Sylvia Rose Moy (15 Sep 1938 - 15 Apr 2017) would have been 84 today.
She as born in Detroit and came to the attention of Marvin Gaye and Mickey
Stevenson performing in a club in 1963. They invited her to join
Motown, originally as a singer, and was given recording and songwriting
contract and became the first woman to write and produce for artists at
Motown.
In his autobiography, Berry Gordy attributes her directly responsible for
keeping Stevie Wonder at Motown after his voice broke as he was planning to
let him go until Moy approached him asking him if he would reconsider
if she could write a hit for him. That hit was perhaps one of the
greatest Motown songs ever "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" co-written with
Henry "Hank" Cosby which was his second R&B chart #1 (after Fingertips
(1963)) and reached #3 on Billboards Hot 100 in 1966. She would write
another two R&B #1 hits for him "I Was Made To Love Her" (1967) and
"Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day" (1968) along with several other top 10
hits.
She also wrote another Motown classic, although initially uncredited, "This
Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)" with Holland, Dozier, Holland for The
Isley Brothers.
Moy won six Grammy Awards, twenty BMI awards and was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006 and has 289 songs credited to her
on BMI. She died of complications from pneumonia in Dearborn, MI on 15 Apr
2017 aged 78.
Here's a playlist of some of her biggest hits at Motown with one (a Northern soul classic written with George Kerr and Mike Valvano) not released by Motown.
Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment