Sunday Funk Brothers Soul Feast at the 2023 Birthday of Motown Legend Mister Lamont Dozier
by Robert Wilkinson
Closing our musical weekend, today we send up a huge happy and merry to the great Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier (June 16, 1941 - August 8, 2022). Along with Brian Holland (February 15, 1941) and his brother Eddie Holland (October 30, 1939), these guys made Motown into Hitsville USA!
Between the early writing and production of Smokey Robinson, and the later era of psychedelic soul of Norman Whitfield, Motown had one of the best songwriting teams in history. Lamont Dozier, along with Brian Holland and Eddie Holland co-wrote and/or produced 14 US Billboard #1 hits and 4 number ones in the UK as part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team at Motown. Lamont and Brian were the team's musical arrangers and producers. This awesome talent has written or co-written 145 hits in US and 78 in the UK, and many of the greatest of the greats rode his hits to the top of the charts!
He wrote some of the greatest tunes in history, so kick back and enjoy the best of Motown! Of course, there are many more than these, but I figure there’s no way to get all of them in! I also chose to give you the originals, and not the many different versions done of all of these by different bands throughout history. "You Keep Me Hanging On" has been done by so many acts it would have taken the entire tribute!
Speaking of that song, let’s begin with the Supremes, who got off to a quick start in 1963 with “When the Love Light Starts Shining Through His Eyes” (#23 pop, #2 R&B)
Then in 1964, Holland-Dozier-Holland began a run of 10 #1 pop hits with this Supremes’ smash hit "Where Did Our Love Go"
We continue the string of 1964 #1s with “Baby Love” and “Come See About Me.”
From 1965, “Stop in the Name of Love”
From Feb 1966 on The Ed Sullivan Show, “My World Is Empty Without You Babe”
From 1966 on The Ed Sullivan Show “You Can’t Hurry Love”
This only made it to #9 on the charts, but it made it to the Top 100 Girl Group songs of all time! This rocks as hard as anything Motown ever did! Live on stage, here's "Love Is Like An-Itching in my Heart." Here's the studio version of "Love Is Like An-Itching in my Heart."
1963, 1964, 1965, and 1966 was good to the team! Here’s what the team came up with for Marvelous Marvin Gaye! From 1963, “Can I Get A Witness” and from 1964, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”
The team also wrote some great hits for Martha and the Vandellas!
Live at the Apollo in 1963, a great audio of “Come And Get These Memories" (#6 R&B), which we’ll follow with a rare live clip from 1966 of “Come And Get These Memories"
Of course, this was their biggest! "Heatwave" (#1 R&B, #4 pop).
Here’s a clip featuring the Funk Brothers who backed the original tune recorded at Hitsville USA. It’s a 2002 performance by Joan Osborne backed by the Funk Brothers, and the music begins about 50 seconds in. This song is still one of the best of the best! “Heat Wave”
Live in Detroit in 1964 for the Motortown Revue, here’s a great audio only track of Martha and the Vandellas doing their hit “Quicksand” (#8 pop)
From 1965 on Ready Steady Go, a great live performance of “Nowhere to Run”
Here’s a 1965 video set in a Detroit car factory with Martha and the Vandellas lip synching to “Nowhere to Run,” and here’s a live undated video of “Nowhere to Run”
From 1967 on Shebang!, “Jimmy Mack”
Eddie, his brother, and Lamont Dozier created some HUGE hits for the Four Tops!
Here's one of the greatest tunes the Four Tops ever did! This is a great performance clip from 1967, truly live on television, and fantastic! “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)”
Also from 1967 in Paris, the Four Tops cranking out a great live performance of “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” and from that same gig, cranking out their third hit “Same Old Song.”
Here’s the original studio version, backing a Four Tops 1966 television lip-synched performance, of their first hit from way back when, the smooth soul sound of “Baby I Need Your Lovin’” And from TV Oz in 1993, the Four Tops very live and in the groove, offering up “Baby I Need Your Lovin’”
Here’s a GREAT live performance to a backing track of their 1965 smash hit "Something About You Baby." Here's another great television appearance on Hullabaloo in 1965 also performed to a backing instrumental track! For your stomping pleasure, "Something About You Baby." (Last year I had a great 4+ minute clip of Smokey and Duke talking about this magnificent soul masterpiece called “The making of "Something About You Baby" but this year it’s disappeared.)
In 1970 Swinging London, this is live! Their second hit was all over the airwaves, and we knew something big was happening! “Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”
Live on b/w television in 1967, “Standing In The Shadows of Love.” And from their legendary concert in Paris in 1967, Levi shows he’s one of the hardest working men in show biz! “Standing In The Shadows of Love.”
More 1967 television with Levi and the boys singing to a backing track offering up “Bernadette”
We'll close the 4 Tops section with a great live performance from Paris in 1967! They were truly at their peak! For your enjoyment, "Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)"
We’ll end our tribute with a few more Holland-Dozier-Holland hits from other acts! First, the Isley Brothers cranking out “This Old Heart of Mine.”
We now go back to the beginning! Here Eddie performs an early hit! “Leaving Here”
The Who picked up the song in their “Maximum R&B” period and performed it on their Live at the BBC sessions! “Leaving Here"
We’ll segue into his huge hit for the Marvelettes, “Too Many Fish In The Sea” Here’s Mitch Ryder’s version of “Too Many Fish In The Sea”
The team hit big with this one written for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles! Live in London at the “The Sound of Motown” tv show in 1965, Smokey and the Miracles crank up the infinitely danceable “Mickey’s Monkey.” Their 1965 Ready Steady Go performance is gone, so instead, here’s the studio original of “Mickey’s Monkey.”
While Smokey’s version, well, smoked, the Rascals cranked out their own exciting version! A true raveup, their performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 was kinetic! “Mickey’s Monkey.” Here’s their studio version of “Mickey’s Monkey/Love Lightsn” and for the last one, we now fast forward to the Greek Theater in LA in October 2013 for a reunited Rascals doing what they do best, and sounding great! “Mickey’s Monkey”
After the team left Motown, Lamont recorded a few both on his own and with others!
It’s back! Here’s the entire 1973 album Out Here On My Own
From that album, “I’m Just Trying to Hold On To My Woman” (#15 pop, #4 R&B)
In 1977, Lamont gave us a 10 minute masterpiece, “Going to my Roots”
Here’s his full 1975 album Black Bach
For our closer, in 1988 Lamont teamed up with Phil Collins to write and produce this Grammy and Golden Globe-winning hit for the movie Buster, “Two Hearts”
For our encore, also from that soundtrack, they also wrote and produced this magic for the Four Tops! “Loco in Acapulco”
For our second encore, a full hour and 11 concert! The Temptations and Four Tops Live in London - 1988
Someone hijacked his website, so from a different site, some biography on this amazing writer! “Lamont Dozier”
Happy Birthday, beautiful Soul Brother Lamont Dozier! Your music is part of the great American songbook. Not a bad gig for a guy from Detroit!
© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson
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