Celebrating Marilyn’s Magic
FROM KEYPUNCHING TO HITMAKING, INCLUDING A ‘HANGOVER’ WHICH WON’T QUIT
Written over a summer’s weekend in Los Angeles in 1978 and rushed to Detroit to be played three days later, the song was one of the most challenging assignments of Marilyn McLeod’s professional life. Moreover, hers was to be the voice on the all-important recording, which was designed not for commercial release, but just to be played at the 90th birthday party of Berry Gordy Sr., father of Motown’s founder.
No pressure, then.
But when the music and lyrics reached the ears of the assembled well-wishers on the 36th floor of Detroit’s Plaza Hotel, “Pops” Gordy smiled, indicating a job well done. “We didn’t know if we could do it,” McLeod told Associated Press some months later, “but it just came together, really like magic.”
“More than happy” to pay tribute to Berry Gordy Sr.
“Pops, We Love You” was one of the more unusual works penned by McLeod and her then-writing partner, Pam Sawyer, not only because of the birthday party assignment, but also because it was later turned into one of the few songs (if not the only one) recorded by Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye – together. “Every one of them knew Pops,” said McLeod. “They knew we had presented this on his birthday, so when they were approached about it, it was, ‘More than happy,’ ‘Love to.’ ”
Soon there’s another celebration involving McLeod, but this time, she’ll be the centre of attention. It’s a musical tribute to the songwriter/singer, taking place on March 1 at Hollywood’s Catalina Bar & Grill, and presented by The Coltrane Home museum with media partner KPFK-FM Los Angeles/Santa Barbara. “I wanted to create a tribute to my aunt Marilyn during Women’s History Month,” said vocalist Michelle Coltrane, whose mother, Alice Coltrane – McLeod’s sister – was once married to jazz titan John Coltrane.
The young Coltrane will be among the featured performers at next month’s event, as will Freda Payne, Eloise Laws, Lamont Dozier Jr., Debbie Joyce and Pamela Johnson, among others. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the American Stroke Association; McLeod, who is 81, suffered a stroke in 2011, impairing her mobility since then.
As Michelle Coltrane points out, McLeod’s songs are known worldwide, particularly Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover,” but also Jr. Walker & the All Stars’ “Walk In The Night,” High Inergy’s “You Can’t Turn Me Off (In The Middle Of Turning Me On),” Anita Baker’s “Same Ole Love (365 Days A Year)” and Jermaine Jackson’s “Let Me Tickle Your Fancy.” Moreover, “Love Hangover” has remained popular thanks to a variety of dance-club remixes over the years; the 2020 version (by Eric Kupper) is currently on the Billboard charts.
THE HELP OF A NEIGHBOUR
McLeod was born in Detroit, where the McLeod and Gordy families were acquainted, partly because Marilyn’s half-brother, musician Ernie Farrow, used to box with Berry Gordy Jr. Her interest in music began early. “My mother played a little piano,” she told Rico Washington in Wax Poetics magazine some years ago. “I think it was kind of natural that she would want my sister Alice to play. I would start out intending to practice [the piano] but the practice would turn into a song.” When Marilyn moved into her own apartment, “my neighbour would hear me playing and come up and tell me about her brothers.”
That neighbour was Carole Holland, whose siblings were Eddie and Brian. McLeod took work as a Motown keypunch operator. “I was still doing the music, but I did the keypunch job until I could get onto the payroll as a writer.”
Marilyn McLeod (right) and Pam Sawyer, pictured in 1979 (photo: Associated Press)
Her first copyrighted songs for Jobete Music appeared in 1967, including “Take Him Back If It Makes You Happy,” recorded by the Fantastic Four and the Contours, and “Where You Gonna Run To Now,” cut by Chuck Jackson. She wrote the former with Carole Holland, James Dean (the Hollands’ cousin) and William Weatherspoon, the latter song with Dean and Weatherspoon. Among her other copyrights of the period were Martha Reeves & the Vandellas’ “I’ve Got To See You,” the Elgins’ “Love Can Be Beautiful (When You’re In Love)” and the Four Tops’ “Can’t Stop This Feelin’.” (Thanks for this data to Keith Hughes of Don’t Forget The Motor City.)
“They’d call a meeting for the writers every week,” McLeod remembered in Wax Poetics. “They would say they’re looking for material for Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, or whoever. That’s your assignment. It was so fun, because everybody was hiding from everybody. No one ever wanted anyone else to hear what they had written.” Among her “competitors” then was Janie Bradford. The two forged a strong, personal and professional bond which endures to this day; Bradford is involved with the March tribute in Hollywood. (In 2011, the pair formed Twinn Records, writing and producing an album sung by McLeod entitled I Believe In Me.)
By the start of the ’70s, McLeod was also developing skills as a singer with the Nu Page, a group which included drummer Quentin Dennard and guitarist Melton (Mel) Bolton. A song they wrote and recorded, “When The Brothers Come Marching Home,” was a MoWest single in 1973; its flipside, “A Heart Is A House,” reappeared in 2011 on Motown’s MoWest Story 1971-1973 from Light In The Attic Records.
HOW IS THE WORLD RATED?
McLeod’s first hit as a writer – Top 10 R&B in 1972, Top 50 pop – was Jr. Walker’s “Walk In The Night,” spun onto disc as an instrumental with the help of his producer, Johnny Bristol. This was followed in ’73 by a pair of tracks on the hit album, Diana & Marvin: “Love Twins” and “Include Me In Your Life,” both written with Bolton. ”I liked Marvin Gaye a lot,” McLeod declared to Wax Poetics. “He liked me, too. Every time we would go into the studio, he’d be like, ‘You’re getting better.’ It would make me really angry, play angry.” In 1972, with producer Hal Davis, Gaye recorded her song “The World Is Rated X,” composed with Mel and Ezra Bolton, and Robert Gordy.
But McLeod’s most successful union at Motown was with Pam Sawyer, the transplanted Brit who joined Jobete as the result of connecting with Brian and Eddie Holland in New York circa 1967. The two women became writing partners in the mid-1970s, with “Love Hangover” as their peak commercially (Ross’ recording reached Number One in ’76) and creatively (it was a Grammy nominee for Best R&B Song). They also advanced into producing for the likes of the Dynamic Superiors and the 5th Dimension, as well as speedwriting “Pops, We Love You.”
Songs to cast a spell…
Asked in 1979 by the New York Post whether doors were opening for female record producers, Sawyer responded, “Yes, although it’s still more difficult to be a producer than a writer.” She and McLeod are a team, “and if both of us were black it might be more difficult, since the people we work with and those who have the money are usually white. We didn’t get together because of colour or background, but if it works to our advantage, fine.”
McLeod and Sawyer were also the first writing team chosen by Jobete for its series of The Songs of… promotional albums, bundling song excerpts on disc into a boxed portfolio with lead sheets, distributed outside Motown to A&R people, producers, artists and label execs. McLeod sang on all but two of the 32 tracks on the LP, which was dubbed Pure Magic. “Love Hangover” aside, it included “Love Don’t Come No Stronger” (subsequently cut by a post-Motown Martha Reeves), “Different Kinda Different” (recorded by Johnny Mathis) and “Darlin’ Dear” (tracked by Maxine Nightingale).
“Me and Pam really got it together,” McLeod told Pitchfork last year. “We were really stars. She and I just hit it off. It’s really hard to find another writer like that. We did a lot of songs and we had hit records.” The interview itself was unusual, inasmuch as McLeod was joined by grandson Steven Ellison, the hip-hop artist professionally known as Flying Lotus.
The pair shared “a palpable musical camaraderie,” noted Pitchfork, with FlyLo even referencing his grandmother’s stroke. “It really hurts me emotionally,” she said. “When I try and go to the piano and do something, it’s not there. But I gotta keep going. I get really angry about it because I want to do it. I’m a pianist. I still am. I try to do it sometimes and it’s not coming right, but I gotta get it out of my head.”
Those artists scheduled to perform at next month’s show certainly reflect McLeod’s family connections and their world of jazz: Michelle Coltrane, obviously, but also Eloise Laws and Debbie Joyce. Freda Payne, too, began her career singing jazz, while Lamont Dozier Jr. shows similar stylistic influences.
Coltrane is glad to be able to honour her aunt’s contributions to the music industry – a goal shared by Janie Bradford, as well as The Coltrane Home and KPFK-FM. And retired though he is, perhaps the chairman can make it on March 1. Berry Gordy Jr. will surely recall the night when his father was celebrated in song by Marilyn and Pam, 36 floors above the Detroit River, more than 40 years ago.
Music notes: this week’s playlist is, first and foremost, a tribute to magic Marilyn’s talent as a songwriter (both composer and lyricist) with various collaborators. The material is mostly from her Motown years, but includes 1987’s “Same Ole Love (365 Days A Year)” by Anita Baker, which was written with McLeod’s nephew Darryl Roberts, and 2011’s “What Would Marvin Say,” from her own album, I Believe In Me. Then there’s “I Get High (On Your Memory)” by Freda Payne. “Me and Pam used to get high, that’s for sure,” McLeod admitted to Wax Poetics. Sadly, she died on November 21, 2021.