In the early 1980s, Whitfield began working as a producer for Motown again, helming the Temptations' 1983 hit single "Sail Away" and the soundtrack to The Last Dragon.[1]. He took over Smokey Robinson's role as the main producer for the Temptations in 1966, after his "Ain't Too Proud to Beg"[2] performed better than Robinson's "Get Ready" on the pop charts. Later that year his Cloud Nine, performed by The Temptations was honored with a prestigious Grammy Award which was followed by another Grammy for Papa Was a Rollin Stone which was released in 1973.
Norman Whitfield | Pop and rock | The Guardian Mr. Whitfield, who often wrote both lyrics and music, had more than 450 songs released in his lifetime, his daughter said. She was preceded in death by her father; grandparents, Julius and Annie Graham, William and Gertrude Whitfield; and 3 aunts. Motown producer/songwriter who helped define the label's sound. He recruited new members, most notably Taka Boom (aka Yvonne Stevens, the sister of Chaka Khan), later with the Glass Family, to work with Joe Harris, and saw hits from this version of the group with "You + Me = Love" and "Let's Go Down to the Disco." He is credited as being one of the creators of the "Motown Sound," and instrumental in the development of psychedelic soul. The family eventually relocated there, and Whitfield hustled pool and performed other marginal pursuits to survive, and also began watching and learning what was needed to work in music. He was 68. Beloved brother to Keith, Sheila, Derek and the late . It's very much the Temptations' own approach to the song, as distinct from Whitfield's, not that it would have been a simple matter to re-create the latter's approach live. It was written as a Vietnam war protest song.
Award-Winning Songwriter/Producer Norman Whitfield Dead at 68 "Barrett was not only a great singer and piano player, but he, along with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work," Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement. After 1968, Whitfield turned towards darker and harder sound, blending funk and psychedelic rock. Is she dead? Meet Lynn Whitfield & Brian Gibson's Daughter Grace Learn about Her Hollywood Career By Stephen Thompson Aug 02, 2020 04:00 P.M. [28] From 1990 to 1992, she was married to director Brian Gibson, with whom she had a daughter, Grace. Whitfield was born in Harlem, where his main achievement was to become a skilled pool player.
Norman Whitfield - Soul Music Biographies, News and Reviews In the meantime, he became an admirer of Berry Gordy as the latter emerged as the most promising new music entrepreneur in Detroit. Thu., Sept. 18, 2008
Her accounts mostly post personal photos, behind the scenes footage, and promotions of her projects. She also starred as Dorothea Garibaldi in the Disney Channel films The Cheetah Girls and The Cheetah Girls 2. Among his early successes was "I Couldn't Cry If I Wanted To," written in collaboration with Eddie Holland and cut by the Temptations in late 1962. Norman Whitfield - Psychedelic Soul (Produced By Norman Whitfield) More images Tracklist Hide Credits Companies, etc. Submit a correction suggestion and help us fix it! He wound up in Detroit when his father's car broke down on the way back from his grandmother's funeral in California and the family settled in. Norman Whitfield net worth: Norman Whitfield was an American songwriter and producer who had a net worth of $10 million. [1] He also composed the theme song for the 1977 motion picture Which Way Is Up?, performed by Stargard. The group hit right out of the box with another Whitfield song that managed to capture its time and place, "Smiling Faces Sometimes," which became a number three hit in 1971. From 1966 to 1974, Whitfield produced virtually all of the Temptations' music, experimenting with sound effects and other production techniques.
Another account she has is on Facebook, with over 25,000 followers, but the account has not been updated since 2018. [9][10] At the time of filming, Lawrence was 12 years younger than Whitfield, who was then 42. Photos by Larry Parham.
Norman Whitfield Obituary (2008) - Los Angeles, CA - Legacy Leonard Levi Whitfield (1932-2021) - Memorial Find a Grave Beginning in the '80s and with the decline of disco, however, Whitfield was virtually unheard as either a producer or songwriter, except for the omnipresent reissues of his 13 years of Motown productions -- in that regard, in 2002 and 2003, the Undisputed Truth were the subject of separate compilations on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Temptations' catalog has been mined regularly and remastered with increasing frequency since the late '90s. The song was so well-known that 22 years later, its lyrics ("War, what is it good for") figured in a key joke (involving Tolstoy's War and Peace) at the center of an episode of Seinfeld. [17], In 2015, Whitfield was cast as the main villain in Greenleaf, the Oprah Winfrey Network original scripted drama series about the unscrupulous world of the Greenleaf family and their sprawling Memphis megachurch. He turned around and annoyed Gordy intensely, finally cajoling him into okaying another attempt at the song by Gladys Knight & the Pips. The psychedelic soul records Whitfield produced for the Temptations and other artists such as Edwin Starr and the Undisputed Truth experimented with and updated the Motown sound for the late-1960s. Read Full Biography. One of Whitfield's last major hits at Motown was Yvonne Fair's "It Should Have Been Me" (1975), a song he had written in 1963 and recorded originally with Kim Weston. Gordy refused to release versions of I Heard It Through the Grapevine by the Miracles, the Isley Brothers and Marvin Gaye. Whitfield did return to Motown briefly in the early '80s to produce the Temptations' "Sail Away," and also the soundtrack album to the movie The Last Dragon. His first professional engagement came at his age of 19, when he began serving in Motown headquarters Hitsville U.S.A. in its quality control department.
Lynn Whitfield Wiki Bio, Daughter, Nationality, Wealth. Married? Whitfield gave the song to Gladys Knight and the Pips, who made it Motown's bestselling single at the time. Many, including I Heard It Through the Grapevine, memorably recorded both by Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips, were written with his frequent collaborator Barrett Strong. A junior figure at Hitsville, hungry for his big break, he hung around the studio watching more established producers such as Holland-Dozier-Holland at work. How rich would Norman Whitefield be today? The single's instrumental B-side earned Whitfield and arranger Paul Riser a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. Motown producer/songwriter who helped define the label's sound.
Barrett Strong, Motown Icon And 'Money' Singer, Dies At 81 Artist Norman Whitfield Real name Norman Jesse Whitfield Born May 12, 1940 Died September 16, 2008 Country United States IPI 00032841992 45 works 00063704487 74 works Affiliation BMI Comments Songwriter and producer credited as one of the creators of the Motown sound. I'll be doing something similar tonight. In the mid-1970s, Mr. Whitfield left Motown to start his own label, Whitfield Records. Copyright - Ace Records Ltd. He was a longtime Motown producer and founded his own record label, Whitfield Records, in 1973. Mastered At - Sound Mastering Ltd Designed At - the-unknown.co.uk Marketed By - Ace Distributed By - Ace Credits [6] He added contemporary song topics, moving from love songs to the social issues of the time, such as war, poverty and politics. Even amid all of this activity with the Temptations, he found other important outlets for his compositions, most notably in the person of Edwin Starr. With partner Norman Whitfield wrote enduring hits "Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "Papa Was A Rolling Stone". "His will to live was so. Strong eventually went behind the scenes as a songwriter, teaming with producer Norman Whitfield in the mid-1960s to cowrite smashes for Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Edwin Starr and the . [3] Whitfield died on September 16, 2008. Her mother is a founding member of the Baton Rouge chapter of The Links Incorporated and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. "Where words leave off, music begins!".
Norman Whitfield | Discography | Discogs [18][19] The series also starred Keith David, Merle Dandridge, Kim Hawthorne, and Oprah Winfrey. In 2005, he was sentenced to six months house arrest for tax evasion, avoiding imprisonment only because of diabetes and other health problems. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her breakout performance as Josephine Baker in the HBO biographical film The Josephine Baker Story (1991). : Lynn Whitfield became Josephine Baker, Budapest became Paris and Harlem as HBO raced to complete the first movie about the storied entertainer's life", "HBO's 'Josephine Baker': The Naked Truth", "Lynn Whitfield Shimmies into the Skin of Sultry Josephine Baker", "TV Weekend; With Josephine Baker Through a Long Life", "2 Emmys For James Earl Jones; 'L.A. Besides his daughter, Irasha, of Los Angeles, Mr. Whitfield is survived by four sons, Norman, of Los Angeles; Michael, of Toluca Lake; Johnnie, of Atlanta; and Roland, of Murrieta, Calif.; a brother, Bill, of Los Angeles; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. [12] In 1998, Whitfield had supporting role of an oncologist in the comedy-drama film Stepmom.[13][14]. In 1975, Whitfield left Motown, following its move from Detroit, to form his own label, Whitfield Records. Though largely invisible professionally in his later years, he did re-emerge in the news in 2005 when he pleaded guilty to settle a tax evasion case from the late '90s. When Motown moved to. Cloud Nine - The Temptations.
Norman Whitfield Net Worth He was a fast learner, too -- at 18, he'd written and produced at Detroit's Thelma Records, including sides by Richard Street (future member of the Temptations), and played as a member of the Distants, the precursors to the latter group; he'd also played tambourine with the band Popcorn and the Mohawks on some Thelma sides backing the Distants. Over 25 years Whitfield co-wrote and produced many Motown hits including "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "(I Know) I'm Losing You", "Cloud Nine", "War", "I Can't Get Next to You", "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today", "Smiling Faces Sometimes", "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone".
Obituary for Irasha Graham Whitefield It's possible to glimpse the fine line the quintet and its producer were walking on the live recordings from the tour for Masterpiece, on In Japan. 1972 Grammy winner for Best R&B Song for "Papa Was a Rolling Stone.". Whitfield played the leading role of Lady Mae Greenleaf, the imperious minister's wife and the power- and money-hungry matriarch of the family. Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today), Gonna Keep On Tryin' Till I Win Your Love, I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You), Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me), (Loneliness Made Me Realize) It's You That I Need, Mama I Gotta Brand New Thing (Don't Say No), Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are), You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth, 2003-2023 The HBO biopic required her to age from 18 to 68. The song also became one of the most valuable copyrights owned by Motown, as it was covered by hundreds of artists, most notably Creedence Clearwater Revival, both on an edited single, and as an epic-length jam on their perennially popular LP Cosmo's Factory. Facing charges of tax evasion on more than $2 million worth of income, he was sentenced to six months of house confinement and a $25,000 fine. Whitfield has won a total of seven NAACP Image Awards. Norman Whitfield was born on May 12, 1940 (age 67) in New York City, New York, United States.
Songs written by Norman Whitfield | SecondHandSongs 10:
Norman Whitfield was born in Harlem on May 12, 1940. She eventually moved to New York and appeared off-Broadway in such shows as The Great Macdaddy and Showdown Time before earning international acclaim touring the United States, Australia and London's West End in the 1977 production of the landmark play "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf" alongside Alfre Woodard.[2]. Had he worked for a label like Columbia or RCA Victor in the middle/late '50's, with a roster of artists spanning the musical spectrum, Whitfield might well have been cutting R&B, country, pop, and rock & roll (and vocal and instrumental) versions of his songs. Norman Whitfield. Whitfield and lyrical collaborator Barrett Strong were inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2004. With Wynk Music, you will not only enjoy your favourite MP3 songs online, but you will also have access to our hottest playlists such as English Songs, Hindi Songs, Malayalam Songs, Punjabi Songs, Tamil Songs . Mrs. Estelle Whitfield, age 98, passed away November 23, 2020. Following graduation, she first garnered attention on the stage by performing with the Black Repertory Company in Washington, D.C. She married playwright/director/actor Vantile Whitfield, one of the company's co-founders and a pioneer of black theatre, in 1974.
She co-starred in the Chris Rock comedy film Head of State (2003) and Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion (2006). A native of Harlem, Whitfield spent his early teen years hanging out in local pool halls. "Marvelous Mal" Whitfield was an Olympic medalist, Tuskegee airman and longtime U.S. diplomat. [11] In 1997, she co-starred opposite Danny Glover and Rosanna Arquette in the comedy film Gone Fishin', appeared in the supporting role in the Canadian drama The Planet of Junior Brown, and played the mother of Jurnee Smollett's title character in the critically acclaimed independent drama Eve's Bayou. Starr's version of "War" w Show more. Yesterday I heard through the grapevine that he passed away on Tuesday afternoon. Norman Whitfield, who co-wrote a string of Motown classics including "War" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," has died at 67. A native of Harlem, New York, Whitfield spent most of his teen years in local pool halls. This was after Gordy had rejected the idea of recording it with Gaye, the Miracles, or the Isley Brothers.
Motown's Barrett Strong heralded at funeral as music icon, family man In his late teens his family moved to Detroit, Michigan so that his father could join his sister and work in her husband's chain of drug stores, and Norman began attending Northwestern High School. On television, Whitfield had recurring roles on Boston Public and Without a Trace in the 2000s.
Norman Whitfield's Funeral - imageevent.com "[22] She won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2019 and 2020 as well as the Gracie Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Drama Series in 2017. Your email address will not be published.
Psychedelic Soul - Produced By Norman Whitfield - Ace Records The second thought was regret: that there has been . Norman Whitfield had an international smash hit in 1976 with Rose Royce's "Car Wash", issued on MCA Records. Your email address will not be published. In late 1962, Whitfield became part of the early boom era at Motown Records, joining the ranks of Harvey Fuqua, Mickey Stevenson, and the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team. 04:13. Its emblem, a W, was virtually an inverted Motown M with a different color scheme, and he took the Undisputed Truth with him and kept tinkering with their sound. This memorial website was created in memory of Robert M Whitfield, 78, born on December 30, 1926 and passed away on March 2, 2005. Album by Larry Parham. Marvin Gaye, "Let's Get it On" (1973) - Written . This engagement provided the basis for Norman Whitfields net worth and also helped him to set his foot in the world of songwriting. But Berry did not want to damage Temptations' image by blatant political statement. The Gladys Knight & the Pips' version was the best-selling Motown single so far, but it was surpassed a year later by Gaye's version. Norman Whitfield, a long time friend and best friend during our growing up years, was laid to rest at the Lower Greens Creek Cemetery - he lived in Eastland at the time of his death. When a notification about first-round voting in the 2021 Grammys slipped into my digital letterbox the other day, the initial thought which came to mind was of Motown's first such honour - for 1968's "Cloud Nine" by the Temptations - and the man behind it, Norman Whitfield.. Using his keen eye for observation, Whitfield found a mentor in Motown founder Berry Gordy.