The master of bPsychadelic Soul!
Norman Whitfield, 67, who co-wrote a string of Motown classics,
including "War" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," died Tuesday,
Sept. 16, according to a spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in
Los Angeles.
© AP
Norman Whitfield, songwriter and producer who co-wrote a string of
Motown classics including "War," "Just My Imagination (Running Away With
Me)" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," has died. He was 67.
A spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said Whitfield died there
Tuesday. He suffered from complications of diabetes and had recently
emerged from a coma, The Detroit Free Press reported.
The New York-born Whitfield was a longtime Motown producer who during
the 1960s and '70s injected rock and psychedelic touches into the
label's soul music.
Many of his biggest hits were co-written with Barrett Strong, with whom
he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004. He and Strong
won the Grammy in 1972 for best R&B song for the Temptations' "Papa Was
a Rolling Stone."
Many of Whitfield's songs from late '60s and early '70s have a strong
political tone, including the Temptations' 1970 "Ball of Confusion
(That's What the World Is Today)," and Edwin Starr's 1970 "War."
In his only No. 1 hit, Starr sings in an anguished voice that war is "a
heartbreaker, friend only to the undertaker. ... What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!" Whitfield produced as well as co-wrote the song.
Among Whitfield's other songs were "Cloud Nine," "Beauty Is Only Skin
Deep" and "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)," all hits for the
Temptations; and "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby," a 1969 hit for
Marvin Gaye.
The group Undisputed Truth had a top five hit in 1971 with Whitfield and
Strong's "Smiling Faces Sometimes."