Dean and Richards, working out of the L.A. office, put out a few singles that didn't go anywhere over the following year.
Then came the Holland-Dozier-Holland crisis. The fabled writer/producers of dozens of Top 10 hits for the Supremes, the Four Tops and many others left Motown over a royalty dispute - a serious breakdown in the Motown hit machine.
Meanwhile, Richards and writer/producer Frank Wilson (Temptations, Supremes, Four Tops) were languishing in Los Angeles. "In 1968, Detroit still viewed the West Coast office as shit," confides Richards. “The sound wasn't right on tracks cut in L.A. studios, the main talent was still in Detroit and no one much cared.”
Richards and Wilson wrote Gordy to that effect. In response to their letter (and the departure of Holland-Dozier-Holland), Gordy flew Richards and Wilson to Detroit to work with lyricists R. Dean Taylor and Pam Sawyer on a single for the Supremes and locked them all up in the Pontchartrain Hotel with the admonition to come up with a hit.
Gordy was anxious and got personally involved. The team would come up with a chord structure and some lines, and Gordy would come over and fiddle around with it, tweak this, rearrange that. The result was "Love Child," a return to No. 1 for Diana Ross and the Supremes. Fresh from the H-D-H debacle, Gordy was leery of creating more “name” writer/producers, so he called the team The Clan.
In the best Motown tradition, the follow-up was the similarly themed "I'm Living In Shame," which barely crept into the Top 10.
Dissension within the Clan over percentages got on Gordy's nerves. The Clan was dissolved and Richards returned to the West Coast, full of confidence and newfound knowledge. He worked out a deal with the Sound Factory to record Motown artists and added touches from the home office: direct boxes, so that the guitars could be plugged into the mixing board, and a drum stand just like Hitsville's.
Richards liked working in a group. Maybe the Clan was just the wrong group. He met a couple of young songwriters - college chums Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell - liked their ideas and liked them even more. These were the right guys.
Gordy, tired of internecine bickering, told Richards to take charge. The team picked Gladys Knight to work with because she hadn't had a hit for some time. They came up with a song called "I Want to Be Free," cut the instrumental track and took it to Gordy.
The Jackson 5 had been signed to Motown in March 1969. Richards saw them perform at a legendary private show in August at the Daisy Club in Beverly Hills and was astonished. When Gordy heard "Free," his mind began to race.
Article comments
1 - James Mclafferty
Nice Post eric :), Nobody can take his music away from him, and maybe he should be given another chance to show he really is the person he tries to tell us he is. The jackson five era is, even though i wasn't actually around at the time (i'm only 27), an amazing era five young hopefuls who took over motown. I seem to remember you saying you were a fan do you think you'd give him another chance eric now?
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks James - if he put out interesting music, I'd be happy to listen to it
3 - godoggo
I loved the Jackson 5 when I was a little kid. Still do. Some of his solo stuff is pretty good, I guess.
4 - Eric Olsen
the best of the J5 and his Off the Wall-Bad albums will withstand Jackson's own best efforts to tarnish them
5 - claire
Does anyone else ever feel a little stab when they see MJ doing his cute moves when he was just a kid. Have this magazine at home from the Observer and it has a picture of him just a little kid and a crazy afro and underneath the caption says 'Remember Me'.
I aquired this even before the allegations and felt a bit sad. guilty or not, how can someone be so disturbed.
6 - Eric Olsen
absolutely Claire, a tragedy what he has become of his own volition
7 - The Proprietor
Excellent article, Eric. I didn't know that Louie Shelton had played on the early Motown J5 sides - he's one of my favorite LA session guitarists, best known for his terrific work on The Monkees' "Valleri". The Corporation should've gotten some propers in "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" - like H-D-H, their songs were consummately fun, well-crafted and have proven their staying power over and over again.
8 - Tan Hoang
A Motown Revival would be great... or even just a revival of that 50s sound. I get my oldies fix from radio and my iPod but listening to new music would be great.
9 - Eric Olsen
thanks TP, got it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Deke's a very interesting guy. I added in the link to his movie memorabilia site if you want to check it out.
Tan, an update of the classic Motown sound would be amazing, but I'm not sure what it would sound like!