Goodbye Lamont

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 hits and helped make Motown an essential record company of the 1960s and beyond, has died at age 81.

Dozier was born in Detroit and raised in a family of singers and musicians. He sang in the choir of his Baptist church and his love for words was affirmed by a grade school teacher who, he recalled, liked one of his poems so much she kept it on the blackboard for a month.

Over a four-year period, 1963-67, Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland crafted more than 25 top 10 songs and mastered the blend of pop and rhythm and blues.

Dozier’s focus was on melody and arrangements. Take a listen to the Vandellas’ backing vocals on “Nowhere To Run,” the driving guitar at the start of the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hanging On,” or the chugging gospel piano on Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get a Witness.” It’s all Dozier. My favorite is "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You), first done by Marvin Gaye (later by James Taylor).

These were all pop classics that set the stage for anyone and everyone who came through Motown and other labels. His arrangements were a journey through emotions and there will never be anything like it again.