Norman Jesse Whitfield (May 12, 1940 - September 16, 2008) is an American songwriter and producer, renowned for his work with Berry Gordy's Motown labels during the 1960s. He has been credited as one of the creators of Motown Sound and as an instrumental figure in the development of psychedelic subgenres of the late 1960s.
During his 25-year career, Whitfield co-authored and produced numerous enduring hits for various Motown artists, including "Not Too Proud to Ask", "(I Know) I Lost You", "I Heard Through Grapevine", "Cloud Nine", " I Can not Get Next to You "," War "," Ball of Confusion (That's The Current World) "," Just My Imagination (Escape With Me) "," Something Smiling Face ", and" Papa Does Rollin Stone '". Whitfield worked extensively with The Temptations as a producer and songwriter; he only produced eight of their albums between 1969 and 1973. He started his own label, Whitfield Records, in 1975, which produced the song "Car Wash" by Rose Royce. Together with his Motown lyrical collaborator, Barrett Strong, he was inducted into the Songwriter Hall of Fame in 2004. He has written or written 61 hit songs on the UK charts and 92 on the US charts. He mixes the Man Machine by the German group Kraftwerk.
Video Norman Whitfield
Early life and education
Whitfield is a native of Harlem, New York, and spends most of his adolescence in the local swimming pool hall. At the end of her teenage years, she and her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, so her father could join her sister and work in her husband's drug store chain, Barthwell Drugs. He attended Northwestern High School.
Maps Norman Whitfield
Careers
At 19, Whitfield began frequenting Motown's Hitsville USA offices for work opportunities for emerging labels. Founder Berry Gordy Jr. recognizes Whitfield's persistence and hires it for the quality control department, which determines which songs will or will not be released. Whitfield joins Motown's songwriting staff, writes Marvin Gaye's "Pride & Joy", The Marvelettes's "Too Many Fish in the Sea" and The Velvelettes's "Needle in a Haystack". He took over the role of Smokey Robinson as the main producer of The Temptations in 1966, after "Is not Too Proud to Beg" performed better than Robinson's "Get Ready" on the pop charts.
The Temptations
From 1966 to 1974, Whitfield produced almost all Temptations material, experimenting with sound effects and other production techniques. He invented the songwriting collaborator in lyricist Barrett Strong, the artist on Motown's first hit album, "Money (That's What I Want)", and wrote material for Temptations and other Motown artists like Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & amp; the Pips, both record Whitfield-produced a hit version of the Whitfield/Strong composition "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". The Gladys Knight & amp; The Pips version is Motown's best-selling single ever, but was replaced a year later by Gaye's version.
After Temptations vocalist David Ruffin was replaced by Dennis Edwards in 1968, Whitfield moved the group into a louder, darker sound that featured a mixture of psychedelic rock and funk that was heavily inspired by the work of Sly & amp; Stone Family and Funkadelic. He also began to change the subject of the songs, moving away from the love songs to the social issues of the time, such as war, poverty and politics. The first single Temptations featuring this new "psychedelic soul" style was "Cloud Nine" in late 1968, which produced Motown's first Grammy award (Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by Duo or Group). Best R & amp; B Group Performance Grammy for Whitfield and Temptations in 1973 with "Papa Was A Rollin 'Stone". B-side instrumental singles produce Whitfield Grammy with Paul Riser arranger for Best R & amp; B Instrumental Performance, and Whitfield and Strong shared the songwriter's award for Best R & amp; B Song.
"Psychedelic soul" and pause with Motown
Whitfield psychedelic soul records were produced for The Temptations and other artists such as Edwin Starr and The Undisputed Truth experimented with and renewed Motown's voice to the late 1960s. Longer songs, distorted guitars, multitracked drums, and inventive vocal arrangements became trademarks of Whitfield production, and then recordings produced by Motown's staff he trained, including Frank Wilson. But friction and antagonism grow between Whitfield and Temptation; the group hated how Whitfield put more emphasis on instrumentation than their vocals, and that he wrote fewer romantic ballads for them.
Whitfield often recorded different versions of the songs with different artists to look for hits, and did so successfully in Edwin Starr's cases, with "War" (1970, originally recorded by The Temptations), and The Undisputed Truth, with " Smiling Face Sometimes "(1971, also originally by The Temptations). "Papa Was A Rollin 'Stone" (1972) was first performed by The Undisputed Truth, before Whitfield re-recorded the song with The Temptations for an older, more definitive (and very successful) version. One of Whitfield's last big hits in Motown was Yvonne Fair's "It Should Have Been Me" (1975), a song he wrote in 1963 and recorded originally with Kim Weston.
Whitfield Records and subsequent years
In 1975, Whitfield left Motown, after moving from Detroit, to form his own label, Whitfield Records. His first act was The Undisputed Truth, which he was sure to leave Motown, followed by Rose Royce, Willie Hutch, Nytro, Mammatapee, and Junior Walker. The Undeniable Truth scored their second greatest hit in 1976 with the disco song "You Me = Love", their first single on Whitfield Records. Norman Whitfield had a great international success in 1976 with Rose Royce's "Car Wash", published on MCA Records. Rose Royce (whose members were originally backing band Edwin Starr while at Motown) went on to record three more popular albums, and had two big UK hits with "Wishing on a Star" (1977) and "Love Do not Live Here Anymore" (1978), but could never achieve the success of "Car Wash", which served as the theme song for the 1976 movie Car Wash. Soundtrack Car Wash won the 1977 Grammy Whitfield Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. He also composed the theme song for the 1977 film Which Way? done by Stargard.
In the early 1980s, Whitfield began working as a producer for Motown again, helping Temptations' 1983 hit single "Sail Away" and the soundtrack for The Last Dragon .
On January 18, 2005, Whitfield pleaded guilty to failing to report the royalty revenue he earned from 1995 to 1999 to the Internal Revenue Service. Facing charges of tax evasion over $ 2 million, he was sentenced to six months in prison and a $ 25,000 fine. He was not jailed for health problems like diabetes.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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