Brian Holland (born February 15, 1941) is an American songwriter and record producer, best known as a member of Holland–Dozier–Holland, the songwriting and production team that was responsible for much of the Motown sound and numerous hit records by artists such as Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and The Isley Brothers. Holland, along with Lamont Dozier, served as the team’s musical arranger and producer. He has written or co-written 145 hits in US and 78 in the UK. For a short time, he partnered with Robert Bateman, collaborating on such hits as “Please Mr. Postman” for The Marvelettes. Holland has also had an on-and-off career as a performer. Holland also composed songs for the First Wives Club musical. (More from Wikipedia)
A record company needs a songwriting team, and Motown had one of the best in the business with “Holland-Dozier-Holland”, that is, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Eddie Holland (the latter two being brothers). According to Wikipedia: “During their tenure at Motown from 1962 to 1967, [Lamont] Dozier and Brian Holland were the composers and producers for each song, and Eddie Holland wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocals.”
I was frankly thrilled to see the three of them together on television once; they made a half-hearted attempt to perform one of their classic songs, but sadly not all that well – clearly their talents primarily lay elsewhere. Eddie Holland did have some early success as a recording artist though. Also, as with many if not most songwriting teams, the individuals co-wrote songs with others over the years.
(April 2015/1)
