History of Holland-Dozier-Holland:
Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier & Edward Holland Jnr. are known as an American production and songwriting team who are credited with largely shaping the sound of the Motown movement back in the 1960's.
Eddie, Lamont and Edward all grew up in Detroit, Michigan.
They crafted hits for nearly every single major Motown artist:
Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, The Marvelettes, The Supremes, The Temptations, to name a few.
The trio wrote and arranged many of the songs within the motown period that they were apart of from 1962 to 1967 and are seen to have helped to shape the 'Motown Sound'.
They worked together with Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland being the composers and producers for each song, which left Eddie Holland writing all the lyrics and arranging the vocals to songs.
After they left Motown they did continue to work as a production trio and songwriting team until late 1974.
Since they went their seperate ways the trio have been given countless awards:
-Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988;
-Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990;
-Honored as BMI Icon at the 51st BMI Pop Awards. BMI (Broardcast Music Incorporated)
Individually:
Brian Holland: Was a Motown staff songwriter. Had some success in 1961, he was a co-composer of The Marvelettes with a US number one record 'Please Mr. Postman'.
He was a recording artist for a few different record labels in the late 50's and early 60's namely with Motown's subsidairy label Mel-o-dy.
Eddie Holland Jnr: Was working with Berry Gordy proir to him forming Motown Records. In 1958 he had a single 'You' which was one of the earliest recordings with Gordy productions. Then later he had a top 30 hit for Motown called 'Jamie' in 1961
The three came together to create material for both themselves and for others, but later on preferred the songwriting and production side of things instead of being performance artists.
After the trio left Motown Records in 1968, they started their own labels, Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records, but they were only somewhat successful.
Berry Gordy and Motown sued the trio for a breach of contract, which was met with Holland-Dozier_Holland countersuing. This ended up being one of the longest legal battles in the music industries history. It was settled in 1977.
Lamont Dozier ended up leaving the trio in the early 1970's to persue his career as a solo performing artist, where he also signed off and left Holland-Dozier-Holland Productions which the Holland brothers now own the rights too.
Holland-Dozier-Holland Productions replaced Dozier and continued to write and produce songs for a number of artists. And they even worked on material for artists, including The Supremes and Michael Jackson, even while the litigation against Motown Records was still pending.
