Holland-Dozier-Holland: S & D

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I can't believe this hasn't been discussed yet. Carrazy.

Daver, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm still a novice @ this Motown thing (all the go-go albums are scaring me off), but the Supreme's _Where Did Our Love Go_ is a great ALBUM. Having songs like "Baby Love" and "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Come See About Me" definitely helps, but the other 9 tracks are great as well (and different! because if you're going to bitch about HDH, I imagine, it's their formulaic approach to songwriting, but that only applies to the hits, and you can't argue with chemistry).

I will attempt to Filepile a worthy Supremes album track for y'all (if this Audiogalaxy thing can get the bump in its rump moving).

Daver, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

As far as searchable songs, too many to name, but I'll start with: Please Mr. Postman, Nowhere to Run, How Sweet it Is, Ain't Too Proud to Beg, I'm Losing You, Reach Out I'll Be There, Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love, Stop in the Name of Love, Reflections, You Can't Hurry Love, You Keep Me Hanging On...gee, they might have been the greatest songwriters in the history of pop!

Plus, they started Invictus Records, which housed Parliament's best record.

dleone, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeah I love the HDH Invictus stuff, maybe even more than most of their 'classic' Motown tunes. Search: any gd Chairmen of the Board 'Best of' (their leader, 'General' Johnson, has to be one of the most underrated 'soul' singers of all time - Kevin Rowland is v. clearly a BIG fan), 'Band of Gold' by Freda Payne, and anything you can find by the Honeycombs (a soul girl group who are miles better than the Supremes...)

Andrew L, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

the Chairmen of The Board were great, like a tougher version of psychedelic-era Temptations.

Were The Eighth Day ("She's Not Just Another Woman") on Invicticus too?

fritz, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

By "Honeycombs" do you mean Honey Cone? Yes, absolutely first-rate, although H-D-H didn't actually do much of their songwriting. There's a 2-CD anthology of everything that came out last year and is awesome. I've been putting "Are You Man Enough, Are You Strong Enough" on mixes lately...

Douglas, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Were The Eighth Day ("She's Not Just Another Woman") on Invicticus too?

Yep!

Andy K, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Also search This Old Heart Of Mine, Baby I Need Your Loving, Bernadette, I Can't Help Myself, Standing In The Shadows Of Love, Heat Wave, Third Finger Left Hand, I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying, Road Runner (Junior Walker, not JonathanRichman, obv). They were not only among the all-time great songwriting teams, but they were also fabulous producers for the Supremes, Four Tops and Chairmen of the Board.

Martin Skidmore, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

" Baby Don't Leave Me Now" by Holland-Dozier-Holland, I'm sure that my downstairs neigbour knows it note for note by now.

jamie, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

six years pass...

lamont dozier was on tavis smiley just now, classy dude. among other revelations (probably common knowledge, sry) 'where did our love go' was turned down by the marvelettes and diana ross sang it seething cos they hated it too. also 'how sweet it is' was sung in one take, marvin was in a hurry to get somewhere. he talked about something he's producing(?) that's going to broadway later this year but they were wrapping up and didn't get into it

be prepared (tremendoid), Wednesday, 18 February 2009 03:37 (fifteen years ago) link

"zipping up my boots/goin back to my roots"

m coleman, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 05:01 (fifteen years ago) link

also search anything on hot wax/invictus (hdh's post-motown label)

m coleman, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 05:02 (fifteen years ago) link

My only gripe: too much sentence inversion.

Joseph McCombs, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 06:56 (fifteen years ago) link

Awwww....

meisenfek, Wednesday, 18 February 2009 10:16 (fifteen years ago) link

'how sweet it is' was sung in one take, marvin was in a hurry to get somewhere.

Not suprised at this. Recently read David Ritz's Marvin Gaye bio Divided Soul and gained new respect for Marvin's great talent and abilities. Maybe the best Motown book. Although Dennis Coffey's book is pretty good too.

lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 19 February 2009 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link

My only gripe: too much sentence inversion.

― Joseph McCombs

what do you mean by this?

NI, Thursday, 19 February 2009 20:39 (fifteen years ago) link

I sort of know what Joe means, but I haven't thought of a good example yet. I think it is about twisting the word order and syntax to get the rhyming word at the end.

lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 20 February 2009 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link

eight years pass...

I threw together a list.

the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 May 2017 20:50 (six years ago) link

five years pass...

RIP Lamont Dozier

Alba, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 09:49 (one year ago) link

RIP

My Little Red Buchla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 August 2022 10:39 (one year ago) link

RIP

"Dozier is the “idea man,” the one who takes the lead with song titles and concepts, partial lyrics and also some music. "

https://nysmusic.com/2022/03/12/motowns-top-songwriter-dozier-shares-his-creative-struggles-and-secrets/

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 13:28 (one year ago) link

Working off of a Wikipedia list of Dozier's songwriting credits, I made an Apple Music playlist. Not everything is here--Chairmen of the Board's catalogue doesn't appear to be available at the moment, and a few of the Dozier solo albums are missing--but 178 songs in 10 hours.

https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/lamont-dozier/pl.u-b3b8Y08syvb467

Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 9 August 2022 20:02 (one year ago) link

Man this tops any of the songwriting stories in the Eagles thread, including the fake ones posted as a joke:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/arts/music/lamont-dozier-dead.html

And sometimes Mr. Dozier uttered a real-life sentence that worked in song, as he did one night when he was in a Detroit motel with a girlfriend and a different girlfriend started pounding on the door. He pleaded with the interloper, “Stop, in the name of love” — and then realized the potency of what he had said. The Holland-Dozier-Holland team quickly hammered the sentence into a three-minute single, the Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love.”

birdistheword, Wednesday, 10 August 2022 00:03 (one year ago) link

That's great, up there with David Porter shouting "Hold on, I'm comin'" at Issac Hayes when he tried to get him out of the restroom at Stax.

I like this about Dozier's childhood:

It is his first unrequited crush at age 10 with an Italian-American classmate named Bernadette that connects him to his romantic soul and the need to express his emotions in words.  This inspires him to write a poem which wins a school contest, then to write his first song at age 12.  His skill with words is appreciated by the boys at his school who will hire him to write love and/or apology letters to their girlfriends (50 cents apiece) and even to impersonate them in phone calls ($1 each).  By high school, he is writing lyrics on his brown paper lunch bags. By 15, he has dropped out and begun to pursue a career in music, landing a small deal with Atlantic Records as a part of a vocal group called The Romeos. 
<a href="https://nysmusic.com/2022/03/12/motowns-top-songwriter-dozier-shares-his-creative-struggles-and-secrets/";>Read more at NYS Music... </a>

curmudgeon, Friday, 12 August 2022 13:53 (one year ago) link

I was wondering when that Bernadette story would come up again. I seem to remember it as the punchline to a Mojo profile or something, which ended "And her name? Bernadette."

My Little Red Buchla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 August 2022 14:04 (one year ago) link

xp That's pretty awesome. I can imagine one of the unknowing recipients of his letters listening to the radio years later and being like "HEY! That's what so-and-so wrote ME!"

birdistheword, Friday, 12 August 2022 15:46 (one year ago) link

Going through my Dozier playlist, I don't think I'd ever heard this one before. Pretty cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKkGKLQoKrY

Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Friday, 19 August 2022 19:25 (one year ago) link


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