Lamont Dozier: Motown hitmaker dies aged 81

Lamont Dozier

Motown hitmaker Lamont Dozier, who penned songs for The Supremes, The Four Tops and The Isley Brothers, as well as Marvin Gaye and Martha and the Vandellas, has died aged 81.

The news was confirmed by his son Lamont Dozier Jr on Instagram.

As part of the Holland, Dozier, Holland songwriting team, he had many number one records and also won Grammy awards.

Their hits include Baby Love, Nowhere to Run, How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You) and You Can’t Hurry Love.

“Rest in Heavenly Peace, Dad!” wrote his son online, alongside a picture of the two of them together.

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Dozier, along with Brian Holland, served as the musical arranger and producer, while their friend and colleague Eddie Holland focused on the lyrics and vocal production.

They shaped the famous Detroit label’s influential sound, with tracks such as This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You), Reach Out I’ll Be There and Heat Wave.

Mick Hucknall’s Simply Red, who worked with Dozier, led the tributes, describing him as “one of the greatest songwriters of all time”.

“Ah – God Bless Lamont,” offered Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. “His music will live on.”

DJ Tony Blackburn posted: “To me he was Mr Motown… thanks for writing so many brilliant songs which will be played forever.”

Grammy-nominated producer Brandon Williams thanked the late songwriter for “all you did for me and for the world at large… you definitely made this place better,” he wrote.

Songwriter Billy Bragg and DJs Dave Pearce and Lorraine King also paid their respects.

‘Ideas man’

Born in Detroit in 1941, Dozier recorded a few unsuccessful records for different local labels before teaming up with the Holland brothers as the main songwriting and production team for Berry Gordy’s Motown Records in 1962.

Speaking to The Guardian in 2015, Dozier explained their successful but often arduous songwriting process.

“We’d get there at 9am and we would sometimes work until 3am,” he said. “It was blood, sweat and tears. We pounded on the piano and put our ideas down on a little recorder and just worked and worked them out until we came up with things.”

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(Left to right) Diana Ross, Lamont Dozier (at the piano), Mary Wilson, Eddie Holland, Florence Ballard (seated) and Brian Holland in the Motown studio in Detroit in around 1965

When asked what would come first, he added: “Sometimes a basic melody, or a title.

“I was considered the ideas man. Like, I had a bassline for [the Four Tops’] I Can’t Help Myself. That phrase. ‘Sugar pie, honey bunch’ was something my grandfather used to say when I was a kid, and it just stayed with me and went in the song.

“Lots of childhood memories came back to me and I started using them as song titles.”

Dozier flanked by the Holland brothers as they received their star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2015

After his work for Motown Records, Dozier went on to be the founder and owner of Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records, producing further hits for the likes of Freda Payne, Honey Cone and Chairmen of the Board, as well as 100 Proof Aged in Soul.

Dozier, who left the songwriting trio in 1973, went on to record a number of albums as a performer himself, containing songs like Going Back to My Roots, later covered by Odyssey, and Trying to Hold on to My Woman.

He collaborated with Phil Collins on the song Two Hearts, for the movie soundtrack for Buster, which won a Grammy and a Golden Globe Award as well as an Oscar nomination.

Another English singer, Alison Moyet, had another hit with the Dozier-penned track Invisible.

Dozier and the Holland brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and later received their own stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.