Holland-Dozier-Holland: Detroit 1969-1977 - 4 CD Set

2024

The definitive collection of the legendary song-writing trio Holland-Dozier-Holland
68 tracks taken from the period between 1969-1977 when the trio had started labels Hot Wax, Invictus And Music Merchant
Extensive liner notes by Stuart Cosgrove known for his award-winning Soul Trilogy Detroit 67: the Year That Changed Soul, Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul and Harlem 69: the Future of Soul.

Holland, Dozier and Holland are arguably the greatest songwriters ever.  More prolific than Lennon and McCartney, they shaped “the Sound of Young America” and propelled the Motown sound in the mid-1960s into a creative stratosphere unmatched by any other independent music label. Their trademark was catchy teenage love songs delivered energetically by previously unknown Detroit groups like The Supremes, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas & Marvin Gaye.

Although synonymous with Berry Gordy’s Motown, it was their departure from Motown after a stand-off strike in 1967 and a brutal legal battle that led them to run their own group of labels, Invictus, Hot Wax and Music Merchant.

This compilation is a definitive look at this period in history, exploring how H-D-H, under a new guise ‘The `Creative Corporation’, drove the next generation of soul music in a myriad of different ways, towards funk, underground disco and jazz. One of their major ambitions when the doors to Invictus first opened was to find the same conveyer belt creativity that had underpinned Motown and find acts that could replicate the national success of the Four Tops, the Supremes and Marvin Gaye. The fact that they partially succeeded is no minor achievement.

Depicted by author Stuart Cosgrove who wrote the award-winning Soul Trilogy, a series of books on soul music and social change – Detroit 67: the Year That Changed Soul, Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul which won the Penderyn Prize, as Music Book of the Year in 2018, and Harlem 69: the Future of Soul.

Featuring 68 tracks, the collection explores the creativity, expression and progression that the trio were going through at this point including tracks by Chairman Of The Board, Freda Payne, Honey Cone, Glass House, Flaming Ember, 8th Day, Laura Lee & Eloise Laws.