Father of 'psychedelic soul' Norman WHITFIELD dies
Yesterday Norman WHITFIELD (1943-2008), one of the architects of the Motown sound died.
Norman Whitfield became a staff songwriter at Motown in the early '60s.
In 1963 he enjoyed his first top-10 credit as writer of Marvin Gaye's Pride and Joy. Further successes came with songs for The Marvelettes (notably He Was Really Saying Something) .
It was with I Heard It Through The Grapevine that Whitfield first collaborated with Barrett Strong. This partnership created the so-called 'psychedelic soul' idiom, combining elements of psychedelic rock and soul/funk music. The Temptations and, later, The Undisputed Truth served as the medium for this whole new sound which yielded a succession of hits. Whitfield served as the principal producer for The Temptations from 1966 until 1974.
Watch Ma (1976) by The Undisputed Truth
Whitfield left Motown in 1975 to form his own label, Whitfield Records, which scored a smash hit with Rose Royce's Car Wash, the title song to the 1976 film that featured Richard Pryor and the Pointer Sisters.
Later his production techniques failed to keep pace with the times, and by the early '80s he was no longer a significant force in black music.
Sources
Laatste aanpassing op Thursday 18 September 2008
