Norman Whitfield

Norman Jesse Whitfield (* 12. May 1941 in Harlem / New York ; † 16th September 2008 in Los Angeles ) was an American Soul / Rhythm and blues - producer and songwriter who primarily for his work for Berry Gordy Motown label became known in the 1960s and 1970s.

Life

Sonnettes - I've Gotten Over You

In late 1958, he settled in Detroit and performed with some locally known R&B bands. From 1959 Whitfield got a job as a producer and songwriter at Thelma Records , named after Thelma Gordy, the wife of the later Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. Whitfield worked here with performers like the Distants (forerunners of the Temptations), whose singer Richard Street also from 1971 to 1993 was a member of the Temptations. The song Come On by the Distants featured an early combination of later Motown greats in 1959: Richard Street sang, James Jamerson played bass guitar and Norman Whitfield can be heard on the tambourine. In 1960 he wrote one of his first compositions, namely I've Gotten Over You for the Sonnettes, which, however, missed the hit parades .

Marvin Gaye - Pride and Joy

From 1961 Whitfield often stayed in the Motown Recording Studios (Detroit) , which had existed since August 1959 , to learn more about the recording and production technology. Finally, he was hired by label owner Berry Gordy Jr. in March 1962 at the sub-label Gordy Records for US $ 15 per week, where he listened to demo recordings by unknown artists and helped to decide who could be eligible for a recording contract. At the end of 1962 Whitfield began to write songs in particular. One of his early compositions was I Couldn't Cry If I Wanted To , written with Eddie Holland and sung by Eddie Holland himself in November 1962. A later cover version comes from the Temptations (B-side of I know I'm losing you , November 1966, also composed by Whitfield-Holland). Marvin Gaye took on Wherever I lay my hat for his LP That stubborn kinda 'fellow in January 1963 , which 20 years later was rediscovered as the cover of Paul Young and made it to number one in the UK charts . Whitfield's first big hit composition was Pride and Joy again for Marvin Gaye in May 1963, which reached number 10 on the US pop charts as a cross-over . After a few LP fillers for the Temptations, Needle in a Haystack for the Velvelettes followed in October 1964 and Too Many Fish in the Sea for the Marvelettes a month later .

In 1966, Whitfield was named the Temptations' lead producer and composer after his Ain't Too Proud to Beg became a bigger hit (No. 13 Pop) than Get Ready (No. 29 Pop), the latter was written and written in May 1966 produced by Smokey Robinson , who was previously responsible for the Temptations. The hit also came on the Temptations LP Gettin 'ready , released in June of that year . In the same month he wrote I Heard It Through the Grapevine for the Miracles with Barrett Strong . The song about rumors was picked up by Gladys Knight & the Pips in October 1967 and became a million seller (No. 2 in the USA). Marvin Gaye's version, released a year later, was even more successful, becoming a number one transatlantic hit. In April 1969, Gaye covered Too busy thinking about my baby (US Pop 4), which was also from the Temptations LP Gettin 'ready .

Whitfield and Strong then decided to continue working together as a songwriting team. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the Temptations were moving strongly towards psychedelic rock and funky , Whitfield and Strong wrote the hits Cloud Nine (October 1968, first Grammy ), Runaway Child running wild (January 1969), I. Can't Get Next to You (US # 1, July 1969), Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today) (May 1970), and Papa Was a Rollin 'Stone (October 1972) for the band. With the latter song in particular, Whitfield-Strong had moved away from the conventional Motown sound . On the one hand, socially critical content such as runaway children or fathers drifting around (song title) was thematized; on the other hand, the sound was characterized by orchestral intonations, mixed with canon-like voice overlays. This also applied to the anti-war hit War for Edwin Starr , which came out of the cooperation between Whitfield and Eddie Holland in July 1970 and which was to become Whitfield's greatest success. The original of this is from the Temptations album Psychedelic Shack (March 1970). In February 1973 Whitfield and Strong delivered their musical masterpiece with the LP Masterpiece for the Temptations. While long songs were already a well-established production standard for the team, the orchestration with cascading brass sections reached a level that could hardly be improved - on the verge of over-orchestration.

In 1975 Whitfield left Motown to start his own label, Whitfield Records . He produced artists such as The Undisputed Truth , Taka Boom and Rose Royce . Royce's single Car Wash (October 1976) again reached first place in the pop charts. The song was extracted from the soundtrack of the film of the same name. Whitfield received an award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival for his music for this film . The record label distributed by Warner Brothers ended its activities in 1982. The following year Whitfield returned to Motown, but could not record any particular successes. In 2005 he was convicted of tax evasion. He spent the last few months before his death in the hospital for diabetes treatment.

statistics

A total of 363 compositions are copyrighted by Broadcast Music Incorporated for Whitfield. Barrett Strong received 237 registrations, with much of the registrations overlapping and stemming from their collaboration. From 97 singles from the cooperation of Whitfield-Strong (or one of the partners with other authors) a total of 11 reached the top 10 of the charts between 1963 and 1971. Of the Motown Group's 27 number one hits , only four were attributed to the team or one of the team members.

In 2015, the Rolling Stone listed Whitfield and Strong as 46th of the 100 best songwriters of all time .

Web links

• Jonathan Fischer, On the Death of Norman Whitfields - Motown's Mastermind , Spiegel Online, September 18, 2008
• Norman Whitfield on soulwalking.co.uk

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .