Holland-Dozier-Holland

Holland-Dozier-Holland, Motown Records’ premier songwriting-production team: Eddie Holland (b. Detroit, Oct. 30, 1939); Lamont Dozier (b. Detroit, June 16, 1941); Brian Holland (b. Detroit, Feb. 15, 1941). Lamont Dozier began singing as a child in his grandmother’s church choir, writing his first song at the age of ten. Making his recording debut with The Romeos at 15, he met Berry Gordy Jr., in 1958 and recorded as Lamont Anthony for Anna Records in 1961. Eddie Holland also met Gordy in 1958, dropping out of college to work for him and later scoring one of Motown’s first hits with “Jamie” in 1962. Brother Brian Holland collaborated on two early hits for The Mar-velettes, “Please Mr. Postman” and “Playboy.”

In 1963, Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier teamed up as a songwriting-production unit. Between 1963 and the end of 1967, H-D-H wrote and produced the majority of Motown’s hit singles, with Brian providing the music, Eddie contributing lyrics, and Lamont supplying both music and lyrics. Their hit compositions included “Heat Wave,” “Quicksand,” and “Nowhere to Run” for Martha and The Vandellas; “Mickey’s Monkey” for The Miracles; and “Can I Get a Witness,” “You’re a Wonderful One,” and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” for Marvin Gaye. Other hit compositions included “Take Me in Your Arms” for Kim Weston and “This Old Heart of Mine” for The Isley Brothers. Eddie Holland later collaborated with Norman Whitfield on several major hits for The Temptations, including “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep,” and “(I Know) I’m Losing You.”

Much of H-D-H’s finest material was reserved for The Four Tops and The Supremes. Their song hits for The Four Tops included “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” and “Bernadette.” H-D-H’s biggest success came with The Suprêmes, for whom they wrote and produced at least ten top pop and smash soul hits as well as numerous major hits. These included “”Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Come See about Me,” “Stop! in the Name of Love,” “Back in My Arms Again,” “I Hear a Symphony,” “My World Is Empty without You,” “Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ on,” and “Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone.” H-D-H extended their string of hits for the group as Diana Ross and The Suprêmes in 1967 with “Reflections” and “In and Out of Love.”

However, in late 1967, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland bitterly quit Motown to form their own record labels, Invictus and Hot Wax. A series of lawsuits ensued between Motown and H-D-H, and the team was enjoined from writing songs after May 1969. Nonetheless, they produced a number of hits in the early 1970s. Invictus crossover hits included “”Give Me Just a Little More Time,” “Pay to the Piper,” “Chairman of the Board,” and “Finder’s Keepers” by Chairmen of the Board, and “Band of Gold,” “Deeper and Deeper,” and the controversial “Bring the Boys Home” by Freda Payne. Pop and rhythm- and-blues hits on Hot Wax included “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” by 100 Proof Aged in Soul, and “Girls It Ain’t Easy,” “Want Ads,” “Stick-Up,” “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show,” and “The Day I Found Myself” by Honey Cone.

Following the out-of-court settlement of the Motown-H-D-H lawsuits in early 1972, Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier returned to active recording, scoring major soul and minor pop hits on Invictus with “Don’t Leave Me Starvin’ for Your Love” and “Why Can’t We Be Lovers,” respectively. Holland and Dozier recorded as a duo in 1973, the year the overall partnership ended, and Dozier subsequently pursued a solo recording career, achieving smash soul and major pop hits with “Trying to Hold on to My Woman” and “Fish Ain’t Biting,” and a soul smash with “Let Me Start Tonight” on ABC Records in 1974. Dozier later switched to Warner Brothers Records, then Columbia. He produced Aretha Franklin’s 1977 album Sweet Passion and wrote songs for Simply Red, Boz Scaggs, Eric Clapton, and Phil Collins during the 1980s. In 1991, he recorded Inside Seduction for Atlantic Records. Holland-Dozier-Holland were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Discography

eddie holland:Eddie Holland (1963).LA LAMONT DOZIER: Out Here on My Own (1974); Black Bach (1974); Love and Beauty (1974); Right There (1976); Peddlin’ Music on the Side (1977); Bittersweet (1978); Working on You (1981); Inside Seduction (1991).

—Brock Helander