LAMONT DOZIER,
1941-2022
Lamont Dozier, one-third of the songwriting and production team behind Motown’s era-defining sound, died Monday in Arizona at the age of 81.
Lamont Dozier Jr. announced his father’s death on Instagram; no cause was disclosed.
Also a singer, Lamont Dozier worked with Eddie and Brian Holland, chiefly as an arranger and producer, in creating songs for The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and others. Holland-Dozier-Holland penned 10 of The Supremes’ 12 #1 singles, including the iconic “Baby Love,” “You Keep Me Hanging On” and "Stop! In the Name of Love."
Dozier told HITS in 2003: “When I got there and teamed up with the Hollands, our purpose was to make music for all people. And the reason we got along so well is because that was their theme, too. Brian and I came from the same sort of place—gospel and classical music. We listened to a lot of Top 40 stuff. Our fathers and mothers played Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and so on. We had that feeling in us of pop bringing people together.”
The trio’s first success came quickly after they joined Motown in 1962, when they penned three songs—“Come and Get These Memories,” “Heatwave” and “Quicksand”—that became Top 10 hits for Martha and the Vandellas in 1963.
Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown to create their own labels, Invictus and Hot Wax, scoring hits with Honey Cone’s “Want Ads,” Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold,” 100 Proof (Aged in Soul)’s “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” and Flaming Ember’s “Westbound Number 9,” among others. The triumvirate, which used the songwriting pseudonym Edythe Wayne while battling Motown in court, dissolved the labels in 1977.
Dozier wrote in his autobiography: “Brian was all music, Eddie was all lyrics and I was the idea man who bridged both.”
Said Universal Music Publishing Group Chairman and CEO Jody Gerson, “I've long cherished my relationship with Lamont Dozier and his wife Barbara. He was not only an iconic songwriter but a loving husband and father. He has given the world some of the greatest songs of all time and personally, some of my favorites. He was the complete songwriter. His contribution to music, spanning five decades, will continue to inspire and entertain for generations to come.”
Dozier recorded 10 albums for multiple labels as a solo artist, scoring his biggest hit in 1974 with “Trying to Hold on to My Woman” on ABC; it went to #4 R&B/#15 Pop. His last release was 2018’s Reimagination, a collection of new versions of his Motown hits, many of them duets.
He won his lone Grammy Award for writing “Two Hearts” for Phil Collins for the 1988 film Buster. He also wrote songs for Simply Red, Alison Moyet and Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle in the 1980s.
Dozier and the Holland brothers were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
In his later years, Dozier was a teaching artist-in-residence at USC’s Thornton School of Music.
Said Stax Records songwriter/producer David Porter, “While we never got to work together, his music as part of the legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team at Motown pushed me and my writing partner, Isaac Hayes, to strive for new heights at Stax Records. Music today would not be the same without him. He will be dearly missed."
Gerry & I respected Holland Dozier Holland over at Motown. Striving to keep up with them made us better songwriters.
— Carole King (@Carole_King) August 9, 2022
Rest In Peace and power Lamont Dozier. pic.twitter.com/S5kWQ25gGj
RIP dear Lamont Dozier. 💔One of the greatest songwriters of all time. Truly privileged to have written 4 songs together- Infidelity, Suffer, Turn It Up and You’ve Got It. Rest well Soul Brother. 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/pkNnfPZgI9
— Simply Red (@SimplyRedHQ) August 9, 2022
Levi Stubbs weeps https://t.co/9Ik8tpxKmJ
— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) August 9, 2022
