Eddie Holland (born October 30, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Although he was an early Motown artist who recorded minor hit singles such as “Jamie”, he started working behind the scenes due to stage fright. He was a member of Holland–Dozier–Holland, the songwriting and production team responsible for much of the Motown Sound and hit records by Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and The Isley Brothers, among others. He has written or co-written 80 hits in the UK and 143 in the US charts. Holland served as the team’s lyricist, and also worked with producer Norman Whitfield on lyrics for the songs he produced for the Marvelettes and the Temptations, like “Too Many Fish in the Sea” and “Beauty’s Only Skin Deep”. 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)
