When Berry Gordy signed me to Motown in 1962, he made it clear he didn’t want me as a singer. He wanted to take advantage of my songwriting and producing skills.”
And take advantage he did. As one third of the genius songwriting team, Holland, Dozier and Holland, who died 8 August aged 81, wrote timeless classics for The Supremes (You Can’t Hurry Love, Where Did Our Love Go), Four Tops (Reach Out I’ll Be There, I Can’t Help Myself [Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch]), Martha and the Vandellas (Heatwave, Nowhere To Run), Isley Brothers (This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You), Marvin Gaye (Can I Get A Witness, You’re A Wonderful One), and Jr Walker and the Allstars ([I’m A] Road Runner). The songs became not only signifiers of the 60s but standards as important to pop music’s fabric as the work of Lennon and McCartney and Jagger and Richards.
From the Detroit housing projects, Dozier, born 16 June 1941, was the eldest of five children. Music was a constant: his father, Willie Dozier, loved Nat King Cole and Sinatra, his uncle played boogie woogie piano, while his aunt was a trained classical concert pianist. His grandmother, meanwhile, was the choir director at the Spiritual Israel Church And Its Army Temple. It was there that he first sang before joining the Detroit vocal groups, The Romeos, and The Voice Masters. The latter were signed to Anna, Berry Gordy’s sister Gwen Gordy’s label, and it was with that label that he also recorded his debut solo single, Let’s Talk It Over, under the alias Lamont Anthony, the self-penned B-side Popeye featuring a fledgling Marvin Gaye on drums.
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WINDOWS ON THE WORLD
At the peak of their powers in the early 70s, by 1975 there were signs that Led Zeppelin were burning out, and their legendary appetite for excess, not to mention stadium-straddling, mythically charged, epically inclined hard rock, might be waning.
HI-FIDELITY?
Running a record shop is a dream for many music aficionados. Steve Burniston investigates how to run a successful one
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention
45 SHEFFIELD 45s
Continuing our celebrations of RC's 45th birthday and following on from our look at the best 45s to come out of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow, we focus on the urbanisation formerly known as Steel City: Sheffield. Close to the (Nether) Edge: Jeremy Allen
Finished Symphonies
In the late 80s, Shelleyan Orphan made rarefied, ravishing, precious (both meanings) baroque pop, all chamber quartet accompaniment and literary reference points, like an 18th century Cocteau Twins.
"BLACK BRITISH PEOPLE HAD SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT"
Breaking new ground for black music in Britain from his teenage years in Matumbi in the early 70s, Dennis Bovell went on to become one of reggae's most highly regarded producers, helping popularise lovers rock. He also played a pivotal role in post-punk's experimental incorporation of dub influences on records like The Slits' Cut and The Pop Group's Y. As new compilation, Sufferer Sounds, reaches back to his early days to compile some of his best early dub plates, Lois Wilson gets the full backstory from one of British music's most enduring forces.
FRENZY REUNITED
Swindon's finest musical export, XTC were also one of the most quietly influential British bands, setting a template for Britpop while pioneering a brand of left-field guitar pop – from herky-jerky invention to consummate craftsmanship – that has spawned many imitators.
Paperback Blighters - The books every record collector should read.
The books every record collector should read. Vinyl, you may have heard, has made a big comeback. In 2022, sales of vinyl albums surpassed compact discs (CDs) for the first time in more than three decades in terms of global revenue, racking up more than $1.2bn.
"Beware the Savage Lure/of 1984..." - David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods.
David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods. For many, 1984 remains the nadir of his Phil Collins” phase; an artistic/sartonial/tonsorial disaster area. But was it really that awful? Forty years on, Matt Phillips explores Bowie's so-called annus horribilis.
