RIP - Lamont Dozier

[Chuckanut]

Legendary Motown composer Lamont Dozier has passed at 81.

I enjoyed a lot of his music as a youth and still do today.

https://news.yahoo.com/lamont-dozier-appreciation-song-craftsman-130030588.html

And although Dozier in the late 1990s was decades removed from the heyday of Motown and had parted ways with his partners, the eruption of emotion in the making of the project demonstrated his ongoing personal connection with songs such as "Baby Love," "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby I Need Your Loving," "You Can't Hurry Love," "Reach Out, I'll Be There," "How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart," "Heat Wave," "Nowhere to Run," "Bernadette," "It's the Same Old Song" and many other classics.

 

[jollystomper]

RIP. As a big Motown fan, I was always interested in the people "behind the scenes" of the artists. While there he was part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team. Behind Smokey Robinson, they were arguably the best Motown song writers, especially the best who were not performers.

 

[Chuckanut]

RIP. As a big Motown fan, I was always interested in the people "behind the scenes" of the artists. While there he was part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team. Behind Smokey Robinson, they were arguably the best Motown song writers, especially the best who were not performers.

I had heard of Dozier years ago, when I watched a TV special on Motown. But, I had no idea he was this prolific.

You might be interested in the movie Twenty Feet from Stardom, about the backup singers who supported the Big Name people we know today. Many of them are very good to say the least. IIRC, one gal got her big break when she got a last minute call to sing backup for some guy named Jagger who had a group that finally got precious studio time to record their music.

 

[ERD50]

RIP. As a big Motown fan, I was always interested in the people "behind the scenes" of the artists. While there he was part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team. Behind Smokey Robinson, they were arguably the best Motown song writers, especially the best who were not performers.

+1 DW asked me if I knew the name "Dozier" when she heard this on TV. I said "yeah, the songwriter with Holland-Dozier-Holland". I play keyboards a little, their name was all over the sheet music I had.

Here's a long list of their songs, lots of classics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland–Dozier–Holland

Heat Wave, Bernadette, Stop! in the Name of Love, and You Keep Me Hangin'g On (Vanilla Fudge version is my fav) are some of the tops for me - many more, I had to stop somewhere.


RIP

-ERD50

 

[jollystomper]

I had heard of Dozier years ago, when I watched a TV special on Motown. But, I had no idea he was this prolific.

You might be interested in the movie Twenty Feet from Stardom, about the backup singers who supported the Big Name people we know today. Many of them are very good to say the least. IIRC, one gal got her big break when she got a last minute call to sing backup for some guy named Jagger who had a group that finally got precious studio time to record their music.

That movie is in my Amazon Prime watchlist, I need to get to it - thanks!

Have you seen Standing in the Shadows of Motown ? That is a good documentary in a similar vein. The focus is on the set of musicians - mostly known by the name "The Funk Brothers" - who played on the Motown hits but received little or no album liner credits.

 

[harllee]

My DH and I do a dance called the Carolina Shag, it is one of the main dances here in NC. There are dance parties, competitions, etc. dedicated to the dance. Lamant Dozier wrote many of the songs that we dance to. Great musician and composer.

 

[Koolau]

What would the world be like without Motown? HDH wrote a good a good part of the soundtrack of Boomer's lives. RIP Lamont Dozier!