Marilyn McLeod (May 27, 1939 – November 24, 2021) was an American songwriter and occasional singer. McLeod began her career as a songwriter for

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 ...

. Together with

Pam Sawyer Pamela Joan Sawyer (born 1938) is a British songwriter/lyricist, who started writing songs in the mid-1960s and whose credits as a co-writer at Motown included " Love Child", " If I Were Your Woman", "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left ...

, she wrote the 1976

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 ...

hit "

Love Hangover "Love Hangover" is a song by the Motown singer Diana Ross, recorded in 1975 and released as a single on March 16, 1976. It rose to number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and Hot-Selling Soul Singles. It also hit number one on the Record World ...

Early life

McLeod was born in

Detroit, Michigan 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 ...

, in 1939 into a musical family – her half-brother

Ernie Farrow Ernest Farrow (November 13, 1928 – July 14, 1969) was a jazz bassist who occasionally played other instruments. His half-sister was Alice Coltrane. Early life Farrow was born in Huntington, West Virginia, on November 13, 1928. He started on pia ...

became a noted jazz performer, and her sister Alice married

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

and recorded many albums as a jazz keyboard player and

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

ist. Marilyn McLeod, ''Geni.com''
Retrieved April 18, 2016 "Marilyn McLeod, Hit Motown Songwriter with A Coltrane Connection", ''Jazz Corner News'', 14 June 2011
Retrieved April 18, 2016 Her family were acquainted with the

Gordy family The Gordys are an African-American family of businesspeople and music industry executives. They were born to Georgia-reared parents Berry "Pops" Gordy Sr. and Bertha Fuller Gordy and raised in Detroit, where most of the siblings played a pivota ...

, partly due to Ernie Farrow's boxing activities. Adam White, "Celebrating Marilyn's magic", ''AdamPWhite.com'', February 7, 2020
Retrieved November 30, 2021

Career

McLeod first worked at

as a

keypunch A keypunch is a device for precisely punching holes into stiff paper cards at specific locations as determined by keys struck by a human operator. Other devices included here for that same function include the gang punch, the pantograph punch, ...

operator, before attracting attention in the company as a songwriter. Her first copyrighted songs for the Jobete publishing company at Motown were published in 1967,Graham Betts, ''Motown Encyclopedia'', AC Publishing, 2014
/ref> often co-written with others including

William Weatherspoon William Henry Weatherspoon (February 11, 1936 – July 17, 2005) was an American songwriter and record producer, best known for his work for Motown Records in the 1960s. He co-wrote "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted", an international hit for ...

before she established a friendship and writing partnership with

Janie Bradford Janie Bradford (born June 2, 1939 in Charleston, Missouri, United States) is an American songwriter, most known for her tenure with Motown. With Berry Gordy, she co-wrote "Money (That's What I Want)", originally recorded by Barrett Strong, and t ...

. She co-wrote

Junior Walker Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. (June 14, 1931 – November 23, 1995), known professionally as Junior Walker, was an American multi-instrumentalist (primarily saxophonist and vocalist) who recorded for Motown during the 1960s. He also performed as a ses ...

's 1972 hit "Walk in the Night" with

Johnny Bristol John William Bristol (February 3, 1939 – March 21, 2004) was an American musician, most famous as a songwriter and record producer for the Motown label in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a native of Morganton, North Carolina, about which ...

, and two tracks on the album ''

Diana & Marvin ''Diana & Marvin'' is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, Californi ...

'', written with Mel Bolton. She also co-wrote

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 song " The World Is Rated X" with Bolton and others. She moved with the company from Detroit to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, and was teamed with lyricist

. The pair co-wrote

's 1976 hit "

", and the

High Inergy High Inergy was an American R&B and soul girl group who found fame on Motown Records in the late 1970s. They are best known for the hit song, " You Can't Turn Me Off (In the Middle of Turning Me On)". History High Inergy started in 1976 when the ...

hit " You Can't Turn Me Off (in the Middle of Turning Me On)" the following year. In 1978, they co-wrote the tribute to

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record la ...

's father, " Pops, We Love You (A Tribute to Father)", recorded by Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye,

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief ...

and

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

. Motown produced a promotional album of songs written by McLeod and Sawyer, almost all sung by McLeod and released under the band name Pure Magic. In 1982, McLeod co-wrote

Jermaine Jackson Jermaine La Jaune Jackson (born December 11, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and bassist. He is best known for being a member of the Jackson family. From 1964 to 1975, Jermaine was second vocalist after his brother Michael of The Jackson ...

's hit with

Devo Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...

, "Let Me Tickle Your Fancy", written with Sawyer, Jermaine Jackson, and

Paul Jackson, Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Jackson knew by the age of fifteen that he wanted to become a professional musi ...

McLeod left Motown in 1985, and, in the early 1990s, co-wrote several songs for Northern Soul DJ

Ian Levine Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer, and DJ. A moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of Hi-NRG, he has written and produced records with sales totalling over 40 million. ...

and his Motown revival label

Motorcity Records Motorcity Records is a British record label formed by producer Ian Levine in 1989. The label aimed to record new material with former Motown artists. History Levine, a Motown fan since his childhood in the 1960s, was offered a chance to recor ...

. In 2010 she released the album ''I Believe In Me'', a set of songs co-written with Janie Bradford.

Personal life

In 2011, McLeod suffered a stroke which caused problems with her left side. A musical tribute event for her took place in March 2020, featuring

Lamont Dozier Lamont Herbert Dozier (; June 16, 1941 – August 8, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. He co-wrote and produced 14 US ''Billboard'' number-one hits and four number ones in the UK. Career Doz ...

Freda Payne Freda Charcilia Payne (born September 19, 1942Some sources give a birth year of 1945, but this appears to be an error as all sources agree that she is older than her sister Scherrie, born 1944.) is an American singer and actress. Payne is best ...

and Michelle Coltrane among others. McLeod died on November 24, 2021, at the age of 82. Her grandson is the musician, producer and rapper

Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, Disc jockey, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder. Flyi ...

References

External links

* · * {{DEFAULTSORT:McLeod, Marilyn 1939 births 2021 deaths 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers American women singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Michigan Singers from Detroit Motown artists