Whitfield, Norman Jesse

▪ 2009

      American songwriter and producer

born May 12, 1941, Harlem, N.Y.

died Sept. 16, 2008, Los Angeles, Calif.

helped shape the sound of the music of label Motown Records in the 1960s and '70s, co-writing (often with Barrett Strong), arranging, and producing many of the hits of the Temptations, notably “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”; he also produced that song for Gladys Knight and the Pips and for Marvin Gaye. Other of Whitfield's hits for the Temptations include “I Wish It Would Rain” (1968), “Psychedelic Shack” and “Ball of Confusion” (both 1970), and “Just My Imagination” (1971), in addition to “Cloud Nine,” which won a 1968 Grammy for best rhythm and blues performance by a duo or group, and “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone,” which won a 1972 Grammy for best rhythm and blues song. In 1975 Whitfield left Motown and started his own label; the biggest success of Whitfield Records was the recording by the band Rose Royce of the sound track album Car Wash, which won Whitfield a 1976 Grammy as composer for best original score written for a motion picture. Whitfield was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

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