** This is just a short biographical summary – for the full story, check out this artist’s reviews! **

The older of the Holland brothers, Eddie Holland began as a vocalist, singing demo tracks for the songs Berry Gordy wrote for Jackie Wilson, as well as a couple of tracks for other labels. (For one of these singles he renamed himself “Briant Holland”, after his brother, leading to confusion about which brother had actually sung the songs.) Eddie cut one of the very first Motown singles in 1959, Merry-Go-Round, before his contract was bought out by United Artists along with labelmate Marv Johnson. Unlike Johnson, Eddie’s stint at UA was not a success, and he returned to Motown as an artist a year later.

Despite scoring a hit with Jamie later that year, sales remained disappointing, and Eddie was constantly afflicted by stage fright; when he caught sight of his younger brother Brian’s songwriting cheques, he realised he was in the wrong game. He joined the Holland-Dozier-Holland team as primary lyricist in 1963, and went on to sell millions of records as a writer; he also wrote a large number of Motown single sides outside the team, mainly in association with Norman Whitfield. He plugged away at his performing career until 1964, waiting until he had scored another mid-level hit before hanging up his microphone for good.

In 1966, Eddie was named Motown’s new head of A&R, replacing Mickey Stevenson. It couldn’t last; relations between the HDH team and Motown became strained, and – along with his brother and Lamont Dozier – he left Motown in 1967 to set up a new label, Hot Wax/Invictus. Unlike Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, both of whom took turns behind the mic for the new label, Eddie – the one member of the trio who’d had a substantial recording career of his own – never officially released another record as a performer.

Review Archive: Eddie HOLLAND (20 items)

We have 20 reviews for Eddie Holland currently available here on Motown Junkies – see our archive for more details, or click a link below:

1. Merry-Go-Round
2. It Moves Me
3. Jamie
4. Take A Chance On Me
5. You Deserve What You Got
6. Last Night I Had A Vision
7. (If) Cleopatra Took A Chance
8. What About Me
9. If It’s Love (It’s Alright)
10. It’s Not Too Late
11. Darling, I Hum Our Song
12. Just A Few More Days
13. Baby Shake
14. Brenda
15. I’m On The Outside Looking In
16. I Couldn’t Cry If I Wanted To
17. Leaving Here
18. Just Ain’t Enough Love
19. Candy To Me
20. If You Don’t Want My Love

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