Motown songwriter and producer Lamont Dozier dies at 81

Lamont Dozier, the middle name of the famous Holland-Dozier-Holland team, wrote and produced "You Can't Hurry Love," "Heat Wave," and many other hits, and made Motown an important figure. contributed to making it a record company.

Dozier's death was confirmed Tuesday by Paul Lambert, who helped produce "The First Wives Club," a stage musical written by Holland Dozier Holland. He had no additional details.

The music icon's passing was also confirmed by  his son Lamont his Dodger his Jr. Instagram post . "

In Motown's rise to the historic and self-defining 'Sound of Young America', Holland-Dozier-Holland joins talented peers such as Smokey Robinson, Stevie His Wonder, and Barrett Strong." It stood out in comparison. In his four years from 1963 to his 1967, Dodger and his brothers Brian and Eddie Holland created more than 25 of his Top 10 songs and mastered a blend of pop and rhythm and blues. Black and white music was broadcast, rivaling The Beatles.

For the Four Tops, they performed "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "Reach Out ( I'll Be There)". They wrote "Heat Wave" and "Jimmy Mack" for Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't You Do It" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)". The music has lived on through countless soundtracks, samples, and radio broadcasts, with cover versions by the Rolling Stones, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and many others, and generations influenced by the Motown sound. It has been passed down by songwriters and musicians.

"Their structure was simple and direct," wrote Gerri Hirshey in his 1984 published Motown history, Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music. increase. Of repetitive hooks, like a fast food jungle potentially lurking until it leads to real hunger.

H-D-H's sophisticated style was a perfect match for iconic Motown acts Diana Ross and The Supremes. did our love go Expectations were so high that when "Nothing But Heartaches" failed to make the Top 10 in 1965, Gordy sent a company memo requesting that Motown release the chart topping only to the Supremes. Did. record.

H-D-H also wrote "When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" for The Supremes. It became the group's first hit of 1963. It didn't repeat itself, but the casual joy of "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)," the urgency of "Heat Wave," and "Reach Out (I'll Be There)." Dozier's focus is on melodies and arrangements, with haunting echoes of the Vandellas' backing vocals on "Nowhere To Run," flashing guitar lights on The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hanging On," and gay's "Get a Witness."

"Every song started out as a slow ballad, but when we were in the studio we would pick up the tempo," Dozier told The Guardian in 2001. . Teenager - otherwise it would have been like something for your parents. The emotion was still there, hidden in the optimism that the uptempo beat gave.

The heyday of H-D-H and Motown ended in 1968 amid questions and legal disputes over royalties and other issues. H-D-H left the label and neither recovered. The Four Tops and the Supremes were one of those artists who suffered from the loss of their most trusted writers. Meanwhile, H-D-H's efforts to start their own business fell far short of Motown. Both the Invictus and Hot Wax labels faded within a few years, and Dozier recalled in disbelief that Holland turned down future superstars like him Al Green and George Clinton. H-D-H released several hits, including "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne and "Want Adds" by Honey Cohn. "

Holland-Dozier-Holland was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years later." It scored a Top 20 hit. to My Woman" helped produce Aretha Franklin's "Sweet Passion" album, collaborating with Eric Clapton and Simply Red's Mick Hucknall among others. His greatest success was co-writing Phil Collins' chart-topping "Two Hearts" from the 1988 film "Buster," which earned him a Grammy and Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination. It's a mid-tempo Motown ballad in his style.

Our time together was short and unhappy. Dozier and Hollands clashed frequently, with Dozier falling out before the show even started. Eddie Holland wrote in his 2019 memoir Come and Get These Memories by Dutchman, the same year Dodger published his memoir How Sweet It Is .

Dodger conceded. His early success was at odds with his family life, but he eventually settled with Barbara Ullman, who died in 2021 after more than 40 years of marriage. His children included songwriter and record producer Bo Dodger and composer Paris Ray Dodger.

Like many Motown artists, Dodger was born in Detroit and raised in a family of singers and musicians. He sang in his Baptist church choir, his love of words was recognized by his elementary school teacher, and he remembered one of his poems he liked so much that he wrote it down on the blackboard for a month. . By the late 1950s, he was a professional singer, eventually signing with Motown, where he worked first with Brian Holland and then with Eddie Holland, who wrote most of the lyrics. .

Some of Motown's biggest hits and catchiest phrases stem from Dodger's home life. He recalls that his grandfather called the woman "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" and the opening words and continuing refrain of Four Her Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)". I remembered. The Four Tops hit "Bernadette" was inspired by all three of his songwriters having trouble with a woman named Bernadette, and an altercation with another Dodger girlfriend led to Supreme It helped inspire a favorite of the series.

"I was quite the lady at the time, and I was having an affair, so she was pretty hot," her Mr. Dozier told her Guardian. "So she got mad at me and started swinging me around until I said, 'Stop. In the name of love.' As soon as I said that, I heard the cash register in my head and laughed. My girlfriend didn't find it very funny. we parted Only the Supremes were happy about it.