When I was a singer for Warner/Atlantic/Cotillion Records, I only recorded one album, “Love City,” which produced and co-written by the legendary Michael Stokes, but now I..m more into writing and production…
Some artists that I have written for that you may know are: Keith Barrow, Shirley Caesar, Eddie Kendrick of the Temptations, Paul Williams of the Temptations, Posse, Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor the Vancouvers, Millie Scott, Conquest, and many others have recorded tunes of mine. I also had the pleasure of producing sessions featuring the famed Motown Funk Brothers rhythm section… Done sessions at some of Detroit’s most legendary recording studios, including The Sound Suite, United Sound, Pac 3; Super Disc, Cloudborn,Motown Studio A and The Pit. I’ve been very lucky in my associations… My first professional writing collaboration was done at Motown with a guitarist named Ricky Matthews, who later changed his name to the more memorable Rick James.
I continued to hang out at Motown, observing Norman Whitfield, James Dean and William Weatherspoon, Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Shorty Long, Ivy Hunter, Stevie Wonder and the like and honing my craft. Though not a contract writer, my tunes, were recorded there; the first being sung by Bobby Taylor (on his first solo project after leaving The Vancouvers,) with backing vocals by the Originals (‘Out in the Country’ from his set ‘Taylor Made Soul’ 1969,) and produced by Ricky Matthews, a.k.a. Rick James and co-written by Rick and my close friend, composer Roderick Harrison… On “Feel like Giving Up,” producer Eddie Kendricks is credited as co-writer on the song; however, lyrics and music for that tune were penned by me alone, (I really hate to burst any long-held beliefs with that bit of news,) and as was customary in those still early Motown days, a producer readily asked for or simply demanded a percentage of the writer royalties, thereby presenting himself as a writer of the song as well.
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