Lamont Dozier achieved his greatest renown as a member of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the celebrated Motown songwriting, production, and arranging unit. The Detroit-based trio fueled the label’s commanding run atop R&B and pop charts throughout the 1960s, supplying the Supremes with consecutive number-one singles including “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” and “You Can’t Hurry Love,” while also delivering “(I Can’t Help Myself) Sugar Pie Honey Bunch” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There” for the Four Tops. After departing Motown, Holland-Dozier-Holland established Invictus and Hot Wax Records, where they earned gold-certified successes for Chairmen of the Board and Freda Payne. Dozier’s own recording history stretches to the late 1950s; his 1970s and 1980s solo albums opened with Out Here on My Own (1973), which contained the Top 40 entries “Trying to Hold on to My Woman” and “Fish Ain’t Bitin’.” Returning primarily to outside songwriting in the mid-1980s, he secured another number-one pop single and a Grammy with Phil Collins’s “Two Hearts.” Among later solo projects, Inside Seduction (1991) proved the most commercially notable. The Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee passed away in 2022, his catalog of enduring compositions intact.
Born June 16, 1941 in Detroit, Dozier participated in the city’s flourishing late-1950s vocal groups, performing with the Romeos and the Voice Masters. After signing with Berry Gordy, then an emerging local songwriter and producer, Dozier issued his debut single “Benny the Skinny Man” in 1960 on Anna Records—Gordy’s sister’s label—under the pseudonym Lamont Anthony. He also assisted Gordy on Motown releases by Mare Johnson, and two additional singles appeared. In 1963 Dozier teamed with Eddie Holland for a joint single; Holland had already scored a 1962 Motown hit with the Jackie Wilson-styled “Jamie.” The next year, Dozier joined Eddie Holland and his brother Brian to begin a collaborative songwriting effort. Starting with the Supremes’ chart-topping R&B single “Where Did Our Love Go,” the Holland-Dozier-Holland team enjoyed a five-year dominance of the R&B and pop charts, moving millions of records for Motown. The Four Tops likewise thrived on their material, reaching number one on both charts with “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There.”
Following lawsuits, royalty disagreements, and artistic tensions, Holland-Dozier-Holland exited Motown in 1967 and launched Invictus and Hot Wax Records, scoring hits such as Chairmen of the Board’s “Give Me Just a Little More Time” and Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold,” along with further releases by Honey Cone, Parliament, and 100 Proof Aged in Soul. Dozier resumed his solo career on Invictus with the midtempo ballad “Why Can’t We Be Lovers,” a Brian Holland collaboration that climbed to number six R&B. Its follow-up, the Holland-Dozier single “New Breed Kinda Woman,” reached number 61 R&B in 1973. That same year the partnership dissolved, prompting Dozier to sign with ABC Records. His first ABC album, Out Here on My Own, yielded the ballad “Trying to Hold on to My Woman” and the more assertive “Fish Ain’t Bitin’,” both number-four R&B hits that peaked at numbers 15 and 26 on the pop chart. Black Bach (1974) included another number-four R&B success, “Let Me Start Tonite,” and was succeeded later that year by Love and Beauty, his final Invictus outing. Around this period Dozier produced and wrote most of the material for actor Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs’s self-titled debut.
Moving to Warner Bros. in 1976, Dozier released Right There, a collection of languid grooves featuring “Groovin’ on a Natural High” and “With a Little Bit of Mending (We Could Be as Good as New),” which registered briefly on the charts. His next Warner album, 1977’s Peddlin’ Music on the Side, also appeared on the R&B chart, peaking at number 59; the extended single “Going Back to My Roots,” an identity-themed track popular in clubs, reached number 35 on Billboard’s disco chart. (Richie Havens and Odyssey later recorded well-received covers.) Bittersweet arrived in 1979 and generated another club chart entry with “Boogie Business.” The following year Dozier produced Zingara’s “Love’s Calling,” featuring James Ingram on lead vocals, which attained number 29 R&B in late 1980. He joined Columbia in 1981 for Working on You, which issued several singles yet failed to achieve significant sales. By year’s end he appeared on M&M Records—the short-lived label of former Motown executives Mike Roshkind and Mike Lushka—with the album Lamont; one single, the upbeat “Shout About It,” climbed to number 61 R&B in early 1982.
Following the 1983 U.K. release Bigger Than Life, Dozier paused solo work to compose for both emerging and veteran artists, among them Eric Clapton (two tracks on August) and Phil Collins (the number-one pop hit “Two Hearts,” which earned a Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television). Holland-Dozier-Holland entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The next year Atlantic issued Inside Seduction, co-produced by Collins. Subsequent Dozier albums grew infrequent; his sole 2000s project, the independent An American Original—containing new renditions of earlier highlights—was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional R&B Album category. Throughout these years he remained active in artist advocacy while receiving further honors. In 2009 alone, George Benson recorded “Living in High Definition” for Songs and Stories, and Dozier with the Holland brothers received the Johnny Mercer Award. Assisted by Cliff Richard, Graham Nash, and Gregory Porter, he revisited his catalog on the acoustic collection Reimagination, released in 2018. Dozier died on August 8, 2022 at his Scottsdale, Arizona residence.
