Forgotten Hits You Didn't Know Holland-Dozier-Holland Wrote for Other Icons

Three men. Three desks in a building in Detroit. And between them, across roughly five years in the 1960s, more than fifty top-ten pop and R&B hits. Brian Holland. Lamont Dozier. Eddie Holland. Most people know them for "Where Did Our Love Go," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "Reach Out I'll Be There." Tonight, twelve songs you didn't know they wrote — and the extraordinary stories behind them. "Band of Gold" went to number three in the United States and number one in the United Kingdom. Freda Payne's most commercially successful recording. Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote it. But their names are not on the record. Because of the lawsuit Berry Gordy filed against them after they left Motown in 1968, they were legally prevented from using their own names on their own compositions. They used a pseudonym: Edythe Wayne. Lamont Dozier confirmed it directly in a documented statement: "Brian and I came up with 'Band of Gold' and 'Give Me Just a Little More Time' — but we didn't put our names on 'em because we were in a lawsuit and couldn't use our names. So we used Ronnie Dunbar, who was an employee of ours, and Edith Wayne, who was a friend of the Holland family." "Give Me Just a Little More Time" — the Chairmen of the Board's biggest hit — same pseudonym, same lawsuit, same story. Number three in the United States AND the United Kingdom simultaneously in 1970. And the Funk Brothers — Motown's own legendary session band — played on the recording. The musicians who had given the Motown Sound its sonic identity followed H-D-H to their new label and played on the records that were now competing with Berry Gordy's organization. "Want Ads" by the Honey Cone went to number one on the Hot 100 AND number one on the R&B chart simultaneously. One of only a handful of recordings by an all-female Black group to top the pop chart in that era. Written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland. Credit given to Edythe Wayne. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by the Supremes went to number one in 1966. Vanilla Fudge took a cover to number six in 1968. Then Kim Wilde recorded it in 1986, took it to number one in the United States in 1987 — twenty-one years after the original — and nobody connected it back to three men from Detroit who wrote it the same year they were preparing to walk out of Motown forever. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" was written in approximately twenty minutes. Holland-Dozier-Holland sat down, heard Levi Stubbs' voice in their minds, and wrote one of the most recognizable songs in the history of American popular music before the session was over. #HollandDozierHolland #HDH #MotownHistory #BandOfGold #FredaPayne #WantAds #HoneyCone #EdytheWayne #GiveMe JustALittleMoreTime #YouKeepMeHanginOn #Supremes #HeatWave #MarthaVandellas #ICanTHelpMyself #FourTops #MarvinGaye #BlackMusicHistory #SongwritingHistory #MusicHistory #MusicFacts