Motown Records engineer, Tony Bongiovi, once let me in on a secret that I’d dearly embrace for the rest of my life: He told me that Motown songwriters Holland and Dozier often consulted newspaper headlines or watched soap operas for storyline inspiration. It was a tip that I’d use from then on in my own songwriting. He also said that everyone involved in making a record at Motown, including the engineers, were often invited to collaborate.

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“At Motown we were accustomed to brainstorming,” he recently confirmed. “There might be an instrumental break in the middle of a song and I would move that to the front or take the voices out in the chorus and make that the instrumental. At the time, edits like that were unique to Motown but I took all of that sophistication with me and brought it to Mediasound.” And with those new ideas, a slew of R&B artists including Melba Moore followed.

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Moore arrived at Media on the heels of her starring role in the original Broadway production of Hair. I assisted Alan Varner on Moore’s LP, This Is It. On this particular record, Van McCoy (The Hustle) was the producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and pianist. A trained musician, McCoy was also an excellent singer. As a ‘professional’ McCoy wrote charts and hired Elite players—mostly members of a band called Stuff—Gordon Edwards (bass), Eric Gale (guitar), Richard Tee (keyboards) and Steve Gadd (drums). Additional musicians included Kurtis Mayfield and Leon Pendarvis as well as McCoy’s musical partner/composer, Charlie Kipps, Jr.

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McCoy was always upbeat and a pleasure to work with and it was often a party to work with his crew particularly the ‘cats’ in Stuff. There was hooting, hollering, singing and dancing and plenty of food. I remember bassist Gordon Edwards downing more than one hot dog (bun, relish, mustard and all) before singing—something he was shy about but was occasionally asked to do.

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The rhythm section was recorded over the course of about two days. Then horns and strings were added during sessions booked in what was called ‘block time’—horns: 10am – 1pm, strings: 2pm – 5pm. That kind of tight recording could only be achieved with previously prepared arrangements. Indeed, McCoy was the arranger but on more than one occasion, he would arrive for the morning session ready with horn charts but without any string arrangements. During his lunch hour, between the horn and string sessions, McCoy would actually compose and notate all of the string parts! This was amazing considering most arrangers spent days, sometimes weeks on creating their charts. Unfortunately, McCoy died of a sudden massive heart attack at the age of 39.

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As a ‘professional’, it wasn’t necessary for Moore to come to the studio until it was time for her to record her lead vocals. Everything was prepared in advance by McCoy. Moore arrived with an entourage of friends many of whom were also singers. However, unlike singer/songwriters who were picky about arrangements and such, Moore never asked for anything to be changed. She merely performed her job by getting into the groove of the song and interpreting the lyrics. Stunningly talented and very friendly, she was basically a one-take singer. One night she gifted me front row tickets to her concert and I got to witness the phenomenon of Melba Moore in concert—a giant trumpeting voice coming out of a ninety-eight pound frame. The sound and vision has never left me

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Of Moore’s songs, JANTURAN chose to cover ‘Must Be Dues’ because of its unique guitar riff as well as the concept of the lyric.