Lamont Dozier is dead: Wrote numerous Motown hits with Holland

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Inspired Songwriter: Lamont Dozier

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

His name has gone down in pop history as the middle of a triad: Holland-Dozier-Holland, this songwriting team was part of the recipe for success in the 1960s with which the Detroit record label Motown Records landed hit after hit.

Along with brothers Eddie and Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier was involved in twelve number one hits on the US singles chart, sung by the Supremes and the Four Tops.

Motown was known at the time for its quasi-industrial system of manufacturing popular songs, for which label boss Berry Gordy was inspired by the assembly lines of the automobile companies that produced in Detroit.

But within the system with its instances of quality control, the creative people were given a great deal of freedom, as Dozier once said: "If we came up with something, we could always go into the studio and do whatever we wanted."

Lamont Dozier, born in Detroit in 1941, had initially tried himself as a performer under the name Lamont Anthony and also as part of a singing group called Romeos.

But Gordy saw Dozier more in a circle of songwriters and producers that he gathered around his fresh label.

The Holland brothers didn't have the charisma to be at the front of the stage either, and so in 1962 the songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland developed, Motown called "HDH" internally.

HDH wrote the first hits for the singer Martha Reeves and her Vandellas;

"Heat Wave" was the first number one hit on the R&B charts in 1963.

But Motown's aim was to break down the boundaries of what was then still a highly segregated US radio market and also to reach a predominantly white pop audience.

Holland-Dozier-Holland achieved this primarily with songs they wrote for the Diana Ross-led vocal trio The Supremes: "Where Did Our Love Go" was the first pop number one for the Supremes in 1964 and Motown, who had nine More HDH Supremes songs followed, including classics that are still popular today, such as »Baby Love«, »Stop!

In the Name of Love«, »You Can't Hurry Love« or »You Keep Me Hangin' On«.

But in the Motown system, songwriters weren't exclusive to individual acts.

Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote a series of emotionally dramatic songs for the male vocal group The Four Tops, including "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Old Song" and "Reach Out, I 'll Be There'.

Other examples of classic HDH hits from Motown's heyday include "Nowhere to Run" (Martha & the Vandellas) and "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" (The Isley Brothers).

At the end of the 1960s, Holland-Dozier-Holland demanded a greater financial stake in Motown's successes.

Label boss Berry Gordy, who was involved with plans to move to Los Angeles, found out about the cracks in the system too late and court cases ensued.

While these were pending, HDH temporarily released their compositions under a pseudonym, "Edyth Wayne."

Hits on her own Invictus label include Chairmen of the Board's "Give Me Just a Little More Time" and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold".

In 1973 Lamont Dozier left the team with the Holland brothers and now pursued a solo career as an artist.

However, his songs only reached low chart positions, if at all.

Critics were bothered by Dozier's rather thin singing voice.

In any case, Lamont Dozier was not lacking in self-confidence – one of his solo albums is entitled »Black Bach«.

After Phil Collins had had great success with a cover version of the old HDH hit "You Can't Hurry Love" in the 1980s, Collins composed the songs "Two Hearts" and "Loco in" together with Lamont Dozier for the soundtrack to the film "Buster". Acapulco«.

British singer Alison Moyet also commissioned a song from Dozier to launch her solo career, »Invisible«.

In 1990, Dozier was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the Holland brothers.

On Tuesday, a son of the musician, Lamont Dozier Jr, announced his father's death on Facebook.

Lamont Dozier was 81 years old, a cause of death was not initially known.

However, companions wrote on social media that Dozier had been ill for a long time.

Feb