JOHNNY BRISTOL

03/22/04

Famed Motown producer/songwriter Johnny Bristol died on Sunday (3/21) at the St. Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital in Howell, Michigan from natural causes. He was 65. Michigan State Police in Brighton stated Johnny suffered an apparent seizure at his Brighton Township home and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

While at Motown,  Bristol worked with some of the biggest acts including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, the Four Tops, Edwin Starr. Diana Ross and the Supremes topped the charts in 1969 with "Someday (We'll Be Together)", a song Bristol had co-written and recorded with Jackie Beavers as of the duo Johnny and Jackie seven years earlier (Bristol was one of the backing vocalists on and produced the Supremes' version).

Born in Morgantown, North Carolina, in 1939, Bristol admitted he got into show business by accident. He joined the air force in the 1950s and I was stationed at Fort Custer, in Battle Creek, near Detroit. In the force he met Jackie Beavers. The doo-wop partners played shows in the Detroit area and attracted the attention of Gwen Gordy, the sister of the Motown mogul Berry Gordy; she became their manager and released their first two singles, "Lonely & Blue" and "Hoy Hoy", in 1960 on her Anna label. When she struck up a relationship with Harvey Fuqua - the leader of the Moonglows whom she later married - they set up Tri-Phi Records and issued the Johnny and Jackie singles "Carry Your Own Load", "Someday (We'll Be Together)" and "Baby Dontcha Worry", which became regional hits but failed to break through nationally.

When Johnny and Jackie broke up in 1962 and Bristol looked around for a new job: He knew Lamont Dozier, who along with Fuqua, and they both helped  getBristol into Motown, where he became staff arranger and songwriter for Jobete, the label's publishing arm. Effectively Fuqua's right-hand man, he would go on the road to offer advice and report on the acts' live appearances and work on new songs and production.

In particular, Bristol and Fuqua helped develop the careers of Marvin Gaye, producing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", his 1967 duet with Tammi Terrell, and of Junior Walker and the All Stars, who scored with their "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" in 1969. The saxophonist and his group used to back Johnny and Jackie and re-recorded their "Do You See My Love (For You Growing)", which made the Top Forty in 1970.

Three years later, Bristol became in-house producer at Columbia Records. He helped Boz Scaggs create his blue-eyed soul template on the album Slow Dancer (1974).

Keen to record again, Bristol signed to MGM as a solo artist and scored a bull's-eye with his composition "Hang On In There Baby". The single became one of the major hits of 1974.  Bristol issued two excellent follow-ups, "You and I" and "Leave My World", before switching to Atlantic Records in 1976 for his last   solo hit, "Do It To My Mind", and the albums Bristol's Crème and Strangers. That same year, the Osmonds had a British No 1 single with "Love Me for a Reason", a Bristol composition. In 1985, he returned to Motown to produce "I'm Ready for Love" on the Four Tops' Magic album.