Eddie Holland, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier
Personal Information
Born Eddie Holland on October 30, 1939, in Detroit, MI; born Brian Holland on February 15, 1941, in Detroit, MI; born Lamont Dozier on June 16, 1941, in Detroit, MI; Dozier: married Barbara; children: Beau, Paris, Desiree.
Career
Motown Records, songwriters and producers, 1962-68; Hot Wax Records and Invictus Records, owners and producers, 1969-74; Music Merchant Records, owners and producers, 1972-73, 1984-.
Life's Work
To music fans throughout the world, the sounds produced by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland are instantly recognizable. Better known as Holland-Dozier-Holland (H-D-H), the trio became the most successful songwriting and production team at Motown Records, with 25 top ten pop hits between 1963 and 1968. Classic works from their years at Motown include songs such as the Supremes' number-one hits "Where Did Our Love Go?," "Baby Love," and "Stop! In the Name of Love;" the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself" and "Reach Out, I'll Be There;" and Martha and the Vandellas' "Nowhere to Run" and "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave." After a bitter parting with Motown in 1968, H-D-H established their own record company, Hot Wax Records, and continued their string of successes in the late-1960s and early-1970s with hits by Freda Payne, Honey Cone, and the Chairmen of the Board. Lamont Dozier concentrated on his own recording career throughout most of the 1970s, but the trio reestablished H-D-H Records in 1984 to continue their partnership and supervise the top ten hits as a songwriting and producing team.
All three members of H-D-H were born and raised in the Detroit, Michigan. Eddie Holland, the oldest of the trio, was born on October 30, 1939; his younger brother, Brian, arrived on February 15, 1941. Lamont Dozier was born on June 16, 1941. Although the Hollands did not know Dozier while they were growing up, their musical interests and talents would eventually bring them together at Motown Records. Both Holland brothers were singers, although Eddie was considered to be the more talented vocalist of the two. By the late-1950s Eddie had started a recording career with a series of singles produced by Berry Gordy, Jr., including "You," released on Mercury Records in 1958, and "Merry Go Round," released on United Artists in 1959. However, Eddie's singles did not make much of an impact on the national charts. Brian, who had performed around Detroit with the Satintones in the 1950s, did not do much better than his brother with his 1958 single, "Shock," produced by Gordy and released on Kudo Records to little attention. Eddie was signed to Gordy's Motown Records in 1961 and eventually had one hit, "Jamie," that made the pop top thirty in 1962. It was his only release as a recording artist to make the national charts.
Lamont Dozier had a similar false start in the music business as a recording artist. A longtime fan of gospel, doo-wop, and rock and roll music, Dozier had played in his church as a child and joined the Romeos, a vocal group, in his early teens. The Romeos released one track on Atco Records, "Fine Fine Baby," which made the national R&B charts in 1957, before breaking up. Dozier left Detroit's Northwestern High School before graduating, and performed with the Voicemasters, another Detroit vocal group, for the next few years. He recorded under the name Lamont Anthony on a record label started by Berry Gordy's sister, Anna Gordy, but "Let's Talk It Over," released in 1961, and "Just To Be Loved," released the following year, failed to hit the charts.
It is not clear exactly when Dozier met the Holland brothers, but their paths certainly crossed at some point in the vibrant Detroit music scene of the 1950s. Places such as the Graystone Ballroom, 20 Grand Ballroom, and Flame Show Bar hosted the best R&B talent of the era and also gave local musicians the chance to perform for a supportive yet discerning crowd. That same support for local talent carried into Motown Records, established by Berry Gordy, Jr. with a loan from his family in 1958. While Gordy kept a tight reign on the company's finances, he encouraged its singers, producers, arrangers, and artists to collaborate, improvise, and experiment on each new release. Indeed, H-D-H's evolution into a songwriting and producing team reflected the creative freedom of Motown's operations. The trio first worked together to write "Dearest One," a song recorded by Lamont Dozier on Motown's Mel-O-Dy subsidiary in 1962. The following year, Dozier and Eddie Holland recorded another single for Motown, "What Goes Up Must Come Down." Neither release was a success, and in 1963 the Holland brothers and Dozier began to focus on producing records for other artists.
Brian Holland had already had some success as a producer at Motown. As coproducer and coauthor of the Marvelettes's "Please Mr. Postman" in 1962, he had worked on the first number one record that the label had produced. The first track penned and produced by H-D-H to hit the pop charts was "Come and Get These Memories," performed by Martha and the Vandellas. The song hit the top thirty in the summer of 1963. The group had an even bigger hit later that year with the H-D-H song "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave," which hit the Ttp five. H-D-H also produced the top ten hits "Dancing in the Street," "Nowhere to Run," and "Jimmy Mack" for Martha and the Vandellas. Each of the records typified the Motown Sound--or "The Sound of Young America," as the label on its records stated--with clear vocal arrangements, clever (usually romantic) lyrics, and an R&B sound accompanied by increasingly symphonic touches such as violins or, later on, electronic instruments.
H-D-H worked with many of the leading acts at Motown, including Marvin Gaye on "Can I Get a Witness?," the Miracles on "Mickey's Monkey," and the Four Tops on "Baby, I Need Your Loving" and "I Can't Help Myself." But the trio became best known for its work with the Supremes. Signed to Motown in 1961 while its members were still in high school, the group was first known as the "No-Hit Supremes" for its string of failed releases. After teaming with H-D-H for the late 1963 release "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes," the Supremes went on to have five consecutive number-one records between August of 1964 and June of 1965: "Where Did Our Love Go?," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "Back In My Arms Again." The Supremes took the H-D-H tracks "I Hear a Symphony," "You Can't Hurry Love," "You Keep Me Hangin' On," "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone," and "The Happening" to the top of the charts as well.
In her 1994 memoir, Secrets of a Sparrow, Supremes lead singer Diana Ross described the dynamic of working with H-D-H at Motown: "Brian Holland had a strong gospel sense, and he was the one who worked out the part for the lead singer. Lamont Dozier was in charge of the harmonies and the background sounds, the music that goes beneath the lead to support her. And Eddie Holland created the performance level. Together they made an incredible triangle, just as the three of us [Supremes] did. Holland-Dozier-Holland became our main songwriters, and it was yet another great blend, another example of synergy that was a piece of the magic that was Motown at the time." In addition to their songwriting and producing duties, by 1967 Eddie Holland was in charge of Motown's artist and repertoire department while Brian led the label's quality control section.
In late 1967, after a series of discussions to get better compensation from the label, H-D-H stopped submitting songs for Motown artists to record. By early 1968, after Gordy refused to meet their terms for a new contract, H-D-H had left the label altogether. Alarmed at their departure, Gordy sued the team for breach of contract and stopped them from writing or producing for any other record company. Although Gordy later claimed that the lawsuit was merely a ploy to bring H-D-H back into the Motown fold, it was two years before the legal action was settled. In the meantime, the former Motown employees were busy launching their own record labels, Hot Wax and Invictus Records. It was not until 1970 that the labels could release material without fear of legal reprisal from Gordy; their first releases included the top five hits "Give Me Just a Little More Time" by the Chairmen of the Board, "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne in 1970, and "Want Ads," a number-one hit for Honey Cone in 1971. H-D-H formed another label in 1972, Music Merchant Records, but the imprint folded after just one year.
In 1974 Dozier took a break from his full-time partnership with the Holland brothers to revive his solo recording career. Throughout the rest of the decade he released a string of albums that proved to be more successful with critics than with the record-buying public. In 1988 he received a Grammy award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television for "Two Hearts," cowritten with Phil Collins. Dozier also received a Grammy nomination in 2002 for Best Traditional R&B album for An American Original. Living in Encino, California, with his wife, Barbara, and their three children, sons Beau and Paris and daughter Desiree, Dozier continued to write and produce for artists such as Eric Clapton and Alison Moyet throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The Holland brothers were not as active in the music business as Dozier, but in 1984 H-D-H officially re-formed their partnership and revived the Music Merchant label to oversee their back catalogue of work and develop a new roster of talent. H-D-H also reestablished a working relationship with Motown Records and reconciled with Berry Gordy. In 1997 Brian Holland, by now living in Las Vegas, made headlines for his troubles with the Internal Revenue Service over unpaid back taxes. The Holland Brothers also made financial news for their 1998 plan to sell bonds to the public backed by future royalty earnings from their back catalogue. The plan was estimated to be worth $30 million but ran into problems when the Holland brothers sued the management company in 2001 over a breach of contract.
During their career together, H-D-H wrote more than 200 songs, including 70 top ten pop hits and 20 number-one singles. In 1990 Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1998 they received the Trustees Grammy Award from the Recording Industry Academy of Arts and Sciences for their career accomplishments.
Awards
Trustees Grammy Award, Recording Industry Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1998; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction, 1990; Dozier: Grammy Award, Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, for "Two Hearts," 1988.
Works
Selected discography
- Lamont Dozier
- Out Here on My Own, ABC Records, 1974.
- Black Bach, ABC Records, 1975.
- Love and Beauty, Invictus Records, 1975.
- Right There, Warner Records, 1976.
- Peddlin' Music on the Side, Warner Records, 1977.
- Bittersweet, Warner Records, 1979.
- Lamont, M&M Records, 1981.
- Bigger than Life, Demon Records, 1983.
- Inside Seduction, Atlantic Records, 1991.
- Soul Man, Castle Records, 2002.
- An American Original, D-Flawless Records, 2002.
- Eddie Holland
- Eddie Holland, VIP Records, 1962.
Further Reading
Books
- Bianco, David, Heat Wave: The Motown Fact Book, Pieran Press, 1988.
- George, Nelson, Where Did Our Love Go?: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound, St. Martin's Press, 1985.
- Gordy, Jr., Berry, To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown, Warner Books, 1994.
- Singleton, Raynoma Gordy, Berry, Me, and Motown: The Untold Story, Contemporary Books, 1990.
- Smith, Suzanne, Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit, Harvard University Press, 1999.
- Whitburn, Joel, The Billboard Book of Top Forty Hits, Billboard Publications, 1996.
- Billboard, August 11, 2001, p. 8; February 2, 2002, p. 43; March 2, 2002, p. 1.
- Detroit News, November 6, 1999.
- Jet, April 27, 1998, p. 62.
- Las Vegas Business Press, December 15, 1997, p. 14.
- All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com
- Holland-Dozier-Holland Official Website http://www.hollanddozierholland.com
- Lamont Dozier Official Website, http://www.lamontdozier.com
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, http://www.rockhall.com
— Timothy Borden
