Kenneth C. Stover (born August 21, 1948 in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, United States – December 2010, in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

) was an American

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

songwriter, producer, and singer. He contributed

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

's 1971 album '' What's Going On'' and wrote the first draft of Gaye's 1973 single "

Let's Get It On ''Let's Get It On'' is the thirteenth studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP. Recording sessions for the album took pla ...

Career

Stover and his brother Elgie moved to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Michigan, to work with their cousin

Harvey Fuqua Harvey Fuqua (July 27, 1929 – July 6, 2010) was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive. Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s. He is notable as one of th ...

on his Tri-Phi

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

. They befriended Marvin Gaye and members of the Motown family. In the late 1960s the Stover brothers signed to Motown's

Jobete Music Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

as staff songwriters. Stover contributed background vocals on Gaye's " Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", and later co-wrote Gaye's " You're the Man" (1972). In 1973, Stover wrote the original rough draft of "Let's Get It On" and presented the song to Gaye as a political song. Stover also co-wrote the

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

song, "Lovin', Livin' and Givin'" and two songs by Bobby Nunn, "Sexy Sassy" and "Got to Get Up on It". In the mid-1970s, Stover formed the soul group Leo's Sunshipp with Johnny Simone and Alvin Few, but canceled the group's planned album when Simone died of cancer. A 12' was released on Lyons Records and this record and a CD were also later released by

Expansion Records Expansion Records is a British record label founded by Northern Soul DJ Richard Searling and Soul Bowl owner John Anderson. In 1989, DJ Author & Journalist Ralph Tee joined the label, both he and Searling run Expansion Records. Label hist ...

. In 1978, Stover was part of a Motown collective called Finished Touch. He left Motown in 1981 and settled in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

for a brief time. A song he co-wrote called "Good Combination" was released by

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson (born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the 1983 hit "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Roberta Flack. Bryson ...

as a single, and the song went on to be

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

, giving Stover royalty cheques especially after the song's instrumental was covered by

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his Will Smith filmography, acting career starring as Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), a ...

and

Faith Evans Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida, and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B ...

Personal life

Stover grew up in

. Stover moved back to Cleveland in 1985 to take care of his sister, but he continued to write and produce music, later as part of Kenrou Music & Publishing. He died in December 2010.

Studio albums

with Leo's Sunshipp * ''We Need Each Other'' (Lyons, 1978) with Finished Touch * ''Need to Know You Better'' (

, 1978)

References

External links

Kennyworldorder.com
on the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

Kenny Stover
on soulwalking.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Stover, Kenneth 1948 births 2010 deaths African-American male singer-songwriters American soul musicians Singers from Cleveland Singer-songwriters from Ohio Motown artists Marvin Gaye