Marvin Gaye, Temptations Producer Norman Whitfield Dies

Motown producer and songwriter Norman Whitfield, who helped craft some of the Detroit label's biggest hits, died Tuesday at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Hospital. He was 65. While an exact cause of death wasn't revealed, Whitfield reportedly suffered ailments from diabetes. Whitfield started out at Motown as a tambourine player before writing some early hits for Marvin Gaye with lyricist Barrett Strong. One of those songs, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," ended up topping multiple charts and became the label's biggest hit of the '60s. Whitfield also worked with the Temptations, co-writing their hits "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" as well as "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," which won Motown its first Grammy. Whitfield left Motown in 1973, forming his own Whitfield Records. The label released the Rose Royce hit "Car Wash," and later won Whitfield another Grammy in 1977 for the Car Wash soundtrack.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

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