Holland–Dozier–Holland is a songwriting and production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr. They are considered to be one of the greatest songwriting teams in popular music. The trio wrote, arranged and produced many songs that helped define the Motown sound in the 1960s.
During their tenure at Motown from 1962 to 1967, Dozier and Brian Holland were the composers and producers for each song, and Eddie Holland wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocals. When the trio left Motown, they continued to work as a production team (with Eddie Holland being added to the producer credits), and as a songwriting team until about 1974. The trio was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988[1] and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.[2] On May 13, 2003, Holland–Dozier–Holland were honored as BMI Icons at the 51st BMI Pop Awards. Longtime BMI songwriters, Brian Holland affiliated with the performing rights organization in 1960, followed by Lamont Dozier in 1961 and Eddie Holland in 1963. They have won countless BMI Awards in the past, including BMI Pop Awards and Million-Air citations.[3]
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The trio came together at Motown Records in the early 1960s. Eddie Holland had been working with Motown founder Berry Gordy prior to that label being formed; his 1958 Mercury single "You" was one of Gordy's earliest productions. Later, Eddie Holland had a career as a Motown recording artist, scoring a US Top 30 hit in 1961 with "Jamie".
Eddie's brother Brian Holland was a Motown staff songwriter who also tasted success in 1961, being a co-composer of The Marvelettes' US No. 1 "Please Mr. Postman". Dozier had been a recording artist for several labels in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the Anna label (owned by Berry Gordy's sister) and Motown subsidiary Mel-o-dy.
The three eventually teamed to create material for both themselves and other artists, but soon found they preferred being writer and producers to being performers (especially Eddie, who suffered from stage fright and retired from performing in 1964). They would write and produce scores of songs for Motown artists, including 25 Number 1 hit singles, including "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" for Martha and the Vandellas and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" for Marvin Gaye. Their most celebrated productions were singles for the Four Tops and The Supremes, including 10 out of The Supremes' 12 US No. 1 singles, such as "Baby Love", "Stop! In the Name of Love", and "You Keep Me Hangin' On".
In 1967, H-D-H, as they were familiarly called, entered into a dispute with Berry Gordy Jr. over profit-sharing and royalties. Eddie Holland had the others stage a work slowdown, and by early 1968 the trio had left the label. They started their own labels, Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records, which were modestly successful. When Motown sued for breach of contract, H-D-H countersued. The subsequent litigation was one of the longest legal battles in music industry history. Because of the lawsuit, H-D-H were forced to credit their compositions on early Invictus/Hot Wax recordings to the team of "Wayne/Dunbar". (H-D-H used the alias "Edythe Wayne" in their song-writing credits and Ron Dunbar was an employee who contributed to some songs they wrote.) The lawsuit was settled in 1977, with H-D-H paying Motown a mere several thousand dollars in damages.
Dozier left Holland–Dozier–Holland Productions, Inc. (HDHP) during the early 1970s to resume his career as a solo performing artist. From the mid-1970s onwards, HDHP, with Harold Beatty replacing Dozier, wrote and produced songs for a number of artists. Curiously, HDHP worked on material for Motown artists in the '70s, including The Supremes and Michael Jackson, even while its litigation against the company was still pending. Lamont Dozier commented in 2008, "The lawsuit was just our way of taking care of business that needed to be taken care of—just like Berry Gordy had to take care of his business which resulted in the lawsuit. Business is business, love is love."[4]
Lamont Dozier has his own production company and continues to work as a solo artist, producer and recording artist, while the Holland Brothers own HDH Records and Productions (without any participation from Lamont Dozier), which issues recordings from the Invictus and Hot Wax catalogs as well as new material.
Holland–Dozier–Holland threatened to sue the band Aerosmith in 1989 due to the resemblance of parts of the song "The Other Side" (from the album Pump) to the Holland–Dozier–Holland song "Standing in the Shadows of Love". To forestall litigation, Aerosmith agreed to add Holland–Dozier–Holland to the songwriting credits in the album's liner notes.
Holland–Dozier–Holland are mentioned (along with the Four Tops and their vocalist Levi Stubbs, as well as Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong) in the lyrics of the song "Levi Stubbs' Tears" from the 1986 Billy Bragg album Talking with the Taxman about Poetry; and also in the lyrics of The Magnetic Fields' song "The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure", from their 1999 album 69 Love Songs.
In June 2010, Holland–Dozier–Holland were inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame.[5]
For a "one-time only reunion", the three composed the score for the musical production of The First Wives Club, based on the novel by Olivia Goldsmith and a later hit film. The musical included 22 new songs from the songwriting trio. The musical was produced by Paul Lambert and Jonas Neilson and premiered in July 2009 at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego.[6] The San Diego production sold approximately 29,000 tickets in its five-week run. Ticket demand was so strong early on that The Old Globe extended its run (originally four weeks) prior to opening night. A new director will be coming aboard to rework the show before taking it to Broadway.
| Year | Song title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | "We're Almost There" | Michael Jackson |
| "Just a Little Bit of You" | Michael Jackson | |
| "Early Morning Love" | The Supremes | |
| "Where Do I Go from Here" | The Supremes | |
| 1976 | "I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do the Walking" | The Supremes |
| "High Energy" | The Supremes | |
| "Let Yourself Go" | The Supremes | |
| 1982 | "We Can Never Light That Old Flame Again" | Diana Ross |
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