Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier has died

August 10, 2022

Lamont Dozier, one third of the legendary Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland (H-D-H), has died at age 81.

H-D-H wrote “Baby Love,” which made the Supremes the first Motown group to have multiple #1 singles in the US. Here’s a live performance by the Supremes (with Diana Ross singing lead):

Here’s a video of Dozier talking about writing some of the H-D-H songs. He keeps saying about different songs: “It’s always about love. … It’s all about love.”

That video ends with Dozier talking about “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” which was originally performed by Marvin Gaye, before James Taylor recorded an even more successful version. Here’s the original:

The NPR obituary says:

Dozier grew up in Detroit. In 2004, he told NPR it was an elementary school teacher who liked his writing and encouraged him to keep at it. “She thought it was very astute of me to have such a feel for words and stuff,” Dozier said, “So I started to put these words to music by the time I was, like, 12 or 13.”

NPR neglects to mention that H-D-H went beyond just songwriting, as Wikipedia explains:

During their tenure at Motown Records from 1962 to 1967, Dozier and Brian Holland were the composers and producers for each song, and [Brian’s older brother] Eddie Holland wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocals.

From the Washington Post obituary:

During [Berry] Gordy’s reign at Motown, the record label was run like an auto plant because that was the only other work environment the boss knew, Mr. Dozier said. The songwriters, session musicians and others had to punch a clock. As part of “quality control” each Friday, H-D-H and other songwriters had to write down their songs from the week, and Gordy and other executives would vote on the ones they liked.

The H-D-H songs were usually the winners, Mr. Dozier said.

The Beatles covered one H-D-H song: “Please Mr. Postman,” which was originally done by the Marvelettes. John Lennon sang lead:

Wikipedia points out:

Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned label that achieved crossover success.

“You Can’t Hurry Love” was originally recorded by the Supremes in 1966. Phil Collins did this cover in 1982:

My favorite H-D-H song, and one of my favorite songs by anyone, is “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” which was sung by the Four Tops. Wikipedia quotes Dozier:

Lamont Dozier said that he wanted to write “a journey of emotions with sustained tension, like a bolero. To get this across, I alternated the keys, from a minor, Russian feel in the verse to a major, gospel feel in the chorus.” He developed the lyrics with Eddie Holland, aiming for them to sound “as though they were being thrown down vocally.” Dozier said that they were strongly influenced by Bob Dylan at the time, commenting: “We wanted Levi [Stubbs] to shout-sing the lyrics … as a shout-out to Dylan.” For the recording, the writers and producers intentionally put Levi Stubbs at the top of his vocal range, according to Abdul Fakir of the Four Tops, “to make sure he’d have that cry and hunger and wailing in his voice.”