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COPYRIGHT 2007 Center For Black Music Research
Black songwriter-performers such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry achieved success on the U.S. pop charts (1) as leading contributors to the development of 1950s rock and roll. Rock and roll's impact had waned by the late 1950s, however, and white songwriter-producers dominated the creation of U.S. pop hits. Many of the successful songwriters from this period have been referred to as "Brill Building" composers--so named after a building (located at 1619 Broadway in New York) that first housed music publishers during the Great Depression. Successful writers and writing teams (e.g., Don Kirsher/Al Nevins, Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller, Doc Pomas/Mort Shuman, Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, and Phil Spector) created material for a wide range of artists (including male and female soloists, duos, and girl groups). They typically functioned as producers as well as songwriters, and some went on to form influential record companies such as Aldon (Kirshner/Nevins), Redbird (Leiber/Stoller), and Philles (Spector/Sill). (2)
Betrock (1982, 38) describes the Brill Building sound as emanating "from the stretch along Broadway between 49th and 53rd streets." He also provides a sense of the frenetic activity of the New York pop scene: "You could write a song there, or make the rounds of publishers with one until someone bought it. Then you could go to another floor and get a quick arrangement, ... get some copies run off ... book an hour at one of the demo studios ... round up some musicians and singers ... and finally cut a demo of the song" (39).
The dominance of writer-producers meant that black performers of the day (like their white counterparts) depended largely on these professional writers to supply them with potential pop-chart hits. (3) For example, Leiber/Stoller provided material for the Coasters and the Drifters, Goffin/King created hits for the Drifters, Shirelles, Cookies, and Little Eva, while Mann/Weil's artist roster included the Drifters and Crystals.
The first sign of a new "crossover" breakthrough into the pop charts for black songwriters came in the late 1950s, in the form of hits by Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield. Described by Reed (2003, 89-90) as "the first widely-celebrated professional gospel singer to seek a secular career," Cooke achieved a number-one U.S. Top Forty hit in 1957 with "You Send Me." By 1963, he had a total of eighteen Top Forty entries (many self-penned). Mayfield's first U.S Top Forty hit was "For Your Precious Love" (written for Jerry Butler in 1958). He followed this up with a series of hits for artists such as Jerry Butler, the Impressions, and Major Lance.
During the early 1960s, black songwriters associated with the Motown label joined Cooke and Mayfield on the pop charts. The Motown Record Corporation (together with Jobete Music Publishing Company) was created by Berry Gordy in 1959. Gordy had previously operated an unsuccessful jazz record shop (from 1953 to 1955), eventually receiving some financial rewards by writing songs for Jackie Wilson. Gordy was convinced by William "Smokey" Robinson (whom he met in 1957) that "the way to really make it was to stop leasing records to others and to begin marketing and merchandising their music themselves" (Robinson, cited in George 1985, 27).
Motown released its first song in mid-1959, and by 1961, the company had produced a number-one R&B hit (and number-two pop hit) with "Shop Around," written by Robinson and performed by the Miracles. With an increasing roster of performing artists, an established core of specialist session players, and talented and ambitious young writer-producers, the company soon achieved considerable pop-chart success, ultimately becoming "the largest independent label and the largest black-owned business in America of the 1960s" (Kooijman 2006, 123). Smokey Robinson and the team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland (Holland-Dozier-Holland, hereafter referred to as H-D-H) were Motown's main songwriters, and they monopolized the production of pop hit songs for the company. A&R director William Stevenson also (co)wrote a number of early hits for the label.
By 1963, then, black songwriters were achieving unprecedented pop-chart success. (4) Table 1 lists the number of U.S. Top Forty hits by the most successful black pop songwriters of 1963-1966. (5) It demonstrates that Motown's impressive chart achievements coincided with Curtis Mayfield's most prolific period as a pop writer while simultaneously overlapping with the final phase of Sam Cooke's career.
It might be expected that the successful black songwriters listed in Table I brought some new elements into the pop "mainstream," and various writers have indeed attempted to describe the distinctive nature of the new black pop music. McEwen and Miller (1992, 279), for example, speak of the "gospel-pop fusion" of Berry Gordy's early songs and suggest that H-D-H "exploited gospelish vocal gestures in a pop context" (281). Heilbut (1985, 76) argues that "Motown soul is equally shot through with [gospel] quartet influences," while McEwen (1992, 76) colorfully describes Sam Cooke's pop music as "the place where soul and feeling of gospel meets the finger-snapping, ascot-wearing ambience of supper club pop."
These types of generalized assessments provide some sense of the new black pop music, but any attempt to define the specific musical and lyrical characteristics of the crossover songs needs to be grounded in a detailed examination of the repertoire. I aim here to contribute to the literature surrounding black pop songwriting by (a) documenting the results of musical and textual analysis of all of the songs from Table I and by (b) drawing on these results to reflect on the trajectory and significance of the early 1960s crossover phenomenon. The present work reflects my belief that musical and textual analysis can play an important role in providing data to inform historians and theorists as they attempt to formulate a comprehensive account of the development of popular music. As Keightley (1991, 5) suggests: "[T]heoretical overviews and textual instantations are necessary and ongoing parts of the study of popular culture. They are complementary, not opposite; one approach should not dominate to the detriment of the other."
Brief Biographies of Cooke, Mayfield, Robinson, H-D-H, and Stevenson
Sam Cooke (1935-1964) was born in Chicago and began singing gospel music from age nine, first with the Singing Children and subsequently with the Highway QCs. He joined the Soul Stirrers in 1950 and recorded for Specialty Records. In 1956, he began to record secular songs. "You Send Me" (1957) was the first in a lengthy series of pop hits. Cooke formed his own record label (Sar), which rereleased gospel-influenced R&B hits, and he joined RCA as a solo artist in 1960, negotiating a new contract that afforded him considerable artistic control. He recorded his own songs, as well as songs by other writers, until his death in 1964. Several of his songs continued to appear on the pop charts in 1965.
Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999), also born in Chicago, sang with his cousins in the Northern Jubilees (which included Jerry Butler, for whom Mayfield wrote many of his early songs). Mayfield's strongest early musical influence was gospel, but by the mid-1950s, he was also listening to R&B and rock and roll. He became especially interested in the music of the Coasters. Mayfield formed the Impressions in 1957 with Butler, who subsequently left to pursue a solo career (with Mayfield as guitarist and songwriter). Mayfield continued to write and perform with the Impressions and also supplied pop songs for solo artists such as Major Lance and Gene Chandler. He formed his own independent record company (Curtom Records) in 1969.
Born in Detroit, Smokey Robinson (b. 1940) studied saxophone from an early age and sang in a church choir. He formed a high school group (the Matadors) that included Ronnie White, Bobby Rogers, Warren Moore, and Robinson's future wife, Claudette Rogers. They performed original songs, mostly written by Robinson. At his audition for Gordy in 1957, Robinson told him that he had already written over one hundred songs. Gordy offered Robinson advice about songwriting and suggested that the Matadors change their name to the Miracles. Between 1959 and 1975, the Miracles had forty-six U.S. Top 100 songs (mostly written and produced by Robinson). Robinson also wrote numerous songs for other Motown performers, including the Temptations, Mary Wells, and Marvin Gaye.
Another Detroit native, Eddie Holland (b. 1939) joined Berry Gordy's publishing company as a singer. He tended to imitate the vocal style of Jackie Wilson and achieved some minor success on both the R&B and pop charts. A nervous and reluctant performer, he decided that he was better suited to studio work. (6) After observing the financial rewards his brother Brian was obtaining from songwriting, he asked him if they could work together. When Brian Holland (b. 1941) was sixteen, he met Gordy, who encouraged him to compose melodies to lyrics. Holland became involved with studio production by writing and producing songs for Motown's first girl group, the Marvelettes, and worked with a number of partners, including William Stevenson, Robert Bateman, Freddie Gorman, and Lamont Dozier.
Also from Detroit, Lamont Dozier (b. 1941) first recorded at age fifteen with the Romeos. He moved to New York and worked outside of the music industry until his return to Detroit in 1958. As Lamont Anthony, he recorded for Motown and began to write songs with Brian Holland. In 1962, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland, and Lamont Dozier began to work as a songwriting/production team, and by 1963, they were achieving substantial success. They worked together at Motown until 1968 and composed a large number of pop hits for many of Motown's most successful groups, such as the Supremes and Four Tops.
William Stevenson began recording R&B and gospel music in the mid-1950s and tried to obtain support from Detroit businessmen, doctors, and lawyers for a black record company. George (1985, 37) observes that these people "weren't interested in entering what they saw as the hustling, unsavory world of black show business." Berry Gordy knew of Stevenson's support for black music and offered him the position as A&R director at Motown. Stevenson encouraged the use of jazz musicians for Motown sessions and also wrote and produced a number of hits for the company.
Top Forty Hits by Cooke, Mayfield, Robinson, H-D-H, and Stevenson: 1963-1966
Tables 2-6 list the U.S. Top Forty hits by Cooke, Mayfield, Robinson, H-D-H, and Stevenson between 1963 and 1966. Eleven songs performed by Cooke reached the Top Forty between 1963 and 1965. He wrote seven of these (see Table 2). In addition, the Animals (one of the British blues bands that followed the Beatles' 1964 "invasion" of the U.S. charts) achieved a hit in 1965 with a cover of Cooke's "Bring It on Home to Me." Mayfield achieved consistent chart success during the years 1963 to 1965 and wrote an even balance of songs for his own group (the Impressions) and for other performers (all male soloists).
Robinson functioned both as writer-performer (as lead singer of the Miracles) and professional songwriter, supplying songs for other Motown artists. Apart from composing several songs for Mary Wells, he wrote mainly for male performers, establishing a particularly productive partnership with the Temptations and Marvin Gaye. Although several members of the Miracles regularly received credit as cowriters with Robinson, Robinson was seemingly the primary creative force within the various writing partnerships. (7) He usually bore total responsibility for lyrics and major responsibility for the musical elements, receiving only occasional assistance with aspects such as the creation of melodies and guitar riffs. Consequently, the songs involving Robinson as both sole and joint writer are considered collectively.
H-D-H functioned exclusively as professional songwriters and composed songs for a large number of Motown performers, both male and female. They wrote primarily for groups--especially the Supremes, Four Tops, and Martha and the Vandellas.
William Stevenson cowrote and produced eight songs for a variety of Motown performers. Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, for example, covered "Devil with a Blue Dress On"--originally written for Motown performer Shorty Long.
Song Analysis
Lyrics
An overview of the lyric content of the songs analyzed here shows that lyrics relating to aspects of relationships are in a clear majority (see Table 7). (8) Cooke, Mayfield, Robinson, and Stevenson favor either positive or ambivalent sentiments, while H-D-H's songs deal much more frequently with negative sentiments. Faithfulness is a topic of common concern to all writers, but H-D-H more often address the anguish associated with relationship difficulties or the ending of a relationship. Many song titles (e.g., "Where Did Our Love Go," "You Lost the Sweetest Boy," "Standing in the Shadows of Love") signal this type of lyric content. Such lyrics are designed provide a powerful "feeling" of the song's emotional content, as in this example from "Standing in the Shadows of Love," recorded by the Four Tops: "I want to run, but there's nowhere to go. Because heartache will follow me I know.... Standing in the shadows of love. I'm getting ready for the heartaches to come."
The songs by H-D-H also frequently portray a state of dependence on a relationship (often despite indifference or...
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