Come and Get These Memories: The Story of Holland-Dozier-Holland by Dave Thompson & Brian Holland & Edward Holland

Author:Dave Thompson & Brian Holland & Edward Holland [Thompson, Dave & Holland, Brian & Holland, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785588679
Google: yKhquwEACAAJ
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Published: 2019-10-15T23:29:00.616449+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

No Stopping Us Now

Eddie: The key thing was, we wrote teenage songs. That’s what I always said. “We’re writing teenage songs in an adult situation. The kids are too young to feel like the songs say they felt, but they could identify with those feelings.”

I listened to Top 40 radio and my favourite groups were The Shirelles and The Drifters. Even today, when I want to listen to that kind of music, that’s what I play. I loved those songs, and I’m sure they were an influence.

At the same time, though, I was writing in a vacuum, my own world. I was writing about myself. Most of those songs are personal to me; they’re my own life stories. And I deliberately chose themes that were not your standard pop song subjects.

The other trick was they appeared so simple. Berry once said something about me finishing a song, and I said, “It’ll take me two or three weeks.”

He looked at me and said, “Those ditties? I can see Smokey taking two or three weeks, but those little ditties you write?” And from that day on, I had the nickname of King Ditty.

But he obviously thought about it because, two or three weeks later, he said, “You know what? Now I know how you put those songs together. You’re a psychological writer,” and that was the first time I heard someone say that.

He was right. That is what I was. I was interested in the psychology behind emotions and feelings. But I was surprised he picked up on that. I always knew he was brilliant, but now I knew he was even smarter than I thought. Especially coming from a man who said, “Those little ditties?”

“Those little ditties” continued to do well. ‘Stop! In The Name of Love’ and ‘Back In Your Arms Again’ were both huge for The Supremes, and when The Four Tops’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)’ followed, we were feeling invincible.

In fact, we were.

‘I Can’t Help Myself…’ was beginning to slip down the charts when one of the group’s former labels, Columbia, announced they were reissuing ‘Ain’t That Love’, an old Four Tops single that had been unsuccessful, presumably in hopes of people thinking it was the official follow-up.

Berry was livid. No way was he going to be beaten to the punch by a four-year-old flop. Immediately, he had us in the studio with no idea of what we would record.

Brian: Lamont came up with a melody – basically, it was the same chord structure as ‘I Can’t Help Myself…’ but with a few new variations. So we worked on that for a while and, by 3 o’clock, we were in the studio rehearsing the musicians with Lamont still working on the melody, and Eddie sat in the corner, scribbling lyrics.

By 3.30 we were ready for a take. By 5, we had a finished mix. By 6, we had a master stamper, which could be raced the 90 miles to the pressing plant, American, in Ottawa, Michigan.

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