Lamont Dozier

Lamont Dozier was one third of the songwriting trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, known for co-writing The Four Tops, The Supremes and The Isley Brothers.

'The great Lamont Dozier. I'll never forget meeting and working with him along with the Holland Brothers in 2006. Lamont and siblings Eddie and Brian Holland would get their first string of hits with The Vandellas' 'Come and Get These Memories' and 'Heatwave' in 1963. Dozier's son, Lamont Dozier Jr, posted a picture of the pair on Instagram and wrote: 'Rest in Heavenly Peace, Dad!!!' Lamont was one third of the iconic songwriting trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, who are known for co-writing huge hits for Motown acts such as The Four Tops, The Supremes and The Isley Brothers. You definitely made this place better.' - Lamont Dozier was one third of the songwriting trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, known for co-writing The Four Tops, The Supremes and The Isley Brothers

Motown legend Lamont Dozier has died, aged 81. The song-writing genius wrote classics Baby Love and Two Hearts.

It topped the charts and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television in 1989. In 1973, Dozier parted ways with his song-writing partners and released his own music and the following decade, he and Phil Collins joined forces on a new rendition of Two Hearts for the soundtrack to the 1988 film Buster. You definitely made this place better.’

The music legend helped create hits like You Can't Hurry Love, How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) and dozens more Motown hits.

Among them were Where Did Our Love Go, Stop! In The Name of Love and You Can’t Hurry Love. His children included the songwriter-record producer Beau Dozier and composer Paris Ray Dozier. Some of Motown’s biggest hits and catchiest phrases originated from Dozier’s domestic life. My girlfriend didn’t think it was very amusing: we broke up. “The songs had to be fast because they were for teenagers – otherwise it would have been more like something for your parents. Holland-Dozier-Holland were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years later.

Lamont Dozier, the Motown songwriter behind major hits, including the Supremes' “Baby Love” and “You Keep Me Hanging On,” has died at the age of 81, ...

He founded the Romeos at age 13 and was signed to Atco Records in 1957, the hall said. "I’ll never forget meeting and working with him along with the Holland Brothers in 2006," Williams said. After the Romeos disbanded, Dozier joined the Voicemasters, a doo-wop band on Anna Records. He signed exclusively to Motown Records in 1962 as an artist, producer and songwriter, according to the hall of fame. According to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Dozier, who was born and raised in Detroit, grew up "surrounded by music as a child" and started writing lyrics and music before he was a teenager. You definitely made this place better." The Holland-Dozier-Holland team was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1888 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

As part of Holland-Dozier-Holland, he helped to create the 'Motown sound'

In the interview below, which dates from 2018, Dozier sits at the piano and talks through some of his biggest hits, including Heat Wave (Martha & The Vandellas), I Hear A Symphony (The Supremes), Bernadette (The Four Tops) and How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (Marvin Gaye). Indeed, the trio’s discography reads like a Motown greatest hits tracklist: Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love, This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You), You Can’t Hurry Love, Reach Out I’ll Be There, Nowhere To Run and many more. As one third of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting and production team, Dozier helped to create what became known as the ‘Motown sound’, crafting hits for the likes of Martha and The Vandellas, The Supremes, The Four Tops and the Isley Brothers.

As one third of a legendary songwriting and production partnership, Dozier produced a slew of indelible hits that expressed the joy and frustration of a ...

Somehow his friendships with both Berry Gordy and the Holland brothers survived the legal disputes: “Business is business,” he shrugged, “but love is love.” The ensuing litigation went on for years, and forced them to use a pseudonym – Edythe Wayne – when writing for artists on their own labels, Invicta and Hot Wax. They were, by all accounts, as determined and tough as their boss, and not above provoking the artists they worked with in order to get the best out of them. As the writer Jon Savage subsequently noted, the tense, Bob Dylan-influenced Reach Out (I’ll Be There) “offered advice and sustenance to communities … under extreme duress”. Martha and the Vandellas’ Nowhere to Run, meanwhile, presents itself as a love song but in reality was inspired by the state of America. Dozier later said its claustrophobic atmosphere had more to do with seeing tanks on the streets in the wake of riots and teenagers being shipped off to Vietnam than with romance. Each of them had started out as a performer in Detroit before being brought together by Gordy. Dozier thought they worked so well together because of their shared background in the church and a mutual love of classical music. Lamont Dozier was not a man much given to discussing the mystical art of songwriting and inspiration.

Dozier died at 81. As part of the songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland, he co-wrote dozens of hits, including "Baby Love," "Heat Wave" and "Reflections," ...

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.

Dozier was part of a team behind many of the Supremes' No 1 singles, including Baby Love and You Keep Me Hanging On. | ITV National News.

"The great Lamont Dozier. I’ll never forget meeting and working with him along with the Holland Brothers in 2006. You definitely made this place better." "Thank you for all you did for me and for the world at large.

Member of the trio who wrote and produced songs that built the Motown legend and helped define popular music in the 1960s.

After the partnership broke up in the early 70s, Dozier resumed his singing career with a series of albums that started with the pointedly titled Out Here on My Own in 1973 and Black Bach the following year. Dozier and Brian Holland had written it together at the piano, shifting the song between major and minor modes, its chant-like lines a conscious amalgam of gospel urgency with Bob Dylan’s phrasing. He was still at school when he and a group of friends formed the Romeos, harmonising in the doo-wop style and winning the $100 first prize at the Graystone Ballroom’s talent contest. After hits on the R&B charts with the Marvelettes and Martha and the Vandellas gave them initial traction, it was with Heat Wave that they found an application for the fervour of gospel within music aimed at teenagers, creating a template for the Motown sound. Drafted into the US army soon after Lamont was born, later Willie had trouble holding down a job and it was Ethel who kept the family going with her earnings from cooking and cleaning in suburban homes. Once he had struck up a working partnership with the Hollands, the trio wrote and produced million-selling songs that would help define popular music in the 1960s.

Dozier helped form the sound of Motown music in the 1960s as part of Holland, Dozier Holland.

"It was blood, sweat and tears. He's had a positive effect on so many lives. Nile Rodgers led tributes, writing: "Music composing genius.

With the brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, Mr. Dozier wrote dozens of singles that reached the pop or R&B charts, including “You Can't Hurry Love,” by the ...

“I accepted that an artist career just wasn’t in the cards for me at Motown,” Mr. Dozier wrote in 2019. “Always put the song ahead of your ego,” he wrote in his memoir. The Holland-Dozier-Holland team quickly hammered the sentence into a three-minute single, the Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love.” He pleaded with the interloper, “Stop, in the name of love” — and then realized the potency of what he had said. Mr. Dozier and Brian Holland would write the music and supervise an instrumental recording session with the Motown house band; Eddie Holland would then write lyrics to the track. In 1961, billed as Lamont Anthony, he released his first solo single, “Let’s Talk It Over” — but he preferred the flip side, “Popeye,” a song he wrote. When it came time to record vocals, Eddie Holland would guide the lead singer and Mr. Dozier would coach the backing vocalists. “It was as if we were playing the lottery and winning every time,” Mr. Dozier wrote in his autobiography, “How Sweet It Is” (2019, written with Scott B. Bomar). When the Romeos’ song “Fine Fine Baby” was released by Atco Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic, in 1957, Mr. Dozier dropped out of high school at age 16, anticipating stardom. But when Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler wanted a second single, Mr. Dozier overplayed his hand, saying the group would only make a full-length LP. He received a letter wishing him well and dropping the Romeos from the label. Mr. Dozier began collaborating with the young songwriter Brian Holland. Nelson George, in his 1985 history of Motown, “Where Did Our Love Go?” (named after another Holland-Dozier-Holland hit), described how the youthful trio had won over the label’s more experienced staff and musicians.

Lamont Dozier, the middle name of the celebrated Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote and produced “You Can't Hurry Love,” “Heat Wave” and dozens of other ...

Like so many Motown artists, Dozier was born in Detroit and raised in a family of singers and musicians. Holland-Dozier-Holland were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years later. H-D-H reunited for a stage production of “The First Wives Club,” which premiered in 2009, but their time back together was brief and unhappy. The prime of H-D-H, and of Motown, ended in 1968 amid questions and legal disputes over royalties and other issues. “All the songs started out as slow ballads, but when we were in the studio we’d pick up the tempo,” Dozier told the Guardian in 2001. “I like to call Holland-Dozier-Holland ‘tailors of music,’” he said Tuesday during a telephone interview.

He was part of a songwriting trio that churned out hit after hit in the 1960s, including “Heat Wave” and “Baby Love.”

H-D-H scored their first notable successes with “Heat Wave” in 1963 by Martha and the Vandellas and, a year later, “Where Did Our Love Go,” performed by the Supremes. A remarkable run was underway. For their own labels, the trio’s most successful work was “Why Can’t We Be Lovers” in 1972. “Everything we touched turned to gold.” “We wanted to get the same feeling of a ballad, without it being a ballad.” As part of “quality control” each Friday, H-D-H and other songwriters had to write down their songs from the week, and Gordy and other executives would vote on the ones they liked. “But it was always about love though — hot, cold or whatever,” he said. The songwriters, session musicians and others had to punch a clock. For 1965’s “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” he recalled his grandfather flirting, “a twinkle in his eye,” with local ladies in their Detroit neighborhood. But he believed he developed a sense of chord structure and power from listening to his aunt, a classical pianist, practice in Detroit when he was young. He called the Motown sound, at its best, a mix of the chord progressions of classical music and the soulful energy of gospel. In 1988, Mr. Dozier worked with British rocker Phil Collins on “Two Hearts” for the film “ Buster,” with the song earning a Grammy and an Academy Award nomination. “But I’d still listen,” he recalled in a 2015 interview.

Universal Music Publishing Group CEO and chairman Jody Gerson has paid tribute to “complete songwriter” Lamont Dozier, who has died aged 81…

The complete songwriter, his contribution to music, spanning five decades will continue to inspire and entertain for generations to come.” He was also a Grammy and Golden Globe winner. “I have long cherished my relationship with Lamont Dozier and his wife Barbara,” said Jody Gerson. “He was not only an iconic songwriter, but also a loving husband and father.

Dozier died at 81. As part of the songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland, he co-wrote dozens of hits, including "Baby Love," "Heat Wave" and "Reflections," ...

His family released a statement saying the "devoted father and legendary songwriter, producer and recording artist, died peacefully in his home on Monday, August 8. Along with Brian and Eddie Holland, Dozier co-wrote dozens hits for The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops and others. Dozier grew up in Detroit. In 2004, he told NPR it was an elementary school teacher who liked his writing and encouraged him to keep at it. Lamont Dozier "wanted to write 'a journey of emotions with sustained tension, like a bolero,'" according to The Library of Congress. "To achieve that, he 'alternated the keys, from a minor, Russian feel in the verse to a major, gospel feel in the chorus.' " "She thought it was very astute of me to have such a feel for words and stuff," Dozier said, "So I started to put these words to music by the time I was, like, 12 or 13." Songwriter Lamont Dozier has died at age 81.