Lamont Dozier, the prolific songwriter and producer who was integral to Motown Records’ success as one-third of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, died Tuesday. he was 81 years old.
A spokesperson for the Motown Museum in Detroit confirmed his death. She did not specify where he died or the cause.
Working with brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, Mr. Dodger has written songs for dozens of musical acts, including the trio of Martha and the Vandellas (“Jimmy Mac”) and The Four Tops (“Bernadette”). , and especially the Supremes (“You Can’t Harley Love”). Between 1963 and his 1972, the Holland-Dozier-Holland team was responsible for over 80 of his singles, including 15 of his number one hits, pop or his top 40 R&B charts. ranked in. In his autobiography How Sweet It Is (2019, co-authored with Scott B. Bomar), Dozier writes:
Nelson George wrote in his 1985 Motown history, “Where Has Our Love Gone?” described how they acquired more experienced staff and musicians from “These kids,” he wrote, “had a real insight into the tastes of the buying public,” he wrote, adding, “an innate flair for melody, the lyrical feel of narrative songs, and the repetitive vocals and It had the ability to create instrumental licks, “hooks”.
“Brian, Eddie and Lamont loved what they did,” added George.
“We thought of HDH as a factory within a factory,” Dozier agrees in his memoir.
Lamont Herbert Dodger — he is named after Lamont Cranston, the main character in the radio serial The Shadow — was married to Willie Lee and Ethel on June 16, 1941 in Detroit. Janet (Waters) was born the oldest of Dodger’s five children. His mother primarily raised her family, earning a living as a cook and housekeeper. His father worked at a gas station but struggled to keep his job because he suffered from chronic back pain, possibly as a result of a World War II injury (he was a truck driver). dropped from).
When Mr. Dozier was five years old, his father took him to a concert featuring Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. While the music excited the boy, he was also impressed by the audience’s ecstatic reaction and was determined to make people feel good as well.
While in high school, Mr. Dodger wrote songs by chopping up grocery bags to make paper for writing lyrics, and formed the interracial doo-wop group Romeo. When Romeo’s song “Fine Fine Baby” was released in 1957 by Atlantic subsidiary Atco his records, Mr. Dodger expected stardom and he dropped out of high school at age 16. But when Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler asked for his second single, Mr. Dozier went too far, saying the group would only make his full-length LP. He received a letter to wish him luck and remove Romeo from the label.
After Romeo broke up, Mr. Dodger auditioned for Anna Records, a new label said to have been founded by Billy Davis and his sisters Anna and Gwen Gordy. In 1961, billed as Lamont Anthony, he released his first solo single, “Let’s Talk It Over”. “Popeye”, which featured a young Marvin Gaye on drums, was written by King Features, the owner of the cartoon and cartoon character Popeye. It became a regional hit until it was quelled by
After Anna Records dissolved in 1961, Mr. Dodger received a call from Anna and Gwen’s brother, Berry Gordy Jr., offering him a job as a songwriter on his new label, Motown. against royalties. Dozier began collaborating with young songwriter He Brian Holland.
“Brian and I were kind of able to perfect each other’s musical ideas the way certain people would complete each other’s sentences,” Dozier wrote in his memoirs. “I quickly realized that we shared a secret language of creativity.”
They were soon joined by Brian’s older brother Eddie, who specialized in lyrics, and began writing songs together, with all three parties rarely in the same room. Oversaw an instrumental recording session with the Motown house band. Eddie Holland then wrote the lyrics to the track. When it came time to record the vocals, Eddie Holland guided the lead singers and Mr. Dodger coached the backing vocalists.
Dozier sums it up in his memoir:
The Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There” was inspired by a line from Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” He occasionally concocted high-profile gimmicks, like his staccato guitar at the opening of The Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” reminiscent of a radio news bulletin.
Mr. Dodger would also utter actual sentences that worked with the song, as he did when he was at a Detroit motel with his girlfriend one night and another girlfriend started banging on the door. . He begged the intruder to “Stop, in the name of love.” Holland-Dozier-Holland’s team quickly adapted this sentence to his three-minute single, The Supremes’ “Stop! For Love.”
In 1965, Mr. Gordy circulated a bold memo to Motown staff that read: And since the Supremes have a bigger global following than any other artist, we’ll only release a number 1 record about them. ‘ Holland-Dozier-Holland stepped up. They didn’t hit the top every time with the Supremes, but they did write and produce an amazing 10 of his No. 1 hits for the group.
“I accepted that an artist career at Motown was not in my cards,” Dozier wrote in 2019. The roster of artists is growing. “
When drummer-turned-singing star Marvin Gaye needed to record some material before embarking on an extended tour, Mr. Dodger reluctantly released the songs he had been saving to resume his artistic career. I let go. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”. Gay showed up late and unprepared to the session with his golf clubs and nailed the song with a perfect take.
At the height of his success, Mr. Dozier and the Holland brothers left Motown in 1967 over money and ownership to start two labels. “Holland Dodger Holland is gone, the sound is gone,” Mary Wilson of the Supremes lamented to The Washington Post in 1986.
Mr. Dozier wrote several more hits for The Hollands (credited under the collective pseudonym Edith Wayne due to an ongoing legal dispute with Motown) and became an independent singer in 1973. resumed his career.
Although he released a dozen solo albums over the years, he never achieved stardom as a singer. He had his most chart success in 1974. His one of his songs, “Fish Ain’t Bitin'”, contains lyrics encouraging Richard to resign from Nixon’s resignation, and the publicity his label received from the White House for the song. It became a minor hit for him when he published a letter asking him to stop.
Mr. Dodger had great success in the 1980s collaborating with other artists, including Eric Clapton, Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall (who called “Infidelity” “Hucknall Dodger Hucknall”). released on the credits gruffly), wrote the song with Phil Collins. No. 1 in 1989 with their song “Two Hearts”.
Information about survivors was not immediately available.
Dozier was an artist-in-residence professor at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and president of the National Songwriter Academy, passing on his hard-earned wisdom to young writers.
“Always put your singing ahead of your ego,” he wrote in his memoir. And he revealed his relentless productivity secret: The answer to so-called writer’s block is to work. “
Jenny Gross contributed to the report.
