SYLVIA MOY,
1938-2017

Stevie Wonder, Kem and Sony/ATV are among the many people and institutions mourning the loss of pioneering songwriter-producer Sylvia Moy, who died Saturday in Dearborn, Mich., at the age of 78.

"How do you stop loving the ones you loved for a lifetime—you don't! Sylvia Moy has made it possible to enrich my world of songs with some of the greatest lyrics," Wonder wrote in a statement to Rolling Stone. "But, not only that, she, through her participation and our co-writing those songs, helped me become a far better writer of lyrics."

A 2006 inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Moy was a Motown staff writer whose collection of hits included Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour,” “I Was Made to Love Her” and “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” Isley Brothers’ “This Old Heart of Mine” and the Marvin Gaye-Kim Weston duet “It Takes Two.”

Moy died of apparent complications from pneumonia, following a stay in Detroit's Harper University Hospital, her sister Anita Moy told the Detroit Free Press.

“We are extremely sad to hear about the death of Sylvia Moy whose songwriting played an important part in Motown’s history, including its influence on Stevie Wonder’s career,” Sony/ATV said in a statement. “Sylvia co-wrote a number of Stevie’s hit songs … [and] broke down barriers as one of Motown’s first ever female producers. Her classic songs will live on forever.”

In 1963, Motown proffered Moy a recording contract, a management contract and a songwriter's contract after Gaye and Mickey Stevenson saw her perform at Detroit's Caucus Club.

Invading a boys’ club at the label, her break came via "Uptight," which Moy co-wrote with Hank Cosby. Moy had been told Wonder would be cut from the label if he did not come up with a hit, and with no Braille transcription, Moy had to give Wonder the lyrics in his headphones while he recorded. Her work with Wonder gained her respect as a producer and songwriter among her peers at Motown.

Post-Motown, Moy started a Detroit non-profit group called Center for Creative Communications to help under-privileged youths. She also had a studio called Masterpiece Sound.

Kem tweeted, “I learned how to make records in Sylvia Moy's studio, Masterpiece Sound. Thank you. Your #legacy lives on.”