Post by Motorcity on Oct 26, 2008 15:17:05 GMT -5
Norman Whitfield: composer who shaped the Motown sound
It is not an exaggeration to describe Norman Whitfield as black music’s answer to Phil Spector. In the mid- 1960s both men transformed a simple musical form and took it to previously unimagined heights of sophistication and ambition. In Spector’s case his vehicle was teenage pop; Whitfield’s was the soul music of Motown.
As a songwriter and producer he took the label’s irresistible but formulaic four-to-the-floor dance beat and crafted from it expansive masterpieces for the likes of the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Edwin Starr, adding an edgier, textured depth to the sweet melodies that characterised the early Motown sound and augmenting the routine teen lyrics of the time with social and political themes.
Among his greatest songs, many of them written with his friend Barrett Strong, were I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, Ain’t too Proud to Beg, Cloud Nine, War and Smiling Faces Sometimes.
Like Spector, he was a demanding and sometimes overbearing figure in the studio who on occasion reduced his artists to tears. But it was not malice, it was merely that he had a musical vision which he defended fiercely; nothing was to be allowed to get in the way of the sound he wanted from his musicians. He left Motown in the 1970s to form his own label and enjoyed Grammy-winning success with the group Rose Royce and the soundtrack to the film Car Wash.
Norman Jesse Whitfield was born in Harlem, New York, in 1940; in his teens he moved to Detroit with his family. The choice of that city was possibly accidental: according to musical folklore, his father’s car broke down there and while it was being repaired, a sister already living in the city suggested that he stay and work in her husband’s drug store.
Whitfield ran wild for a time, hustling in pool halls, but he also played with a Detroit band, the Mohawks, and hung around the Motown studio and offices. The label’s owner, Berry Gordy, took an interest in him and offered him a job. Initially, he worked as a junior member of the label’s quality control team, which met weekly to judge which songs were good enough to be recorded by Motown artists. Whitfield soon decided that he could do better than many of the songs on offer and began his career as a composer in 1962 by co-writing Pride & Joy with Marvin Gaye, although he was not invited to produce the record.
He followed with Too Many Fish in the Sea for the Marvelettes and He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’ for the Velvelettes. Both were co-written with Eddie Holland, from Motown’s prolific hit-writing trio of Holland, his brother Brian and Lamont Dozier, but by now Whitfield was also sitting in the producer’s chair. Both singles charted in 1964 and the Velvelettes song was also a big hit in 1982 for the British girl group Bananarama.
Even more significant was his first teaming that year with the Temptations on Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue). It was the first of a string of hits he went on to write and produce for the vocal group, but not before he had won an internal battle with the Temptations’ original writer and producer, Smokey Robinson. After Girl, he had to wait two years before the group recorded one of his songs again, with Ain’t too Proud to Beg in 1966.
This single was a turning point for Motown and the group as his production sound was much harder edged than Robinson’s smoother style. Record-buyers liked the change. Ain’t too Proud to Beg topped the R&B charts and made the Top 20, and Whitfield was installed as the Temptations’ first-choice songwriter and producer. Before the year was out, they had two further hits, Beauty Is Only Skin Deep and (I Know) I’m Losing You.
In 1967 came I Wish It Would Rain, the first Temptations hit co-written by Whitfield with Barrett Strong. The following year the pair wrote Cloud Nine for the group, creating a new, psychedelic kind of soul, with Whitfield adding sound effects and experimental studio techniques, much influenced by Sly & the Family Stone.
The record earned Motown what was, surprisingly, its first Grammy award, and a quartet of Temptations hits in similar style followed: Runaway Child Running Wild and I Can’t Get Next to You (1969), and Psychedelic Shack and Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today) (1970). Whitfield’s magic touch with the group continued into the new decade with Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) (1971) and Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone (1972).
But although the Temptations became Whitfield’s main charge — he clocked up 19 hits with the group between 1964 and 1973 — they were not his sole outlet. In 1967 he produced I Heard It Through the Grapevine, co-written with Strong and initially recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips. Their version was the bestselling Motown single so far, but its sales were bettered a year later when Gaye recorded the song. Whitfield and Strong then co-wrote Gaye’s fine follow-up, Too Busy Thinking About My Baby (1969), before taking Motown into new and controversial territory in 1970 with the anti-Vietnam protest War.
Whitfield initially recorded the song with the Temptations but Gordy — who had long refused to allow his artists to express overtly political sentiments — feared that it would alienate conservative-minded fans and refused to allow its release as a single. But he could not deny the potency of the composition and compromised by allowing the song to be re-recorded by the lesser-known Edwin Starr. With a full-on Whitfield production featuring electric guitars, clavinets and a wonderfully syncopated funk rhythm, the record went to Number One and to this day remains one of the most powerful protest songs of recent times; it was covered by Bruce Springsteen among others.
As Whitfield’s productions began to place more and more emphasis on funky instrumentation and experimental production techniques, the Temptations — whose primary emphasis had always been on the vocals — became less suited to his style, and he went on to record hits with new groups such as the Undisputed Truth and Rare Earth.
In 1972 Gordy relocated Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles, and Whitfield left the label. The following year he launched his own Whitfield Records, taking with him the Undisputed Truth. His greatest post- Motown success came with Rose Royce, made up of former members of Edwin Starr’s backing band; it topped the charts in 1976 with the single Car Wash, taken from the film of the same name. Whitfield’s soundtrack for the film won him a Grammy for best score the following year.
In the 1980s he briefly worked for Motown again, most notably on the Temptations’ 1983 hit Sail Away. In later years he disappeared from the music scene but his achievements were recognised in 2004 when he and Strong were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He returned to the headlines again less happily the following year when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and avoided imprisonment only because of severe health problems.
Whitfield is survived by four sons and a daughter.
Norman Whitfield, producer and songwriter, was born on May 12, 1940. He died on September 16, 2008 from complications of diabetes, aged 68
It is not an exaggeration to describe Norman Whitfield as black music’s answer to Phil Spector. In the mid- 1960s both men transformed a simple musical form and took it to previously unimagined heights of sophistication and ambition. In Spector’s case his vehicle was teenage pop; Whitfield’s was the soul music of Motown.
As a songwriter and producer he took the label’s irresistible but formulaic four-to-the-floor dance beat and crafted from it expansive masterpieces for the likes of the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Edwin Starr, adding an edgier, textured depth to the sweet melodies that characterised the early Motown sound and augmenting the routine teen lyrics of the time with social and political themes.
Among his greatest songs, many of them written with his friend Barrett Strong, were I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, Ain’t too Proud to Beg, Cloud Nine, War and Smiling Faces Sometimes.
Like Spector, he was a demanding and sometimes overbearing figure in the studio who on occasion reduced his artists to tears. But it was not malice, it was merely that he had a musical vision which he defended fiercely; nothing was to be allowed to get in the way of the sound he wanted from his musicians. He left Motown in the 1970s to form his own label and enjoyed Grammy-winning success with the group Rose Royce and the soundtrack to the film Car Wash.
Norman Jesse Whitfield was born in Harlem, New York, in 1940; in his teens he moved to Detroit with his family. The choice of that city was possibly accidental: according to musical folklore, his father’s car broke down there and while it was being repaired, a sister already living in the city suggested that he stay and work in her husband’s drug store.
Whitfield ran wild for a time, hustling in pool halls, but he also played with a Detroit band, the Mohawks, and hung around the Motown studio and offices. The label’s owner, Berry Gordy, took an interest in him and offered him a job. Initially, he worked as a junior member of the label’s quality control team, which met weekly to judge which songs were good enough to be recorded by Motown artists. Whitfield soon decided that he could do better than many of the songs on offer and began his career as a composer in 1962 by co-writing Pride & Joy with Marvin Gaye, although he was not invited to produce the record.
He followed with Too Many Fish in the Sea for the Marvelettes and He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’ for the Velvelettes. Both were co-written with Eddie Holland, from Motown’s prolific hit-writing trio of Holland, his brother Brian and Lamont Dozier, but by now Whitfield was also sitting in the producer’s chair. Both singles charted in 1964 and the Velvelettes song was also a big hit in 1982 for the British girl group Bananarama.
Even more significant was his first teaming that year with the Temptations on Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue). It was the first of a string of hits he went on to write and produce for the vocal group, but not before he had won an internal battle with the Temptations’ original writer and producer, Smokey Robinson. After Girl, he had to wait two years before the group recorded one of his songs again, with Ain’t too Proud to Beg in 1966.
This single was a turning point for Motown and the group as his production sound was much harder edged than Robinson’s smoother style. Record-buyers liked the change. Ain’t too Proud to Beg topped the R&B charts and made the Top 20, and Whitfield was installed as the Temptations’ first-choice songwriter and producer. Before the year was out, they had two further hits, Beauty Is Only Skin Deep and (I Know) I’m Losing You.
In 1967 came I Wish It Would Rain, the first Temptations hit co-written by Whitfield with Barrett Strong. The following year the pair wrote Cloud Nine for the group, creating a new, psychedelic kind of soul, with Whitfield adding sound effects and experimental studio techniques, much influenced by Sly & the Family Stone.
The record earned Motown what was, surprisingly, its first Grammy award, and a quartet of Temptations hits in similar style followed: Runaway Child Running Wild and I Can’t Get Next to You (1969), and Psychedelic Shack and Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today) (1970). Whitfield’s magic touch with the group continued into the new decade with Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) (1971) and Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone (1972).
But although the Temptations became Whitfield’s main charge — he clocked up 19 hits with the group between 1964 and 1973 — they were not his sole outlet. In 1967 he produced I Heard It Through the Grapevine, co-written with Strong and initially recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips. Their version was the bestselling Motown single so far, but its sales were bettered a year later when Gaye recorded the song. Whitfield and Strong then co-wrote Gaye’s fine follow-up, Too Busy Thinking About My Baby (1969), before taking Motown into new and controversial territory in 1970 with the anti-Vietnam protest War.
Whitfield initially recorded the song with the Temptations but Gordy — who had long refused to allow his artists to express overtly political sentiments — feared that it would alienate conservative-minded fans and refused to allow its release as a single. But he could not deny the potency of the composition and compromised by allowing the song to be re-recorded by the lesser-known Edwin Starr. With a full-on Whitfield production featuring electric guitars, clavinets and a wonderfully syncopated funk rhythm, the record went to Number One and to this day remains one of the most powerful protest songs of recent times; it was covered by Bruce Springsteen among others.
As Whitfield’s productions began to place more and more emphasis on funky instrumentation and experimental production techniques, the Temptations — whose primary emphasis had always been on the vocals — became less suited to his style, and he went on to record hits with new groups such as the Undisputed Truth and Rare Earth.
In 1972 Gordy relocated Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles, and Whitfield left the label. The following year he launched his own Whitfield Records, taking with him the Undisputed Truth. His greatest post- Motown success came with Rose Royce, made up of former members of Edwin Starr’s backing band; it topped the charts in 1976 with the single Car Wash, taken from the film of the same name. Whitfield’s soundtrack for the film won him a Grammy for best score the following year.
In the 1980s he briefly worked for Motown again, most notably on the Temptations’ 1983 hit Sail Away. In later years he disappeared from the music scene but his achievements were recognised in 2004 when he and Strong were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He returned to the headlines again less happily the following year when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and avoided imprisonment only because of severe health problems.
Whitfield is survived by four sons and a daughter.
Norman Whitfield, producer and songwriter, was born on May 12, 1940. He died on September 16, 2008 from complications of diabetes, aged 68