Unfortunately, this album marks when things started to fall apart for this songwriter team. But even though that's the case, there's plenty of excellent music here.
As I mentioned in the write-up for Volume Six in this series, Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1968, where they'd experienced great success, and started their own record companies, Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records. They were somewhat successful for a time. They even had some big hits that weren't written or produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland, especially "Want Ads" by Honey Cone, which was a Number One hit in the U.S. in 1971. (I'm not including songs like that, in which none of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team was credited as songwriters.)
However, troubles grew as the 1970s went on. One really big blow was that Lamont Dozier broke up from the Holland Brothers in 1973. There were several reasons. One was that the Holland Brothers were very difficult to deal with, as even they would admit. They often got in shouting matches, especially with each other. Also, Dozier was upset with their decision making in running the record companies. In particular, they had an opportunity to sign Al Green around 1972, after he was already an established star, but decided against it. What a missed chance, to have Green sing Holland-Dozier-Holland songs, on top of all the hits he was writing for himself. Around that same time, they also turned down an opportunity to sign Parliament / Fundadelic long term, after releasing their first album in 1970. That was another tragic mistake, since that band would be very successful for the rest of the 1970s.
But on top of all that, Dozier was tired of just being a songwriter, producer, and record company executive. He felt he had it in him to be a successful performer too, especially since he'd dabbled with that in the early 1960s. He first tested the waters with some singles released as "Holland-Dozier" or "Holland and Dozier" - a partnership between himself and Brian Holland. When these proved relatively successful, he started putting out songs on his own. I've included two Holland and Dozier performances here, as well as two Dozier ones.
Unfortunately though, the songwriting success of Holland-Dozier-Holland was declining, whether they were writing together or alone. By about 1973, they'd had about ten years as one of the most successful hit making teams of all time, and that's a long run. It's very typical for musicians to have a "golden age" and then a long, slow decline, and that's what happened to them. One of their two major record labels, Hot Wax Records, went out of business in 1973. They transferred the remaining artists signed to that label to their other label, Invictus Records, but that one wasn't fated to last much longer either.
Most of the songs here are from artists signed to either Invictus or Hot Wax, but there are some exceptions. "(I Know) I'm Losing You" was a big hit for the Temptations in 1966. It was a songwriting collaboration between Eddie Holland and Norman Whitfield. I already included the Temptations version on my Covered series for Whitfield, so I've included a 1971 version by Rod Stewart here instead. "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" was also a big hit for the Temptations in 1966, and was also a collaboration between Eddie Holland and Whitfield. I also included that on the Covered series for Whitfield. So instead I've included a 1974 version by the Rolling Stones.
I already included the Marvin Gaye version of "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" in the 1964 album in this series. But James Taylor had a very big hit with it in 1975, and did it in a drastically different way, so I decided to include it here as well. I think that song and "You Keep Me Hangin' On" are the only ones where I've included two versions in this series, even though many, many Holland-Dozier-Holland songs have been hits multiple times by different artists.
The Pearls were a British band not connected to Invictus or Hot Wax. But they had a hit in 1972 with a nice cover of "Third Finger, Left Hand," a Holland-Dozier-Holland written song that was originally a B-side for Martha and the Vandellas in 1967, so I included that here. Similarly, "Darling Baby" is a nice 1972 cover by Jackie Moore of a Holland-Dozier-Holland written song that was first released by the Elgins in 1965.
"Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)" was first released by the band 100 Proof (Aged in Soul) in 1969, and was written by Holland-Dozier-Holland. It was only a minor hit at the time for the Hot Wax label. In 1973, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones recorded a very good version of it (though it wasn't released until many years later, since he didn't have a solo career going at the time). Interestingly, it was produced by John Lennon. While Lennon didn't play on it, some other interesting musicians did, including Jack Bruce, Al Kooper, and Harry Nilsson.
"You're Gonna Need Me" by Dionne Warwick is another interesting case. Despite being stretched thin with their own record labels at the time, in 1973, Holland-Dozier-Holland took up the challenge of producing and writing all the songs for a Dionne Warwick album. This was the most successful song from that album.
This album is 54 minutes long.
01 Love Machine (McKinley Jackson & Politicians)
02 [I Know] I'm Losing You (Rod Stewart)
03 The Chairman of the Board (Chairmen of the Board)
04 Why Can't We Be Lovers (Holland-Dozier)
05 Darling Baby (Jackie Moore)
06 [The Day I Lost You Was] The Day I Found Myself (Honey Cone)
07 Third Finger, Left Hand (Pearls)
08 Working on a Building of Love (Chairmen of the Board)
09 Fish Ain't Bitin' (Lamont Dozier)
10 Too Many Cooks [Spoil the Soup] (Mick Jagger)
11 You're Gonna Need Me (Dionne Warwick)
12 New Breed Kinda Woman (Holland & Dozier)
13 Ain't Too Proud to Beg (Rolling Stones)
14 Breaking Out All Over (Lamont Dozier)
15 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (James Taylor)
https://www.upload.ee/files/17429313/COVRDHOLLNDDZRHLLND1971-1975Vlum7_atse.zip.html
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/ziVuK6F2
As with the cover of the previous album in this series, I've had to go far from the time period of the music in this album in order to find a decent picture of the songwriters. I don't know when or where this cover photo is from exactly, but judging from similar ones I've found, it could be from the 1990s or mayb early 2000s.
No comments:
Post a Comment