Brian Holland would come up with the melodies and arrangements, then
Eddie Holland would work on the lyrics, though the spark of inspiration
didn't follow a strict order. Working in tandem seemed natural, but the
team would never have come to be without Berry Gordy. Though they grew
up together, the Hollands' musical paths seldom crossed until Motown.
Born in 1939, Eddie was the oldest. He would be the first to experience
the hardships of a singing career, recording a slew of failed singles
before joining Gordy for demo work, which led to a contract with his
fledgling company. Brian did his own solo-singer stint, but his forte
was as a musician. He was a multitasker who played in groups and did
session work, even while learning skills as a sound engineer. Lamont
Dozier's gift for melody was prodigious. He probably would have made it
on his own as a singer-songwriter, but recording for small Detroit
labels only lead to a dead end. Motown finally opened the door of
opportunity for him. Brian was the first to see success as a cub songwriter. Partnered
with Robert Bateman, he wrote "Playboy" for the Marvelettes, who in 1962
were Motown's premier girl group. When Bateman left the label, Lamont
Dozier joined Brian, writing "Forever" and "Strange I Know" for the
Marvelettes as a duo. Meanwhile, Eddie Holland's career as a solo singer
was treading water. Though he had a modest hit with "Jamie", his
follow-up singles had failed to dent the charts. However, he had his
talent as a lyricist to fall back on. Brian and Lamont were quick with
melodies, but lyric writing took a great deal of their time. Eddie
solved that problem when he joined them for "Come And Get These
Memories", a big hit for Martha and the Vandellas in early 1963. The
strings of hits that followed boosted the Vandellas' standing at Motown
with a succession of up-tempo scorchers like "Heatwave" and "Nowhere To
Run" and pop-oriented tunes like "Jimmy Mack". The Midas touch extended to the Miracles, granting them a dance hit
with "Mickey's Monkey". HDH also brought Marvin Gaye out of his crooner
comfort zone. He sang higher and rawer on "Can I Get A Witness?" and
"Baby Don't You Do It", which widened his range. Such was Gordy's
confidence in the HDH team, that he gave them his greatest challenge:
turning the Supremes into a hit group. They did so admirably with "Where
Did Our Love Go", which was followed by the similar-sounding "Baby
Love", both topping the charts in 1964. Once the group was imbedded in
the top-ten, HDH discarded the formula on "Stop! In The Name Of Love"
and "Come See About Me". The Supremes became Motown's biggest hit makers
and a source of constant inspiration for the team. Eddie Holland has
expressed in interviews that working for girl singers brought a new
sensitivity to his writing. For the Supremes, it allowed him to reach
deeper expressions of regret and longing on songs like "Reflections" and
"Love Is Here And Now You're Gone". There was also a progression in
Brian and Lamont melodies and arrangements. The gospel influence was
always there, but there was now a classical sensibility on hits like "I
Hear A Symphony" and "My World Is Empty Without You". HDH proved that lightning could strike twice with the Four Tops. The
group had been around since 1954, but their recording career had little
to show for it after ten years. The team turned things around for them
with "Baby I Need Your Loving". Singer Levi Stubbs was soon reaching new
histrionic heights with "I Can't Help Myself" and "Bernadette". By
then, the writer-producer trio had come up with their very own wall of
sound. Engineer Lawrence T. Horn had set up a three-track sound system
for the company, and Brian Holland took full advantage of it, giving the
recordings a fuller, richer sound. As a producer, he searched for
dynamic highs and lows, evident in the interaction between snare drums,
tambourines, and the fluid bass notes of James Jamerson. Most times, HDH
would lay down instrumental tracks before vocals were recorded, which
came in handy when the groups were out on tour and production couldn't
be halted. Brian and Lamont taught the chords and arrangements to the
house musicians while Eddie worked with the singers, sometimes while
figuring out the final lyrics. Despite the demands of production
schedules, the team would always come up with a seamless sound mix. The team's relationship with Motown came to an abrupt halt in 1967. A
demand for a fair share of the company's profit had them locking horns
with Gordy. Their suit against Motown was met with a countersuit for
breach of contract. Meanwhile, the team was working under the radar to
set up their own record labels. In court, Gordy proved that Brian and
Lamont were still under contract to Jobete, the publishing arm of
Motown. However, Eddie Holland wasn't under such obligation, which
allowed him to run the Invictus and Hot Wax labels as president. What
posed a problem was that neither member of the team was allowed to work
as a songwriter. Though they were mentoring songwriters like Ronald
Dunbar and General Johnson, Motown's lawsuit was jeopardizing the launch
of their new labels. Despite the odds, the labels had immediate success
in 1970 with Freda Payne's "Band Of Gold" and Chairmen of the Board's
"Give Me Just A Little More Time". Both songs credited Ronald Dunbar and
Edythe Wayne as songwriters, but they had the unmistakable stamp of
HDH. It turned out that Edythe Wayne was an alias for HDH. The
subterfuge served them well until a settlement with Motown in 1972
allowed them to write and produce under their own name. By then, the
Invictus and Hot Wax labels had had a sizable number of hits from
artists such as Flying Ember ("Westbound #9"), Honey Cone ("Want Ads" and "Stick Up"), and Laura Lee ("Women's Love Rights"). Yet both labels would run aground in 1973. There were multiple reasons for the failure. The labels depended on
distribution deals with Capitol and Buddha, the former being the less
profitable. To make matters worse, Hot Wax's distribution deal with
Buddha came to an end when that record label went bankrupt. A new
distribution deal with Columbia only brought cash flow problems and
mounting debts. Moreover, the trio had overextended themselves with the
launching of Music Merchant, a new music label that never gained hits,
only losses. There was also the stiff competition from Gamble &
Huff, a remarkable writer-producer team that had gained top-ten
supremacy for their Philadelphia International label in the early
seventies. However, the biggest blow for the team was the departure of
Lamont Dozier, who complained that he was wasting too much time on
administrative duties instead of devoting it to the creation of music.
All that was left after years of partnership was acrimony and a lawsuit. Though the labels were relaunched in 1976, disco killed them for
good. Lamont Dozier made a lasting career as a singer and producer,
recording for labels such as ABC, Warner, and Atlantic. The Hollands
went on to write songs and produce for Motown artists such as Michael
Jackson and the Supremes. One song written for Diana Ross in 1982 seemed
to sum up their relationship with Dozier at that juncture: "We Can
Never Light That Old Flame Again". A reunion with Dozier seemed
unlikely, yet the team got back together in 1983 to work on Back Where I
Belong, an album that marked the Four Tops' return to Motown. The
reunion was brief, but the friendship lingered on. The trio finally got
back together again to work on The First Wives Club, a musical play that
had its debut in 2009. It proved the wide appeal of the HDH brand with a
successful run. By the turn of the millennium, the Holland-Dozier-Holland team was as
recognizable as the artists they wrote for. Like the Beatles, they had
made a lasting impact on music and on people's lives. Even in their
darkest moments, when their music and style of writing had lost its grip
on the charts, it was still the pulse of oldies radio stations and
Northern Soul discos. Since then, their catalog has grown in value. It
is filled with little-known gems that beg for discovery, such as Martha
and the Vandellas' "In My Lonely Room" and Lamont Dozier's "Why Can't We
Be Friends". The trio's impact on music history is undeniable. They set the bar
high for every songwriter who came after them, transmuting songcraft
into magic. They didn't have to explain how love felt; it was captured
and preserved in their melodies. And that's what great music is all
about. 25 August, 2017 - 04:28 — Angel Aguilar
Legendary Trio Holland-Dozier-Holland Talk About Their Motown Hits, and New Projects (2005 Interview)
by Dale Kawashima
Songwriter Universe
(Pictured l-r): Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland.
The legendary Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland is known for
writing and producing many of the greatest pop and R&B songs of the
modern era. The songs they wrote for Diana Ross & The Supremes, the
Four Tops, Martha & The Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and other artists,
were not only hits back in the day, but they have become pop standards
for the new millennium. Collectively, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and
Eddie Holland have written over 50 Top 10 pop or R&B hits, many
which have reached #1 on the charts.
It was an honor to do this interview with all three
members of Holland-Dozier-Holland (aka “H-D-H”). They talked about the
recent release of their 65-song, 3-CD compilation set, Heaven Must Have Sent You: The Holland-Dozier-Holland Story,
on Hip-O/Universal Records. They also discussed how they wrote and
produced many of their classic hits. In addition, H-D-H talked about
their new projects, which includes the trio reuniting to write the music
for the Broadway version of the hit movie, The First Wives’ Club.
Before starting the interview, here’s a brief rundown of the H-D-H
hit discography. For the Supremes (later known as Diana Ross & the
Supremes) they wrote: “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Come See
About Me,” “Stop! In The Name Of Love,” “Back In My Arms Again,” “I Hear
A Symphony,” “My World Is Empty Without You,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,”
“You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart,”
“Reflections” and “Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone.” For the Four Tops
they wrote: “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie
Honey Bunch),” “It’s The Same Old Song,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,”
“Standing In The Shadows Of Love,” “Ask The Lonely” and “Bernadette.” Other hits written & produced by H-D-H include: “(Love Is Like A)
Heat Wave,” ”Quicksand,” “Nowhere To Run,” “I’m Ready For Love” and
“Jimmy Mack” for Martha & The Vandellas; “Can I Get A Witness,”
“Baby Don’t You Do It” and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” for
Marvin Gaye; “Mickey’s Monkey” for the Miracles; “This Old Heart Of Mine
(Is Weak For You)” for the Isley Brothers; “(I’m A) Road Runner” for
Jr. Walker & The All Stars; “Give Me Just A Little More Time” for
The Chairmen Of The Board; and “Band Of Gold” for Freda Payne. In addition, there have been numerous cover hits of H-D-H songs over
the years. Here are a few highlights: “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” by
Linda Ronstadt; “You Can’t Hurry Love” by Phil Collins; “How Sweet It Is
(To Be Loved By You)” by James Taylor; “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by
Vanilla Fudge and by Kim Wilde; “Baby I Need Your Loving” by Johnny
Rivers; “(I’m A) Road Runner” by Peter Frampton; “This Old Heart Of
Mine” by Rod Stewart & Ronnie Isley; “Heaven Must Have Sent You” by
Bonnie Pointer; “Little Darling (I Need You)” and “Take Me In Your Arms
(Rock Me A Little While)” by the Doobie Brothers; and “Don’t Do It” by
the Band. Here is the Q&A interview with the great Brian Holland, Lamont
Dozier and Eddie Holland. All three writers were very friendly and
personable, and were a pleasure to speak with. DK: Tell us about your new CD compilation, Heaven Must Have Sent You. Lamont Dozier: We’re very happy with the way it came
out. It’s the first, comprehensive CD package of our songs that has
been released. We couldn’t put all our songs on it, but it’s a good
facsimile of what H-D-H is about.
Holland/Dozier/Holland in the ’60s, during the Motown era.
DK: Who compiled and produced this package? Brian Holland: It was really Universal and Richard
Davis (Vice President of the Hollands’ Gold Forever Music) who came up
with the idea for this compilation. We had meetings about this. We did
come together on some song selections, especially in picking songs from
the Invictus (H-D-H’s label after Motown) and ABC Records catalogs.
Also, Barbara Dozier (Lamont’s wife) did a great job along with Richard
Davis, to help put this set together. DK: So many of your songs have had such a lasting
impact. When you were creating these hits back at Motown, did you think
your songs would remain popular 40 years later? Brian Holland: I would be a fool if I told you I
knew these songs would be so big. I felt we could be successful, but I
had no idea that these songs would live as long as they have. It’s just
been phenomenal. I remember saying back at Motown, “Man, I would love to
write classic songs, like a ‘White Christmas’.” As it turns out, many
of our songs have become classic, too. But back during that time, we
were just focused on writing songs for the current project we were
doing. Lamont Dozier: It was just an awesome time (back at
Motown). We had a huge amount of success. During this period, whatever
we touched seemed to go straight into the Top 10. It was as if we
stumbled onto the best door on The Price Is Right, where the
prizes just keep on coming and coming! The hits went on and on. Many of
our songs have turned into beloved songs of the American Songbook. Just
last night I was watching TV, and there was a movie on which had three
or four H-D-H songs in it. DK: When you were at Motown, did you have a specific approach to writing songs? Who wrote the music and who wrote the lyrics? Brian Holland: I mainly wrote the melodies and
tracks with Lamont, and Eddie wrote the majority of the lyrics.
Occasionally, Lamont and I would also come up with lyric ideas. Eddie Holland: Early on (at Motown), Brian and
Lamont were already writing together, and they were very prolific at
writing melodies and producing tracks. It was the lyric writing which
slowed them down. So I suggested that I join the team as a lyricist, so
that their production output would be much higher. With the three of us,
we were able to finish many songs and produce more projects. DK: How did you create and produce the tracks? Brian Holland: Lamont and I would start writing the
songs on piano. Eddie would also be there early on, and we would discuss
what the melody and structure should be. Lamont and I would then start
recording the tracks, which would be the actual tracks for the master
(not just demo tracks). Lamont Dozier: In the recording studio, Brian and I
would split the room. Brian would work with the drummer (usually Benny
Benjamin). I would get with the keyboard players (usually Earl Van Dyke
or Joe Hunter) and show them how to play the track and chords. I would
also give the bass lines to James Jamerson, then he would inject his own
bass ideas to make it stronger. We wanted to guide the musicians, so we
could create our own sound. We would never let the band just go in and
play the chord sheets. We were very focused on what we had in mind for
these productions.
Holland/Dozier/Holland with Motown founder Berry Gordy.
Brian Holland: We would record the full track, which
would include the melody with a scratch vocal, without lyrics yet.
Although sometimes, we would have the title, and some of the chorus
lyrics. Then we would give the track to Eddie, who would go off and
write the lyrics. Eddie Holland: When I got the track, I would spend
many days writing. I would lock myself away. I had a townhouse in
Detroit; I would close all the curtains and shades, and there was no
telephone. I didn’t go out much; most of my life was devoted to writing
lyrics. DK: Eddie, what was your inspiration for writing many of the lyrics? Eddie Holland: I would write these songs from my own
experiences. I would write about something personal that was going on
in my life at the time. I always thought that females were the most
interesting subjects. I would become friends with women – I’d ask them a
lot of questions. They would tell me their little secrets that they
usually wouldn’t tell other men. I got a lot of ideas from what I
learned talking to women. I also had a principle and approach to
writing. The most important thing was the feeling; does the lyric feel
right? Is it interesting, and does it draw an emotional reaction? When
Brian and Lamont first gave me the track to “Baby Love,” they already
had this title. At first, I thought “Baby Love” was such a trite, simple
title. But I eventually realized that the title “Baby Love” worked very
well with the music. The title was simple, but it felt right. DK: Was it a huge challenge, to write the lyrics to so many tracks given to you by Brian and Lamont? Eddie Holland: They were so prolific (with the
tracks), that I did feel under the gun, having to come up with so many
lyrics. I’ve never considered myself to be a quick writer, where the
inspiration just flowed. It often took me a long time to write the
lyrics – two to three weeks. Sometimes I might have 5-10 pages of
lyrics; I would have many verses to choose from. I would use the most
essential lines, to express what I was feeling, to express where the
song was taking me. The lines that I didn’t use, I would save the lines
and possibly use them in other songs. I knew that I was good at
analyzing a song – how to make a song idea or lyric stronger. But with
my method of piecing things together, I never felt as creative or
inspired as other writers. DK: Eddie, were there any instances where you had to write a lyric on a quick deadline? Eddie Holland: Yes, writing the lyric to “I Hear A Symphony.” It was a nightmare! Brian Holland: Berry Gordy (Motown President) had
given us a quick deadline to write and finish this song for the
Supremes. Lamont and I did the track, and we told Eddie that the lyric
had to be written in less than a day! Eddie Holland: Brian calls me a little after
midnight, and he wakes me up. I was sound asleep; I was never a night
person. He said he needed immediately a full lyric to be written to a
track with the title “I Hear A Symphony,” and it had to be done by
11:00 am for a vocal session with Diana. Diana was on tour, and she
could only be in town for one day to record her vocal. This meant that I
had to stay up all night to write this lyric, and I’m not a night
person! I worked on the lyric all night, and it still wasn’t finished
when I arrived at the studio. I ended up teaching Diana the song, while I
was still filling out some of the lines. Brian Holland: Just recently (a couple months ago), I
happened to be listening to “I Hear A Symphony,” and I realized how
great the lyrics were. So I called Eddie up and told him how much I
liked the lyric. He said it took me 40 years to compliment him on this
song!
Here’s a video interview with Holland-Dozier-Holland in 2009:
Eddie Holland: I finally got a compliment from Brian
on this song, and it was just recently that Lamont said he liked my
lyric for “My Whole World Is Empty Without You.” I said, “I can’t
believe you guys. After all these years, you’re finally saying that you
liked the lyric!” I remember when I was first writing these songs, I
wanted their feedback. They wouldn’t really say anything. I guess I was
doing a good job, because at least they weren’t complaining about how
they didn’t like it. It was only decades later that they finally
mentioned that they like the lyrics. Berry Gordy did the same thing. 30
years later he said, “you’re a genius!” I just had to laugh. DK: Are their certain songs you wrote, that are your personal favorites? Lamont Dozier: I have a couple favorites that
weren’t the biggest hits, like “In My Lonely Room” (Martha & The
Vandellas), “I Hear A Symphony” and “How Sweet It Is.” “In My Lonely
Room” was just a special feeling. It brings back memories of unrequited
love. When I was composing that piece, I had found a love of my life,
that didn’t pan out. The girl that I was so fond of was actually named
Bernadette. I was loving her from afar. These feelings transformed
themselves into a hit. Bernadette — that’s the only girl song we wrote,
where we used a girl’s name for the song title. As a general rule of
songwriting, we tried to stay away from using a person’s name for the
title. As it turned out, all three of us had girls that we loved called
Bernadette. This wasn’t something we discussed at the time. We didn’t
realize until much later, that we all had liked girls named Bernadette.
We threw out the rule book when we wrote this song. Brian Holland: I’m proud of all these songs. It’s hard to pick a favorite – maybe “How Sweet It Is,” “Baby Love” or “I Can’t Help Myself.” Eddie Holland: Some of my favorites are “Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone,” “Ready For Love” and “I Hear A Symphony.” DK: There have been many, great cover records of your songs. Are there certain ones which stand out for you? Lamont Dozier: One of my favorites is James Taylor’s
version of “How Sweet It Is.” He’s made that song his own. I love how
he did that song. It’s a different mood than how the song was originally
produced. There’s another recording I love, Rod Stewart and Ronnie
Isley’s duet of “This Old Heart Of Mine.” Brian Holland: There have been so many great cover
recordings. I really liked Johnny Rivers’ version of “Baby I Need Your
Loving.” I thought Vanilla Fudge doing “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” was one
of the most creative covers of our songs. I also loved the Band singing
“Baby Don’t You Do It.” I was in Las Vegas when I first heard their
version. I said to myself, ‘That song sounds familiar! Oh yeah, I wrote
that song!’ I hadn’t heard that song in so long. Eddie Holland: I also liked Vanilla Fudge’s “You
Keep Me Hangin’ On.” The Doobie Brothers “Take Me In Your Arms” also
stands out for me. And I liked the recent album that Michael McDonald
recorded of the Motown songs. He’s a great singer. DK: What are some of the new projects that you’re working on? Lamont Dozier: We’re very excited about working together again, to write the music for a new Broadway musical of the hit movie, The First Wives’ Club.
It will feature all new songs. We’ll have some Motown-type songs, but
there will also be other types of songs. (Separately) I’m finishing a
new solo album, which will be released around January. In addition, I
co-wrote with my son Beau (Dozier) and Joss Stone, her latest single,
called “Spoiled.” I’m also excited about a new female, country artist
I’m working with named P.E. Chase, who is 15. I’ve already recorded some
songs with her. Brian Holland: Eddie and I are also very excited about the The First Wives’ Club.
I still write songs all the time. (Separately) I’m working with Ronnie
Laws, Randy Crawford, and a great new singer named Paul Hill. Eddie and I
have also signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) to develop more
music and movie projects. DK: Lastly, what advice would you give to new songwriters and producers, who are trying to break into the music business? Brian Holland: Berry Gordy always said, “listen to
the radio.” It’s important to get a pulse on what’s going on out there.
Listen to different sounds for production ideas. Be inspired by great
songs and great production. Lamont Dozier: Young writers should definitely
research the current sounds and styles. They also need to realize that a
song is a mini-story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It has to
have a complete, meaningful story. The song’s story and theme has to be
universal, so that listeners can identify with it. A hit record is a
song that almost everyone can identify with. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4786936
The Motown combo of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward
Holland wrote many hits, from "You Can't Hurry Love" to "Heat Wave." In
1990 they were inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. A new 3-CD box set —
Heaven Must Have Sent You — is out. (This interview originally aired May 12, 2003.)
Holland, Dozier and Holland grace the cover of 'Heaven Must Have Sent You.'
Heaven Must Have Sent You: The Holland/Dozier/Holland
AllMusic Review
by Hal Horowitz
Given Motown/Universal's penchant for repackaging,
it would seem redundant to release this three-disc set, since about
two-thirds of the songs are already available on dozens of other
compilations. But given the superb quality of material and the
importance the writing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland had to American soul music, Heaven Must Have Sent You: The Holland/Dozier/Holland Story
is a fitting, if not quite essential release. Just a glance at the
classics written by this talented triumvirate and sung by the cream of
Motown's crop such as the Four Tops, the Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas, and Marvin Gaye (but interestingly, not by the Temptations),
gives a good indication of the trio's amazing output. The majority of
the initial 44 songs from this chronologically arranged 65-track box
come from the label's 1963-1967 heyday. But even within that period, the
compilers add a few obscurities from Dusty Springfield (a very Motown-sounding "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes"),the Elgins, Chris Clark, and Eddie Holland
himself, to sweeten the pot. But arguably the most interesting, if not
the most popular material is found after the threesome first split with
Motown in late 1967, to start their own Hot Wax and Invictus labels.
Here the hits that defined Freda Payne ("Band of Gold") and the Chairmen of the Board ("Give Me Just a Little More Time") join with the collaborators' own work and Lamont Dozier's
solo output, all from the early- to mid-'70s, for soul that was quite
different from the Motown sound. Although the dreaded disco production
weakened the approach later in the decade, especially on the Jackson 5's unnecessary remake of the Supremes' version of "Forever Came Today," and Shalamar's
tepid but hit-medley "Uptown Festival," there are some real gems
unearthed on the third disc. In particular, an African inspired "Going
Back to My Roots," from Lamont Dozier's 1977 solo album, and his sumptuous, heartache-filled, jazzy ballad version of "My World Is Empty Without You." The Band's live "Don't Do It" and the Doobie Brothers
"Little Darlin' (I Need You)" illustrate how roots rockers were
influenced by and interpreted this material, but these don't really mesh
with the flow of the collection. Regardless, this remains a terrific
listen, and even if you already own much of it, the 26-page booklet,
featuring a fascinating essay with quotes from the trio, and the
non-Motown material, make it a worthy addition to any soul music lover's
library.
Today in Music History: Holland-Dozier-Holland enter Songwriters' Hall of Fame
Writer/producers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland
attending the 53rd Annual BMI Pop Awards on May 17, 2005, in Beverly
Hills, California
(Vince Bucci/Getty Images)
History Highlight:
Today in 1988, the legendary Motown songwriting and
production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie
Holland, known as Holland-Dozier-Holland, were inducted into the
Songwriters' Hall of Fame. The trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote,
arranged and produced many songs that helped define the Motown sound in
the 1960s. They would write and produce scores of songs for Motown
artists, including 25 number-one hit singles. Their most celebrated
productions were singles for the Four Tops and for the Supremes,
including 10 out of the Supremes' 12 U.S. No. 1 singles, such as "Baby
Love", "Stop! In the Name of Love", and "You Keep Me Hangin' On." Other
hits include the songs "Heat Wave" for Martha and the Vandellas and "How
Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" for Marvin Gaye. More recently,
Holland-Dozier-Holland reunited to compose the score for the musical
production of The First Wives Club, based on the novel by
Olivia Goldsmith and a later hit film. The musical, which premiered in
2009, included 22 new songs from the songwriting trio.
A Muse's Muse Interview with legendary Motown songwriting trio, Edward Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, ofHolland Dozier Holland Productions
Conducted by: Jodi Krangleand with the cat herding talents of George Hummel :-) The
legendary Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland is known for writing
and producing many of the greatest pop and R&B songs of the modern
era. The songs they wrote for Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Four
Tops, Martha & The Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and other artists have
become pop standards. Collectively H-D-H has written over 50 Top-10
Pop/R&B hits, many of which reached #1 on the charts. After
moving from Detroit to Los Angeles, the trio created the Hot Wax and
Invictus labels. Freda Payne, the Chairmen of the Board, Laura Lee, 100
Proof (Aged In Soul), and the Honey Cone were among the acts that scored
hits in the early 70s. H-D-H also did outside productions for artists
such as Dionne Warwick, Donnie and Marie Osmond, and others.
Question: What brought you into music in the first place? How did things get started for you?
[Edward] Wow that's a long story (laugh).... what brought me into
music... first of all I've been into music all my life, ever since I
was a young kid. Singing in the church choir and from then on. But I
started thinking in terms of music professionally when I realized that
there were lots of opportunities to make a substantially better living
doing music than doing what I had planned on doing, which was being an
accountant. When I realized that music would bring me a lot more
economical satisfaction, that is when I become interested in doing it
professionally. [Brian] What brought me into music was, I
just loved music. As a kid, I grew up in church and I went on and on and
on from there.... and how did things get started with me? Through Barry
Gordy. I met him when I was about 17 years old through my brother.
That's what happened... Question: What were your earliest musical influences? Which artists most inspired you?
[Edward] The earliest musical influences were, I guess, Nat Cole,
Sam Cooke, Clyde McFadder that sang with the Dominos, Fats Domino,
Mario Lanza, Jackie Wilson, Johnnie Ray, I liked that because of the
soulfulness he had. [Brian] And I also liked Ella
Fitzgerald.. I thought she just had a great voice. And also, what's the
other one, what's the other girl...um.. [Edward] Sarah Vaughn? [Brian] Sarah Vaughn, yeah, it was great singers, great singers, we loved them. Question: What made you decide to start writing music on your own?
[Brian] I just love writing music and I started early in the
church, trying to figure out some chords, to learn how to write music.
And then I got with Janie Bradford to learn how to write some melodies
to her songs, and it went on from there. I had such a great time doing
it, then later on I got with Lamont Dozier and wrote some things with
him, and before then I got with my brother and wrote some things, you
know.. and so it went on from there, just kept going on and on,
mushroomed on and on.... [Edward] Basically, I grew up
with the attitude or the intentions of making a living more than
anything, and I realized at an early age that, recording; I was not very
interesting in, because I really didn't like going on the road. After a
few minor hit records I had, I also realized that songwriters and
producers were the ones who made the most money at the company, so that
piqued my curiosity. At that point, I started to teach myself to write
songs. Question: Do the three of you write together or do you all write separately and bring it to the group ready-made?
[Brian] We do write together sometimes, and we have written separately too. Sometimes we bring it to the group ready made... Question: Do you think it's harder or easier for musicians/songwriters to get noticed these days?
[Edward]I think it’s both harder and easier for songwriters to
get noticed these days. Harder because there is much more competition
for young writers to place songs with established artists and these days
more artists are writing their own tunes. However, it’s easier because
of new media outlets that enable writers to self publish and get their
tunes directly to the public with unsigned artists, etc.
Question: How do you feel about the Internet as a promotional vehicle? Does it help or just make things more complicated?
[Edward]I think the Internet is a great promotional vehicle when
paired with other media. Where else can you establish a direct link with
your audience and get such immediate feedback for such a reasonable
financial commitment?
Question: How do you promote yourselves? Do you use the Internet? And if so, how?
[Edward]We partner with our co-publisher, Universal Music Group,
in terms of representing our catalog. Recently we have placed selections
from our HDH/Gold Forever Music catalog on iTunes, including the best
of: Chairmen of the Board, Honey Cone, Freda Payne, Laura Lee, Flaming
Ember, 100 Proof [Aged in Soul], 8th Day, Parliament, Holland Dozier
Holland and Glass House. We also are using www.myspace.com/hollanddozierholland page to promote our catalog and introduce our music to a new audience.
Question: Do you have any advice for songwriters and independent musicians hoping to achieve the success you've seen?
[Edward]Well, the only thing I can suggest is to create a habit
of writing something daily; follow-through and finish your songs because
people can only use finished material. Also, the industry has changed
so much and it seems to be a bit more complicated these days for
songwriters to break into the business and get work with, you know,
particular artists of their choices, because many artists are now
writing their own songs. However, with web sites like taxi.com, etc.,
songwriters can also showcase a bit more efficiently. I would also like
to tell you that BMI, who I’m affiliated with, has a writer’s workshop,
and I feel that those workshops are very very strong, along with also
being an opening for up and coming songwriters. So BMI would be a good
place to look into as far as getting your songs heard. Contact someone
at BMI in Artist Relations and you will find out when they have these
writer workshops.
Question: What are your hopes for the group in the future?
[Edward]I’m hoping that we would work together more in the
future… Everyone has their own projects but it is very fulfilling when
we are actually working together. It's very exciting. It's like we never
stopped and we sort of reminisce a lot and it’s just a really really
good feeling. It amazes me how, when we do get together, it’s like we’ve
been doing it every day.. and there’s nothing boring about it. As a
matter of fact it’s extremely stimulating and I’m really grateful for
that.
Question: What projects are you working on now that you'd like to let people know about?
[Brian] Well, I’d like for people to know that we’re composing a
musical for the Broadway play and adaptation for “First Wives Club.”
It’s a great thing. I’m very excited; we are very excited about it. I
love doing this; I love the fact that we’re together working on this and
we’re having a great time together.
[Edward]Also, the
“First Wives Club” was at first a book that was later a movie with Bette
Midler, etc. etc., so the idea of being able to take this exciting
project to Broadway is really once in a lifetime, right now for us, only
because it is our first. We’re really looking forward to doing more
plays.
Question: Anything else you'd like to talk about while you have the floor? ;)
[Edward]One thing that I’d like to add while I have the floor is
that one of the better ways to expand your knowledge of songwriting is
to download some of the tunes that are on these websites and listen to
as much music as possible. Also, not only listen to what’s going on
today listen to what went on twenty, thirty, at least….. twenty-five
years ago, because the formats and techniques are not really different,
even with rap; it does have a particular kind of format. But it’s really
good to be able to expand your musical knowledge or your insight,
because it will only help you to become stronger and come up with more
quality work, today. [Brian] That's about it!
For more information on these three talented songwriters, visit their website.
Holland-Dozier-Holland is one of the most accomplished
songwriting teams in the history of popular music. Their credits include
Top Ten Hits: “Stop In The Name Of Love,” “Baby Love,” “Where Did Our
Love Go,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “You Just Keep Me Hanging On,”
“Nowhere To Run,” “Love Is Like A Heat Wave,” “Baby I Need Your Loving,”
“I Can’t Help Myself,” “Sugar Pie,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “How
Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You,” and “Can I Get A Witness.”
Holland-Dozier-Holland’s music has had over 100 million airplays. The
world will agree that Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland
were an integral part of Berry Gordy’s Motown.
Holland-Dozier-Holland’s rendering of “Come and Get These Memories”
by Martha and The Vandellas, heralded their crossover from the R&B
charts onto Pop Music’s broad landscape. The coming together of these
three talents and the rise of their songs to the top of the charts
paralleled the rise of Motown Records as a music powerhouse that crossed
economical lines and bridged cultural barriers. The
Holland-Dozier-Holland configuration has composed over 400 songs, 130 of
which have scored on the Pop Charts, over 70 were Top Ten Hits and more
than 40 reached the number one chart position.
In 1987, The National Academy of Songwriters bestowed upon these
prolific composers its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1988, yet another
honor would be bestowed upon these composers. This time the Songwriters
Hall of Fame would induct them into its hallowed halls. The names Brian
Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland were inscribed beside such
luminaries as the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Lennon and McCartney,
Kern, Porter, Berlin, Ellington, Sondheim and their ilk. In 1990, Holland-Dozier-Holland were inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and in 1998, they received the prestigious Grammy Trustees
Award, a Special Merit Award presented by vote of the Recording
Academy’s National Trustees to individuals who, during their careers in
music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to
the field of recording.
In 2003, the legendary trio became the recipients of the 2003 BMI
ICON Award presented at the 51st Annual BMI Pop Award Dinner. The award
is presented to songwriters who have been unique and indelible
influences on generations of music makers. In a separate ceremony held
prior to the BMI Pop Award dinner, they were honored by The Hollywood
Rock Walk of Fame by imprinting their hands along side such legendary
musicians as Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, George Clinton, Herbie
Hancock, Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder and the Funk Brothers.
In 2004, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland were
presented with The Special International Ivor Novella Award by The
British Academy of Composers and Songwriters in association with The
Performing Rights Society (PRS). In 2006, Holland-Dozier-Holland were
chosen to compose original music and lyrics for the Broadway bound
musical incarnation of the 1996 film The First Wives Club.
Holland-Dozier-Holland’s accomplishments continue to satisfy the needs
of Artists, Producers and Creative Directors in Film, Television,
Commercials, Cover Recordings and Sample usages across the globe.
Supreme team: Holland-Dozier-Holland
with Diana Ross and the Supremes in a rehearsal room in Motown's
Hitsville USA building in Detroit
(
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
)
As far as songwriting teams go, they might not be as instantly
recognisable as Lennon and McCartney or Rodgers and Hammerstein, but
Holland-Dozier-Holland are responsible for some of the biggest hits of
the Sixties. You might not know their names, but you will certainly know their
work. So who exactly are Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie
Holland, who will tomorrow be honoured with the 2,543rd star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame?
The trio joined Berry Gordy Jr's Motown Records in 1962, when
they were in their early twenties, and soon became a hit-making machine
for the likes of The Supremes, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and Martha and
the Vandellas. Over the next five years, Dozier and Brian Holland
composed and produced each number, while Eddie Holland wrote the lyrics
and arranged the vocals. Their productivity would put Pharrell Williams
to shame. Among the tracks to which they applied their golden touch were "Stop! In
the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", "Reach Out I'll Be There",
"How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You" and "Heat Wave." One could go on
but there's simply not ample space to include every song they put out;
just know that their five year tenancy at Motown produced 44 US Top 40
hits and 12 number ones. At the ceremony later tomorrow, guest speakers will include
the Supremes' Mary Wilson and Berry Gordy Jr. It's a wonder the latter
will be there at all, considering what happened when the trio left his
record label at the beginning of 1968.
After a dispute over profit sharing and royalties,
Holland-Dozier-Holland started their own labels, Invictus Records and
Hot Wax Records. Gordy Jr sued for breach of contract, to which H-D-H
(as they were known in the biz) countersued. It led to one of the
longest and messiest legal battles in music history, making Paul
McCartney's divorce or the dispute over James Brown's estate convivial
in comparison. Perhaps, though, things were never as bad as they seemed.
Speaking about the litigation in 2008 Dozier commented, "Business is
business, love is love." Writing under the pseudonym Edythe Wayne because of the legal
disputes, they had a couple of stand-out successes including "Band of
Gold" and "Give Me Just A Little More Time", but ultimately H-D-H never
did quite recreate the magic that they had at Hitsville USA, the
nickname given to the Detroit building that housed Motown Records.
Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland of the legendary Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland (Getty)
Since going their separate ways in the mid-Seventies,
there have been some surprising moves. Brian Holland tried his luck as a
solo performer, and Dozier actually collaborated with Mick Hucknall on
two Simply Red albums, so presumably H-D-H's fall outs and legal
disputes had really taken their toll on the former's wellbeing. They
last got together to write more than a dozen new songs for a musical of
The First Wives Club, based on the novel and film, which premiered in
2009 and ran for the year. Although reviews were mixed, demand was
enormous. It opens again next week in Chicago and hopes to move to
Broadway later this year.
Their music also features prominently in the Broadway smash hit,
Motown: The Musical, which looks set to arrive in London in the next 12
months.
Asked why the songs still resonate with the public 50 years on, Dozier sounds somewhat bemused. "That is a miracle," he laughs. "When we were doing those tunes
at Motown, we had no idea that those songs would still be around today.
Matter of fact, we were just trying to stay afloat, make a living, and
perhaps have a few hit songs here and there. So to be a part of
something that was brand new and that was taking over the world was
phenomenal. And the hits just kept coming. The more we did, the more
blessings came upon us." It might be well overdue, but on receiving their Hollywood star, it will seem that "Forever Came Today".
Eddie Holland: It was a situation where [staff
producer-songwriter] Mickey Stevenson opened the door and asked if we
had anything for the Four Tops. I didn't realize at the time that the
Four Tops had been signed to Motown for over a year! For some reason,
that song popped into my mind. It was a pleasant song that was just
lying around for five or six months.
Brian Holland: We had a little melody and just bounced it around and put some lyrics to it. Lamont Doizer: Brian is being modest. He came up with
that melody. I told him it was a pretty one. He was always whispering
these melodies but they were so infectious, the way he would do them.
Sometimes they would bring tears to my eyes. They had a lot of heart. If
it didn't move us, we knew it wouldn't move anybody else. EH: I played the track for the band and gave the tape to
Levi. When he first came to the studio, it didn't come off right. He
said, "Why don't you give this to Lawrence Payton. It'll be better for
him." I said, "No, I want you to sing it." I told him to go home,
learn the song and we'd try it again. He came in and gave a wonderful
performance. Levi is a premier vocalist. EH: That song sat around for months. We thought it was a B-side. LD: It was like a chant. Brian was playing this thing and
it felt so infectious to me. Eddie took the melody and wrote the
lyrics. On "You Can't Hurry Love"
Brian Holland: Once again, it's a gospel thing. We went
into the studio and cut that with a feeling. Lamont came up with the
intro rhythm thing on the piano. I do recall there was a little
disagreement about which song should be released first as a single. "You
Keep Me Hangin' On," which I felt was the better song, or "You Can't
Hurry Love." I had an argument with Billie Jean Brown — she was quality
control at Motown. I think I asked my partners. I think they both said
"You Keep Me Hangin' On," too. But Billie persuaded Berry that "You
Can't Hurry Love" has to be first; it's the right one. She won on that.
But "You Keep Me Hangin' On" turned out to be covered by three or four
different artists and went to No. 1. When the Vanilla Fudge did it, I
thought it was one of the greatest arrangements that I ever heard. When I
first heard their version I went, "My God!"
On "Come See About Me"
Lamont Dozier: That song has a gospel feeling. We'd sit
around and talk about Sam Cooke and the Five Blind Boys, different
people that were in the gospel field. That would stimulate some
psychological urges to write certain things. We three were brought up in
the church. Our upbringing was very close. Our grandmothers raised us.
We were told that we must go to church, we must belong to the choir and
we must listen mainly to gospel and classical music. We always kept
that thread in our music.
Brian Holland: Yeah. Eddie, Lamont and I had a very
symbiotic understanding of gospel, which was embedded in us early. We
had a very natural feel for that and classical music. On "Reach Out I'll Be There"
Lamont Dozier: Bob Dylan's phrasing on "Like A Rolling
Stone." Something about the way he sang that song inspired me when I
wrote the verses of "Reach Out I'll Be There." Brian came up with that
Russian sounding intro. We went from that Cossack feeling that Brian was
playing into the verses. And with that feel, we went back to church.
There was no book on how to write songs in those days.
Unbeknownst to us, we were writing the book on how to write songs. We
were making up the rules about songwriting as we went along. That's why a
lot of people call the Motown sound the H-D-H sound. Brian and I had
the most unorthodox chords that we would use, like on "Reach Out I'll Be
There" and "Stop! In The Name Of Love." "Bernadette" is like opera.
Sometimes the band would say, "That's not rock 'n' roll." And I'd say,
"Who says we're doing rock 'n' roll?" (laughs) On "Where Did Our Love Go"
Eddie Holland: It was a melody that Brian and Lamont were
playing on the piano. It sounded like a hit song to us. I wanted Mary
Wilson to sing it because her voice was soft. On the few things I'd
heard Diana sing, she sang with a very high-pitched, nasally sound. I
felt that if any singer could sing it and make it soft and sensual, it
would be a hit. Brian and Lamont both looked at me as if I had lost my
mind. "Mary Wilson? No, Diana Ross is the singer." So we dropped the
song in a lower key and Diana sang it wonderfully. Diana Ross' voice is
magical; she had that very unique, sensual sound that was very natural.
Lamont Dozier: The 'baby baby' singing in unison came
about because of pure frustration on my part. The girls didn't like the
song. I had worked out this elaborate background part and I threw the
background part out the window and told them to sing 'baby baby' and it
worked. On "Bernadette"
Lamont Dozier: We had an unwritten rule that we wouldn't
use girl's names in our songs because you narrowed your marketing
potential. But in this case the reason why it passed that law (laughs)
is because we each had known three different Bernadettes. We kept it to
ourselves so when the name came up, the resistance was not that strong.
My childhood sweetheart when I was 11 years old was named Bernadette. We
broke our rule. Eddie wrote it and that was that. That was the only
song we wrote with a girl's name. It was like a little secret that we
kept among us. We just admitted this years later.
Levi Stubbs has such a dramatic way of delivering a song.
He was like Caruso in that respect. He had that sense of drama. When he
spoke to you on record, you felt that urgency. Eddie would teach
him the songs but he had that innate quality. His delivery on the songs
was far and beyond the call of duty. He was very good at
interpretation. On songwriting Eddie Holland: It wasn't that I was such a great
lyricist. I would just listen to what they were doing, musically, and it
inspired me. With the Supremes, I wrote songs that would capture
Diana's feeling. But it would all stem from Brian and Lamont's melodies
and production. The music dictated the lyrics. I always wanted to write songs that had appeal. I
overheard Berry Gordy in a sales meeting saying, "Females buy the most
records." When I heard him say that, a light came on. I would always
gear the lyric towards female appeal. Whether it was a male or a female
singing, it didn't really matter. I would do what I felt would be
appealing to females. But we wrote differently for the Supremes than we did for
the Four Tops. By them being males, we had a tendency to be more
punchy, musically and with the lyrics. On the Motown formula: Lamont Dozier: I think that it was so apropos for the
Funk Brothers to get their due with that documentary. It made me feel
good that they were finally getting some recognition. They had to be in
the studio around the clock, sometimes 14, 15 hours a day cutting for
various producers. They had to shine. They were on staff and they had
to give the producers what they wanted. We certainly put them through
the ropes because we were very pushy about what we wanted. We didn't
want to sound like nobody else, Smokey or Norman Whitfield. There was a variation of musicians we used. We call it
the "A" team because they were the "A" team to us. They were James
Jamerson, Benny Benjamin, Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis and
Joe Hunter or Earl Van Dyke. That was our nucleus. If we couldn't have
these guys, especially James and Benny, we wouldn't cut. The music was
so intricate and it took a lot of understanding of what we were going
for. These guys just knew us instinctively. James Jamerson was totally
awesome. I could give him a bass figure and he would elaborate. Brian
would be with Benny telling him what to do with his foot to enhance what
Jamerson was playing. That's how Brian and I would work the room to
make sure those tracks were tight. Eddie Holland: We used to have two or three songs to cut
per three-hour session. That doesn't happen nowadays. You look at how
many tracks we cut at such a fast rate. There was no way we could have
done the work that we did without working with such superb musicians. On creating the music Lamont Dozier: We always tried to be leaders. We never
followed anybody. We went out of our way not to sound like anybody else.
We would listen to John (Lennon) and Paul (McCartney) and Brian Wilson
and see what everybody was doing. They probably inspired us to be better
than we even felt we could be. When they got hot, we tried to get
hotter. When they did something spectacular, we tried to be even more
spectacular. In that regard I think we were doing the same thing for
them. When I talked with John Lennon, he said, "You guys inspired us to
do things." I said, "That's funny (laughing), you guys did the same
thing for us." It was an appreciation we had for each other. At one
time, we were hoping it would come to pass that the Beatles — John and
Paul at least — we could have an album with them. Holland-Dozier-Holland
meets the Beatles. We'd write songs with them. But it never
materialized. Brian Epstein died and it just never happened. Holland-Dozier-Holland on the Motown formula 2: Lamont Dozier: In order to get our records released at Motown, we had
to be better than anyone else there. We pushed ourselves and strived
for excellence every time we went into the studio to cut tracks. EH: It was a very exciting time to be at Motown in the ‘60.
Holland-Dozier-Holland had their office. It was big enough that we could
have four or five people for our poker games (laughs) and a piano. We’d
be in our room writing songs. People would be coming in and out
listening to what we were doing. Lamont would always keep the laughs
going. In the outer room you’d find musicians or writers or arrangers
working on songs with different people. You’d find someone in another
room banging on a piano. It was a very very active company. It was very
alive, every day. It was extremely competitive. You’d have to stand
there and wait until the other person finished in the studio. You’d have
Smokey Robinson in the studio or Norman Whitfield or us. There was
constant action all day long. There was a real camaraderie there. It was
a very exciting time. Brian Holland: Berry Gordy would give awards to the top producer
every year (laughs). He stopped (laughing) because Holland-Dozier would
win every year. We tried to turn out the best music at all times.
None of the other talented writers and producers at Motown can
compare with chart-topping success enjoyed by Brian Holland, Lamont
Dozier, and Eddie Holland during the 1960’s. The songs they wrote and
produced for the Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, the Four Tops and
others represented some of the biggest hits of the decade.
Collectively, H-D-H have written over 50 Top Ten Pop or R&B hits,
many which reached # 1. The trio left Motown in 1968, however, amidst suits and countersuits
in a dispute over money. Shortly thereafter, Holland-Dozier-Holland
formed their own Hot Wax and Invictus labels in Detroit and challenged
Berry Gordy on his own turf by producing hits by Flaming Ember, Freda
Payne, the Chairmen Of The Board, the Honey Cone, and 100 Proof Aged In
Soul. Brian Holland, his older brother Eddie, and Lamont Dozier were all
born in Detroit, and they all started their musical careers as singers.
Dozier had the earliest recording experience of the three. In 1957, he
cut two singles as part of a vocal group called the Romeos on the local
Fox label. The second one, “Fine, Fine Baby” was distributed
nationally by the Atco label. Dozier made his solo debut on the Anna label (owned by Berry Gordy’s
sister) in 1960 with a song called “Popeye The Sailor Man”. When King
Features threatened legal action for unauthorized use of their cartoon
character’s name, Dozier recut it as “Benny The Skinny Man” over the
same backing track. The next year he released a single on the
Check-Mate label called “Just To Be Loved”, but like the others that
preceded it, the record failed to chart. Brian Holland’s lone 45 rpm “(Where’s The Joy?) In Nature Boy”, was
backed by the ballad “Shock” written by Berry Gordy and his brother
Robert. It was issued on the tiny Kudo label in Detroit in 1958 by
“Briant” Holland. In the early days of Tamla Records, Holland was
recruited by Raynoma Liles (soon to be Berry Gordy’s 2nd
wife) to sing as one of the tenors in the Rayber Voices. The name was a
contraction of Raynoma and Berry, and the quartet backed Marv Johnson,
Barrett Strong, and other early recording artists on Gordy’s first
label. Of the three, Eddie Holland enjoyed the greatest amount of success as
a recording artist. Berry Gordy, who had written five charting hits
for Jackie Wilson, was impressed with how much Holland’s voice resembled
Wilson’s. Gordy produced Eddie Holland’s debut single,“You”, on
Mercury before signing him to his Tamla label in 1959. Gordy wrote
“Merry Go Round” for Eddie, and it became the second Tamla single. Like
Marv Johnson’s “Come To Me”, it was leased to Untied Artists. But
neither “Merry Go Round” nor the other three singles released on the UA
label were hits. When his tenure at United Artists ended, Holland began releasing
records on Motown. The first of these recordings, “Jamie”, was written
by Barrett Strong and Mickey Stevenson. “Jamie” reached # 6 on Billboard’s R&B chart and peaked at # 30 on the Hot 100. But after the release of his first album in the spring of 1962,
Eddie’s enthusiasm for performing began to fade. He became far more
interested in writing than singing, and joined forces with his brother
Brian and Lamont Dozier. The first official H-D-H collaboration was
“Dearest One”, a Lamont Dozier single released on Motown’s Mel-O-Dy
subsidiary in the summer of 1962. Eddie kept making records, but he didn’t have another hit until late
1963 when the Holland-Dozier-Holland partnership came up with the
classic “Leaving Here”. H-D-H provided two more charting records for
Eddie in 1964, “Just Ain’t Enough Love” and “Candy To Me”, before he
ended his recording career. Eddie Holland would go on to become one of
Motown’s greatest songwriters, second only to Smokey Robinson in his
ability to put together lyrics. In a recent interview for Songwriter Universe Magazine, Eddie
Holland described how the trio came together: “Early on, Brian and
Lamont were already working together, and they were very prolific at
writing melodies and producing tracks. It was the lyric writing which
slowed them down. So I suggested that I join the team as a lyricist, so
that their production output would be much higher. With the three of
us, we were able to finish many songs and produce more projects.” Brian and Lamont would start writing the songs on piano. Then with
Eddie, they would discuss what the melody and structure should be.
Next, Brian and Lamont would begin recording the tracks in Hitsville’s
Studio A. Their approach was to split the room with Brian working with
the drummer (usually Benny Benjamin) and Lamont working with the
keyboard players (Earl Van Dyke or Joe Hunter) to show them how to play
the track and chords. Lamont also gave the bass lines to James
Jamerson, who would often inject his own bass ideas to make the track
stronger. In the Songwriter Universe interview Lamont Dozier went on
to explain: “We wanted to guide the musicians, so we could create our
own sound. We would never let the band just go in and play the chord
sheets. We were very focused on what we had in mind for the
productions.” The tracks included the melody and a scratch vocal, but without the
lyrics yet. Sometimes they would have a title and some of the chorus
lyrics. At that point, the track was given to Eddie who would lock
himself away in his townhouse in Detroit and write the lyrics. Holland revealed in the interview that he often penned the song
lyrics from his own experiences, including personal things that were
going on in his life at that time. Another source of lyric ideas came
from his close women friends. Holland said that he found females to be
the most interesting subjects for songs. He would ask questions and
they often revealed secrets to Eddie that they usually did not speak
about to men. “I got a lot of song ideas from what I learned from
talking to women”, Holland said. Eddie Holland followed two basic principles in his songwriting approach. “The most important thing was the feeling. Did the lyric feel right?” The other was, “Is it interesting, and does it draw an emotional reaction?” Martha & The Vandellas’ “Come And Get These Memories” was a good
example of Eddie’s great lyric writing, and it was also the first H-D-H
production to be a Top 40 hit in the spring of 1963. They then provided Martha & The Vandellas with two consecutive Top Ten
hits, “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” and “Quicksand”.
Holland-Dozier-Holland firmly established themselves as the hottest
writing and production team at Motown with “Mickey’s Monkey” by the
Miracles, and topped off a very successful year withTop 40 songs for the Supremes, Mary Wells, and Marvin Gaye. 1964 would prove to be an even bigger year for H-D-H. They produced
three consecutive # 1 hits for the Supremes; “Where Did Our Love Go”,
“Baby Love”, and “Come See About Me”. H-D-H continued to work well with
Marvin Gaye as evidenced by the hits, “You’re A Wonderful One” and “How
Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”. They also started working with the
Four Tops and wrote and produced their first big Motown hit, “Baby I
Need Your Loving”. The hits just kept coming in 1965. The Supremes became the biggest
female act in Rock and Roll with two more H-D-H # 1’s, “Stop! In The
Name Of Love” and “Back In My Arms Again”. The Supremes’ string of five
# 1 hits was interrupted by their Top Ten smash, “Nothing But
Heartaches”, but H-D-H provided Motown’s biggest girl group with one
more # 1 when “I Hear A Symphony” reached the top of the charts at
year’s end. Holland-Dozier-Holland also wrote and produced the Four Tops first
#1, “I Can’t Help Myself”, as well big sellers with “It’s The Same Old
Song” and “Something About You”. H-D-H even had time to provide Martha
& The Vandellas with another Top Ten song, “Nowhere To Run”. Their incredible string of successes continued into 1966 with two
more # 1 songs for the Supremes, “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “You Keep Me
Hanging On”, and another # 1 for the Four Tops, “Reach Out I’ll Be
There”. There were other significant H-D-H hits that year for Jr.
Walker & The All Stars, “(I’m A) Road Runner”; the Isley Brothers,
“This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)”; the Supremes, “My World Is
Empty Without You” and “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart”; the Four
Tops, “Shake Me, Wake Me” and “Standing In The Shadows Of Love”; and
Martha & The Vandellas, “Ready For Love”. The last big year at Motown for H-D-H was 1967. They produced two
more # 1 singles for the Supremes; “Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone”
and “The Happening”, and narrowly missed a third when “Reflections”
peaked at # 2. H-D-H also continued to write and produce hits for
Martha & The Vandellas with “Jimmy Mack”, and for the Four Tops with
“Bernadette”, “Seven Rooms Of Gloom”, and “You Keep Running Away”. Behind the scenes, however, was a growing dispute with Berry Gordy
over profit sharing and song royalties. Things came to a head when
Eddie Holland convinced Brian and Lamont to stage a work slowdown. With
the issues still unresolved, the trio left Motown in 1968. The loss of
its most successful songwriting and production team was a serious blow
to Berry Gordy’s company. Motown sued for breach of contract and H-D-H
countersued. The litigation would drag on for nearly ten years, becoming
one of the longest legal battles in music industry history. In the meantime, Holland-Dozier-Holland started their own labels in
Detroit, Hot Wax Records and Invictus Records. Although their labels
produced some significant hits: “Westbound # 9” by Flaming Ember, “Give
Me Just A Little More Time” by the Chairmen Of The Board, “Want Ads” and
“Stick-Up” by the Honey Cone, “Band Of Gold” and “Bring The Boys Home”
by Freda Payne, and “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” by 100 Proof Aged In
Soul, Hot Wax and Invictus never came close to equaling what H-D-H had
achieved at Motown. Lamont Dozier left the H-D-H partnership in the early 1970’s to
resume his career as a solo artist. Dozier is currently running his own
production company and he continues to record as a solo artist. The Holland brothers continue to run H-D-H Productions with Harold
Beatty taking Dozier’s place. They even did some production work for
Motown artists Michael Jackson and the Supremes during the mid-70’s
while the litigation was still going on. In recent years Eddie, Brian, and Lamont joined forces for a
one-time-only reunion to compose the score for the Broadway musical The First Wives Club, based on the book and movie of the same name. H-D-H composed 22 songs for the production which opened in 2009. Holland, Dozier, and Holland were inducted into the Songwriters Hall
of Fame in 1988 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Four of
their compositions have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame:
"Reach Out I'll Be There" - 1998, "Where Did Our Love Go" - 1998, "You
Keep Me Hanging On" - 1999, and "Stop! In The Name Of Love" - 2001. Because of their amazing contributions to soul music and rock and
roll all over the world, Holland-Dozier- Holland were selected for
honorary induction into Michigan Rock and Roll Legends in 2010. Five H-D-H compositions have been voted Legendary Michigan Songs:
"Baby I Need Your Loving" and "I Can't Help Myself" by The Four Tops,
"Heat Wave" by Martha & The Vandellas, and "Baby Love" and "St0p! In
The Name Of Love"by The Supremes.
Video: Listen to The Supremes # 1 hit recording of the H-D-H classic, “You Can't Hurry Love” athttp://youtu.be/wgU2kFoaJ6w
Dr J. Recommends:“Heaven Must Have Sent You: The Holland-Dozier-Holland Story” Universal
Music, 3 CDs, 2009. This 65 song box set is the best collection of
H-D-H material available. As is always the case, there are some classic
songs that were not included, but it’s pretty hard to argue with what’s
there. The first two discs are incredible listening.
All songs featured in this page were written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland, Jr. (Holland–Dozier–Holland),
unless noted otherwise. Lyrics are by Edward Holland, Jr. (Eddie)
unless otherwise indicated. All recordings featured in this page were
produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier.
____________________
Locking Up My Heart
The Marvelettes — single b/w Forever,
Tamla label (T-54077), released 15 February 1963. It was the first
charting (#44, Hot 100) single written and produced by Motown’s main
creative team Holland–Dozier–Holland. Lead vocals by Gladys Horton and
Wanda Young. Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
.
Forever (Holland–Gorman–Dozier) — The Marvelettes — B-side of the single Locking Up My Heart (T-54077); drawn from the 1962 album Playboy .
Come and Get These Memories
Martha and The Vandellas — Recorded in 1962 at Motown’s Hitsville USA (Studio A) and released in February 1963 b/w Jealous Lover as Gordy 7014.
It was the second single released by the
group under Motown’s Gordy Records subsidiary, and their first to break
into the Billboard top forty charts, reaching #29 on the Hot 100 (pop)
singles chart and #6 on the R&B singles chart.
Wikipedia says,
“Memories” is also notable as the first hit recording written and produced by the songwriting/production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland,
who would become the top creative team at Motown by the end of 1965.
The single was the first of several hits the Vandellas scored with the
team, before Holland-Dozier-Holland began to focus more heavily on hits
for The Supremes and the Four Tops.
However, Holland–Dozier–Holland would continue to collaborate with the
Vandellas until the songwriting team’s departure from Motown in 1967. . (Love is Like a) Heat Wave
Martha and The Vandellas — Gordy label single G-7022 b/w A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking Everyday) released 9 July 1963.
Wikipedia says:
The single was a breakthrough hit, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at #1 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart.[2] It also garnered the group’s only Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for 1964,[3] making The Vandellas the first Motown group ever to receive a Grammy Award Nomination. .
Mickey’s Monkey (Holland–Dozier) Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier
The Miracles — single Tamla 54083, b/w Whatever Makes You Happy (Ronald White, Smokey Robinson); peak chart positions: #8 Hot 100, #3 R&B.
Wikipedia excerpts:
A comical story about “A cat named Mickey from out of town” who “spread his new dance all around”, this song helped popularize “The Monkey” as a national dance craze in the early 1960s. In the Motown DVD release, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: The Definitive Performances, Smokey exclaimed that this song began when he spotted Lamont Dozier playing the song’s initial chords on the piano at the Motown studios one day.
“Mickey’s Monkey”, in addition to The
Miracles, also featured background vocals by Mary Wilson of The
Supremes, famed Detroit Dee Jay “Jockey Jack” Gibson, Martha & The
Vandellas, and members of The Temptations and The Marvelettes. One of
the most famous of the early Motown hits, The Miracles often used
“Mickey’s Monkey” as their closing song on the legendary “Motortown Revue” touring shows in the early 1960s, a song that usually “brought the house down”.
________________________
A lip sync performance for Hollywood A Go-Go, season 2, episode 12, airdate: 20 November 1965
When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes
The Supremes — Single Motown 1051, b/w Standing at the Crossroads of Love, released 31 October 1963; peak chart positions: #23 Billboard Hot 100, #2 Cashbox R&B
Wikipedia says:
It is notable
as the Supremes’ first Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 recording, following
seven previous singles between January 1961 and September 1963 which
failed to enter the Top 40. The single is also notable as the first
Supremes single written and produced by Holland–Dozier–Holland, who had
previously created hits for Martha and the Vandellas and Mary Wells.
_______________________
.
Quicksand
Martha & The Vandellas — Gordy label single G 7025, b/w Darling, I Hum Our Song (B. Holland — L. Dozier)
Marvin Gaye — Tamla single T-54087 b/w I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby (William Stevenson), released September 1963 (#22)
Wikipedia says:
The [recording] featured
Gaye on piano, playing a boogie pattern, The Funk Brothers, and members
of The Supremes in the background accompanying Gaye. The song became a
hit in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and British musicians Lulu,
Dusty Springfield, The Rolling Stones, Sam Brown and Steampacket (which
featured a very young Rod Stewart) recorded cover versions of the song.
Gaye’s version peaked at #22 on the Hot 100 chart and its title soon
became a catchphrase.
One of the legendary songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland on
the early days of Motown, Detroit in the 1960s, and how to write a hit
song
Hi Lamont! All those Holland-Dozier-Holland
songs on Motown (1) are still classics five decades later. Could you
have imagined that when you were creating them as young men?
Never
in a million years. We were all very young. I was the youngest. I still
am! The songs just kept coming. It was like a blessing from God, but
there was a lot of hard work involved. What took you to Motown in the first place? [Motown
boss] Berry Gordy first approached me when I was with a group called
the Romeos, but I was 16 years old and wasn’t sure. Funnily enough, I
ended up signed to his sister’s label, Anna Records, but when that
company folded, I made the natural move to Berry. He had a group called
the Matadors, who became the Miracles, and when Shop Around and [the Marvelettes’] Please Mr Postman were big hits, Motown just took off. I found myself talking to him about being a producer, writer, artist, you name it.
Hi Lamont! All those Holland-Dozier-Holland
songs on Motown (1) are still classics five decades later. Could you
have imagined that when you were creating them as young men?
Never
in a million years. We were all very young. I was the youngest. I still
am! The songs just kept coming. It was like a blessing from God, but
there was a lot of hard work involved.
What took you to Motown in the first place?
[Motown
boss] Berry Gordy first approached me when I was with a group called
the Romeos, but I was 16 years old and wasn’t sure. Funnily enough, I
ended up signed to his sister’s label, Anna Records, but when that
company folded, I made the natural move to Berry. He had a group called
the Matadors, who became the Miracles, and when Shop Around and [the Marvelettes’] Please Mr Postman were big hits, Motown just took off. I found myself talking to him about being a producer, writer, artist, you name it.
What was Berry like? One of the guys, like a kid
in a lot of ways, but very ambitious, and he taught us to never stop in
our pursuit of writing the hit song. That’s how we became the main
writers at Motown, because we were relentless, like he was. What was the atmosphere like in Motown at that time? A
lot of people waiting for songs. That’s primarily why he wanted me
there, because he knew I was the writer-producer-singer for the Romeos.
Motown had a lot of artists, but not a lot of songwriters or producers. I
met Brian and Eddie Holland there and we pooled our resources and ideas
to become this writing-producing team. We were as surprised as anybody
else when we came up with so many songs. How did you write? We’d get there at 9am
and we would sometimes work until 3am. It was blood, sweat and tears. We
pounded on the piano and put our ideas down on a little recorder and
just worked and worked them out until we came up with things.
What usually came first? Sometimes a basic melody, or a title. I was considered the ideas man. Like, I had a bassline for [the Four Tops’] I Can’t Help Myself.
That phrase “Sugar pie, honey bunch” was something my grandfather used
to say when I was a kid, and it just stayed with me and went in the
song. Lots of childhood memories came back to me and I started using
them as song titles.
Did you really come up with Nowhere to Run for Martha and the Vandellas after seeing tanks in the street? Yeah,
but it was a lot of stuff. There were riots at the time in Detroit in
the 1960s. I remember meeting a little kid who was on his way to
Vietnam. He was frightened. Oh God, he must have been about 19. His
friends asked if I would throw a party for him at my house before he was
shipped out. We had the party, but he was very solemn, just sitting
with his girlfriend. He had a premonition that he wouldn’t be coming
back. I told him to be positive, but he was adamant. I found myself
thinking about how he was feeling trapped – nowhere to run. Sure enough,
two months later they shipped his body back. I think he stepped on a
landmine. Nineteen years old. Those
sort of tracks seem to capture the turbulent undercurrent of 1960s
America without being that specific. Was that deliberate? Yes.
We realised quite early that we wrote mostly love songs or songs about
unrequited love, mostly for women, and their plight with boyfriends. It
was beginning to sound a bit moody, so we decided to add a feelgood
thing. We got with the band and really made them play things that were
up. We were determined to make it feel optimistic, in spite of the story
in the song. So we ended up with quite dark lyrics and uplifting,
cheerful music, and that became our style: making lemonade out of
lemons. I think that’s why the songs have lasted, all around the world.
As young men, how were you able to write with such empathy for women? Women
bought the records, to put it bluntly. They wanted music that talked
about their feelings, but also … women raised me. My father wasn’t
around and I was brought up by my grandmother. I trusted women, and I
still do. I have women running my business.
Did you, Brian and Eddie have a special chemistry? I
dunno. Brian and I had a close feeling together. We both liked
classical music and we both went to churches, as demanded by our
grandparents. We could almost think what our next move would be. When
one of us stopped thinking, the other would pick up the thought and keep
it rolling. That’s how we wrote.
And then Eddie would come up with the lyrics? Yeah.
I’d have a lyric line, and he’d say, “Man, give me a title or
something,” and take the idea and run with it. [The Supremes’] I Hear a Symphony came from something I used to say about a girl called Bernadette (2).
It was a feeling I had as a kid. Whenever she was around, I felt
uplifted. You know in the movies, if the main character had some music
or theme, you would hear this when they came on the screen. So the idea
was when the main person in your life comes along, you would hear this
melody. That’s basically where the idea came from, watching heroes in
movies.
What would you do when a song wasn’t working out? I’d
always think: What if? What would happen if I did it this way and not
that way? That’s basically the essence of every idea I came up with.
Some songs you can write in 15 minutes and the next can take 15 days. I
had a theme song that I sang every morning to wake me up and get me
going at 9am. “This old heart of mine, been broke a thousand times …”
I’d bang that on the piano to start my day, and eventually I gave that to the Isley Brothers.
How did you come up with Reach Out (I’ll Be There)for the Four Tops? Brian
and I just plunking at the piano. Brian had that der-der-der
introductory melody, but he didn’t have another part. I jumped in with:
“If you feel like you can’t go on …”
How did you know which song was right for, say, Marvin Gaye, or the Supremes? We
all went to the same churches and sang in the same choirs, so we knew
each other from way back. When we were all kids, everyone in Detroit had
a vocal group and was trying to make it, but there’s an art in giving
the song to the right singer. So many people could sing, but the right
person would have to know how to interpret the lyric and the feeling of
the song. It’s up to the producer and the songwriter to get them to do
that.
Listening
to those records now, they capture the times while not sounding
remotely like anything else that was happening in music, whether it was
the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix. [Laughs] The Funk Brothers
[Motown session musicians] would say, “What is this shit, man? This
ain’t rock’n’roll.” Who said anything about rock’n’roll? To me,
rock’n’roll was mumbo jumbo. We were trying to create R&B pop. I
grew up with Rodgers and Hammerstein and the musicals of the 50s, and
pop radio. Sinatra and Nat King Cole influenced me … My grandmother
said, “If you’re going to write a song, make sure people can understand
it.” There weren’t any books to tell us this stuff. We had to learn it.
Nobody was doing what the three of us and Smokey Robinson were doing.
John and Paul were coming up with amazing stuff in Liverpool, but
different. They used to do the same thing we did: come up with ideas and
stay in the studio until something happened. Trial and error.
How did you get the Motown sound? The
control room was a small room in Berry’s house, where he had a pool
table. It surprised a lot of people who came to see it later. They’d
say, “Where’s the room that you made the records?” I’d go, “This is it!”
We mostly used four tracks; sometimes eight, but eight confused the
issue.
Did you use many studio effects? We had echoes
and stuff, but there weren’t synthesisers then, so we made our own
sounds. We brought in snow chains from tyres to make beats. We’d bang on
the piano or underneath it with a hammer, anything. No one could work
out what we were doing. Everyone thought the sound on Where Did Our Love Go was handclaps. It was actually a guy called Michael Valvano, stomping on some plywood. He became our resident stomper. Music is found in the strangest places.
Do you see much of Berry now? I was at his house
recently. His secretary Edna passed. Smokey and Otis Williams [of the
Temptations] and Duke Fakir [Four Tops] were there. When we do get
together, it’s usually a wake or a funeral, unfortunately.
What are you, Brian and Eddie doing these days? They’re doing things in the business world, but we did a play together in Chicago(3).
I’m in the musical theatre business, working on three or four plays,
and people want to hear about Motown. I don’t listen to the records that
much, but now I’m not so close, it blows me away how good they sound
today.
Did you have many that were never finished or released? God, we had a lot of stuff in the can when we left (4).
Some songs came out later on and became big hits. Others never
surfaced, and the people that own Motown’s library have them. There’s
probably some hits in there.
Footnotes
(1) Holland-Dozier-Holland penned and produced more than 200 songs,
and their tenure at Motown between 1962 and 1967 helped define the
Motown sound. (2) Who also inspired the H-D-H song Bernadette, for the Four Tops. Lamont sure liked her. (3) The First Wives Club, which opened in March to much acclaim. (4) To set up their own labels, Invictus and Hot Wax, in 1969. • Lamont Dozier appears at the Liverpool international music festival event The Record Producers Live at the Epstein Theatre on 27 August.
________________________
THE MUSIC OF HOLLAND DOZIER AND HOLLAND: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH HOLLAND DOZIER AND HOLLAND:
ALL COMPOSITIONS, SONGS, LYRICS, AND ARRANGEMENTS BY MASTER MOTOWN SONGMEISTERS AND PRODUCERS EDDIE HOLLAND, LAMONT DOZIER, AND BRIAN HOLLAND FOR THE VARIOUS OUTSTANDING ARTISTS AND ENSEMBLE GROUPS THAT H/D/H WROTE FOR AND THAT INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
--Marvin Gaye --Martha and the Vandellas --The Supremes --The Four Tops --The Isley Brothers --Junior Walker and the All Stars --Freda Payne --Chairman of the Board
Holland–Dozier–Holland was a songwriting and production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. The trio wrote, arranged and produced many songs that helped define the Motown sound in the 1960s. During their tenure at Motown
from 1962 to 1967, Dozier and Brian Holland were the composers and
producers for each song, and Eddie Holland wrote the lyrics and arranged
the vocals. Their most celebrated productions were singles for the Four Tops and the Supremes, including 10 out of the Supremes' 12 US No. 1 singles, such as "Baby Love", "Stop! In the Name of Love", and "You Keep Me Hangin' On".
Due to a legal dispute with Motown, from 1969 through 1972 they
did not write material under their own names, but instead used the
collective pseudonym
"Edythe Wayne". When the trio left Motown, they continued to work as a
production team (with Eddie Holland being added to the producer
credits), and as a songwriting team until about 1974.
The trio came together at Motown in the early 1960s. Eddie Holland had been working with Motown founder Berry Gordy
prior to that label being formed; his 1958 Mercury single "You" was one
of Gordy's earliest productions. Later, Eddie Holland had a career as a
Motown recording artist, scoring a US Top 30 hit in 1961 with "Jamie".
Eddie's brother Brian Holland was a Motown staff songwriter who also
tasted success in 1961, being a co-composer of the Marvelettes' US No. 1 "Please Mr. Postman". Dozier had been a recording artist for several labels in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the Anna label (owned by Berry Gordy's sister) and Motown subsidiary Mel-o-dy.
The three eventually teamed to create material for both
themselves and other artists, but soon found they preferred being
writers and producers to being performers (especially Eddie, who
suffered from stage fright and retired from performing in 1964). They
would write and produce scores of songs for Motown artists, including 25
Number 1 hit singles, such as "Heat Wave" for Martha and the Vandellas[4] and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" for Marvin Gaye.
Lawsuits and solo careers
In
1967, H-D-H, as they were familiarly called, entered into a dispute
with Berry Gordy Jr. over profit-sharing and royalties. Eddie Holland
had the others stage a work slowdown, and by early 1968 the trio had
left the label. They started their own labels, Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records,
which were modestly successful. When Motown sued for breach of
contract, H-D-H countersued. The subsequent litigation was one of the
longest legal battles in music industry history. Because they were
legally contracted to Motown's publishing arm, Jobete, they could not
use their own names on songs they wrote, and their material was credited
to Wayne-Dunbar; "Edythe Wayne" being a pseudonym, and Ronald Dunbar being an associate who was a songwriter and producer.[5] The lawsuit was settled in 1977.
Dozier left Holland–Dozier–Holland Productions, Inc. (HDHP) in
1973 and resumed his career as a solo performing artist. In 1975, HDHP
and Invictus Records sued Dozier and 31 others, claiming conspiracy to
restrain trade and other charges. The suit was dismissed by a federal
judge in 1982.[6]
From the mid-1970s onwards, HDHP, with Harold Beatty replacing Dozier,
wrote and produced songs for a number of artists. HDHP even worked on
material for Motown artists in the 1970s, including The Supremes and Michael Jackson,
while its litigation against the company was still pending. Dozier
commented in 2008, "The lawsuit was just our way of taking care of
business that needed to be taken care of—just like Berry Gordy had to
take care of his business which resulted in the lawsuit. Business is
business, love is love."[7] Holland–Dozier–Holland threatened to sue the band Aerosmith in 1989 due to the resemblance of parts of the song "The Other Side" (from the album Pump) to the Holland–Dozier–Holland song "Standing in the Shadows of Love".
To forestall litigation, Aerosmith agreed to add Holland–Dozier–Holland
to the songwriting credits in the album's liner notes.
Later years
Dozier
has his own production company and continues to work as a solo artist,
producer and recording artist, while the Holland Brothers own HDH
Records and Productions (without any participation from Lamont Dozier),
which issues recordings from the Invictus and Hot Wax catalogs as well
as new material.
For a "one-time only reunion", the three composed the score for the musical production of The First Wives Club, based on the novel by Olivia Goldsmith and a later hit film. The musical included 22 new songs from the songwriting trio. The musical was produced by Paul Lambert and Jonas Neilson and premiered in July 2009 at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego.[8]
The San Diego production sold approximately 29,000 tickets in its
five-week run. Ticket demand was so strong early on that The Old Globe
extended its run (originally four weeks) prior to opening night. In June
2014, it was announced that The First Wives Club would be
heading to Chicago for a premiere set at February 16, 2015. Following
the Chicago run, the production was to head to Broadway for a fall 2015
arrival.[9]
Legacy
Longtime
BMI songwriters, Brian Holland affiliated with the performing rights
organization in 1960, followed by Lamont Dozier in 1961 and Eddie
Holland in 1963. They have won many BMI Awards, including BMI Pop Awards
and Million-Air citations.[10] On May 13, 2003, Holland–Dozier–Holland were honored as BMI Icons at the 51st BMI Pop Awards.
Holland–Dozier–Holland are mentioned (along with the Four Tops and their vocalist Levi Stubbs, as well as Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong) in the lyrics of the song "Levi Stubbs' Tears" from the 1986 Billy Bragg album Talking with the Taxman about Poetry; and also in the lyrics of the Magnetic Fields' song "The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure", from their 1999 album 69 Love Songs.
Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland were inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2010. [11]
Kofi Natambu, editor of and contributor to Sound Projections, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He has written extensively about music as a critic and historian for many publications, including the Black Scholar, Downbeat, Solid Ground: A New World Journal, Detroit Metro Times, KONCH, the Panopticon Review,Black Renaissance Noire, the Village Voice, the City Sun (NYC), the Poetry Project Newsletter (NYC), and the African American Review. He is the author of a biography Malcolm X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: The Melody Never Stops (Past Tents Press) and Intervals (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of Solid Ground: A New World Journal, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology Nostalgia for the Present (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
The
legendary Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland is known for writing
and producing many of the greatest pop and R&B songs of the modern
era. The songs they wrote for Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Four
Tops, Martha & The Vandellas, Marvin Gaye and other artists have
become pop standards. Collectively H-D-H has written over 50 Top-10
Pop/R&B hits, many of which reached #1 on the charts.
melodies
to her songs, and it went on from there. I had such a great time doing
it, then later on I got with Lamont Dozier and wrote some things with
him, and before then I got with my brother and wrote some things, you
know.. and so it went on from there, just kept going on and on,
mushroomed on and on.... 
For more information on these three talented songwriters, visit their website.
Mickey’s Monkey (Holland–Dozier) Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier
