We at the Songwriters Hall of Fame were tremendously saddened to hear of the passing of one of the all-time great Grammy winning Motown writers/producers, Norman Whitfield. He and his writing partner, Barrett Strong, were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.
Best known for the soul classics “War,” “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today),” “Car Wash” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” among many others, Mr. Whitfield was also a producer for the Temptations and began his long career at Motown Records as “quality control” under Berry Gordy. Part of his visionary producing talent, was the ability to cut more than one version of his songs with a variety of artists to give the public distinctly different sounds. An example of this was when a single release of Whitfield’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” that had been cut by Marvin Gaye was vetoed by the label. Whitfield turned around and cut the song with Gladys Knight & the Pips, which became a huge hit, by some accounts the biggest-selling single in the history of the label up to that time. The Marvin Gaye rendition, much more raw sounding (and also produced by Whitfield), was then issued, garnering even bigger sales than its predecessor. The song, also cut by the Temptations and Creedence Clearwater Revival, became one of the most valuable copyrights owned by Motown.
Whitfield and Strong won the Grammy in 1972 for best R&B song for the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” Whitfield won another Grammy in 1976 for best original TV or motion picture score for “Car Wash.”
Mr. Whitfield will be sorely missed as one of the great contributors to our Popular Music history.