Willie Hutch

1944-2005

Songwriter, producer, and singer

Many different people have been credited over the years with creating the classic "Motown sound," from the studio musicians who can be heard on scores of recordings to Motown founder Berry Gordy himself. Meanwhile, lurking behind the scenes are the likes of Willie Hutch, the songwriter, producer, and performer who wrote, produced, and arranged dozens of Motown hits over a career spanning more than 20 years. During his time at Motown during the label's "golden age," Hutch worked with such stars as Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Junior Walker. Hutch's own recordings have been sampled countless times in recent years by contemporary performers who have been drawn to the soulful soundtracks he created during the 1970s "blaxploitation" era in film.

Willie McKinley Hutchinson was born on December 6, 1944, in Los Angeles, California. When he was a small child, he moved with his mother and three siblings—two brothers and a sister—to Dallas, Texas, where they lived with his grandmother and an aunt. As a youth, Hutch showed considerable musical promise. He immersed himself in gospel, jazz, and rhythm and blues, and learned to play several instruments. While still a student at Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas, Hutch formed his own doo-wop band, called the Ambassadors, and he began writing his own songs for the group.

After high school, Hutch joined the U.S. Marines, with whom he served a two-year tour of duty. When his military service was over, he resettled in Los Angeles with the intention of forging a career in the music industry. He did not have to wait long to break into the music business. He released his debut single, "Love Has Put Me Down," in 1964. The following year, Hutch met a photographer named Lemonte McLemore. McLemore was in the process of forming a vocal group built around two former Miss Bronze America titlists. The group was to be called the Versatiles. Popular singer Johnny Rivers signed McLemore's group to a contract, under the condition that they change their name to the Fifth Dimension. As their debut single, the Fifth Dimension chose to release a song written by their new friend Hutch, called "I'll Be Loving You Forever." Hutch went on to write several more songs for that group, and he co-produced their 1967 hit album Up, Up and Away. On the strength of that album, the Fifth Dimension went on to become one of the best-selling musical acts of the era.

With his foot—as well as the rest of his body—firmly in the door of the music industry, Hutch was ready to launch his own career as a performing artist. In 1969 he signed with the RCA record label and released his first solo album, Soul Portrait. He would go on to release 16 more albums by the end of his career.

Hutch's biggest career breakthrough came in 1970. Hal Davis, a prominent producer for Motown Records, called Hutch in the middle of the night desperate for help. The Jackson 5 was scheduled to record a new song the next morning, but Motown honcho Berry Gordy was unhappy with the material in its present state. Davis needed Hutch to rework the song into a form that would meet with Gordy's approval. Hutch worked through the night and delivered the finished song by 8:00 in the morning. He was then summoned into the studio right away to arrange the vocals. The song, "I'll Be There," was recorded on schedule. Featuring the 12-year-old Michael Jackson on the lead vocal, it became Motown's best selling hit up to that time, reaching to top of the both the pop and R&B charts in the United States and reaching number four in the United Kingdom.

Having come through in a big way for Gordy and Davis, Hutch was quickly hired to arrange some other Jackson 5 songs, and soon after he was signed on by Motown as a full-time staff writer and producer. He was with Motown during the label's heyday, working over the next two decades with such superstars as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. In addition to his work for Motown, Hutch had a lasting impact on the movie industry. He wrote the soundtracks for two iconic blaxploitation films of the early 1970s: The Mack (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Blaxploitation refers to a 1970s genre of low-budget, violent pictures aimed at a black, urban audience. These movies featured funk/soul soundtracks, and had themes that often involved cool, urban African-American heroes turning the tables on corrupt white establishment figures.

In the hip-hop generation, blaxploitation films found a new audience that identified with the brutal violence and ambiguous morality of the genre. Consequently, the music and songs Hutch had written in the early 1970s gained a new popularity more than 20 years later. Pieces of Hutch's soundtrack for the Mack were sampled by a number of hip-hop artists, including Biggie Smalls, Lil' Kim, and Moby. The Chemical Brothers, a British electronic music duo, not only sampled Hutch's song "Brother's Gonna Work It Out" from the Mack soundtrack—creating a United Kingdom rave anthem in the process—but they made the original "Brother's Gonna Work It Out" the title track on a DJ mix album. Another track from the Mack was featured in the 2005 film Hustle & Flow, a winner at the Sundance Film Festival.

Hutch recorded several more solo albums with Motown, before jumping ship for the rival Whitfield record label in the late 1970s. By 1982 he was back at Motown, recording his own albums and writing and producing for others musicians. His song "In and Out" was a modest dancefloor hit in 1982, and he scored a minor hit in 1985 with the song "The Glow" from the soundtrack to the movie the Last Dragon. Hutch continued to work as a producer for Motown into the 1990s. In 1994 he moved back to Dallas, where he continued to record and perform when he felt like it, while royalties from his old hits and samples used in new hits generated a very comfortable income. In 1998 Motown released The Very Best of Willie Hutch, a compilation of Hutch's best work over his long career with the label. Hutch released his final album, Sexalicious, in 2002.

Hutch died in Texas on September 19, 2005, at the age of 60, leaving behind six children, ten grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and legions of saddened music fans. On February 8, 2007, many of the recording industry's biggest celebrities gathered to celebrate Hutch's life and art and perform some of his music at a gala tribute event at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Proceeds from the event, called "From the Heart," were given to the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and the American Society of Young Musicians.

At a Glance …

Born Willie McKinley Hutchinson on December 6, 1944, in Los Angeles, CA; died on September 19, 2005, in Duncanville, TX; children: six. Education: Booker T. Washington High School, Dallas, TX. Military service: U.S. Marines.

Career: The Ambassadors (doo-wop group), founder; recording artist, 1964-2005; RCA label artist, 1969-70; music arranger, 1970-2005; staff writer/producer, Motown Records, 1971-94.

Selected discography

Singles

"Brother's Gonna Work It Out," Motown, 1973.

"Slick," Motown, 1973.

"Sunshine Lady," Motown, 1973.

"If You Ain't Got No Money," Motown, 1974.

"Get Ready for the Get Down," Motown, 1975.

"Party Down," Motown, 1976.

"Shake It, Shake It," Motown, 1977.

"We Gonna Party Tonight," Motown, 1977.

"All American Funkathon," Motown, 1978.

"What You Gonna Do After the Party," Motown, 1978.

"In and Out," Motown, 1982.

Albums

Soul Portrait, RCA, 1969.

Seasons for Love, RCA, 1970.

Fully Exposed, Motown, 1973.

The Mack (soundtrack), Motown, 1973.

Foxy Brown (soundtrack), Motown, 1975.

Mark of the Beast, Motown, 1975.

Ode to My Lady, Motown, 1975.

Color Her Sunshine, Motown, 1976.

Havin' a House Party, Motown, 1977.

In Tune, Whitfield, 1979.

Midnight Dancer, Whitfield, 1980.

In & Out, Motown, 1983.

Making a Game Out of Love, Motown, 1985.

The Last Dragon (soundtrack), Motown, 1985.

From the Heart, GGIT, 1994.

The Mack Is Back, Midwest, 1996.

Sexalicious, GGIT, 2002.

Sources

Periodicals

Guardian, October 4, 2005, p. 32.

Sacramento Observer, June 12, 2002, p. E5.

Times (London), September 27, 2005, p. 60.

On-line

"From the Heart: In Memory of Willie Hutch," Willie Hutch: A Tribute to the Man, the Music, and the Art,www.williehutch.org/bio.php (March 5, 2007).