The Unhooked Generation: Holland-Dozier-Holland After Motown – Part 5
The team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland – known collectively as Holland-Dozier-Holland, or HDH for short – wrote and produced some of Motown’s most beloved classics, including hits for the Supremes, the Four Tops, and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas. The trio left Motown due to disputes over contracts and royalties, forming their own pair of labels, Invictus and Hot Wax, in 1969. (A third, the short-lived Music Merchant, followed in 1972).
The seven-part series The Unhooked Generation: Holland-Dozier-Holland After Motown examines every single released on that trio of labels. The series follows the format of the 14-disc box set Holland-Dozier-Holland: The Complete 45s Collection, released this year by Harmless Records to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the formation of Invictus and Hot Wax.
Part 5: Hot Wax Records, 1969-1971
The first four parts of this series explored the output of Invictus Records, the flagship record label established in 1969 by Holland-Dozier-Holland shortly after leaving Motown. Now we turn to HDH’s other label, formed the same year but distributed by the independent Buddah Records rather than the monolithic Capitol. Although Hot Wax Records seemed intended to be the lesser of the two, with a smaller roster of artists than Invictus, it surprisingly scored more consistent chart success and higher peaks than its sister label.
Much of Hot Wax’s success can be credited to one act: Honey Cone. This trio of glamorous young ladies may have appeared to be HDH’s attempt to recreate The Supremes, but Honey Cone had a funkier attitude and a more contemporary sound. Lead singer Edna Wright (younger sister of Darlene Love) is a soprano like Diana Ross, but with a much more versatile, powerful voice. Even Honey Cone’s trendier, more casual dress sense set them apart from the glitzy formal wear of The Supremes.
“While You’re Out Looking for Sugar” (“… somebody’s gonna take your honey and be gone”) became not only the first single ever released on Hot Wax, but beat out The Glass House’s “Crumbs Off the Table” to be the first single HDH put out after leaving Motown. The premise of the song – a woman lamenting her cheating boyfriend – is familiar from many Supremes hits, but Honey Cone’s spin on it is far more assertive. Instead of just pleading with him or feeling sorry for herself, she makes it clear that she has options, too: “Don’t think for a minute ’cause I’m true/ that don’t nobody want me but you.”
The subject matter of the group’s next single, “Girls It Ain’t Easy,” is a bit closer to the Motown girl group’s woe-is-me wheelhouse, a fact accentuated by the prominent use of harpsichord. Nevertheless, it’s looser and groovier than anything HDH gave to their former protegees. “Take Me With You” is perhaps the best of Honey Cone’s early singles, proof that they could do a sweeping, strings-laced ballad without sacrificing their inherent spunk.
“When Will It End” is the girls’ most Motownish single, marrying the steady, pounding beat from many of The Supremes’ biggest hits (as well as the electronic noodling from “Reflections”) with the gospel-influenced vocals of the Four Tops. Sadly, it was their least successful release yet, missing both the pop and R&B charts. The trio had managed some minor hits with their first two singles, but it was looking like they might not ever catch on.
In 1971, however, HDH handed Honey Cone over to the team of General Johnson (of Chairmen of the Board) and producer Greg Perry. Rather than seeing these girls as the new Supremes, Johnson and Perry remade them into a female trio version of the Jackson 5, taking the bubblegum approach of building songs almost entirely out of hooks. Their first single for the group, “Want Ads,” proved that Honey Cone had finally found their match – it soared to #1 on both the pop and R&B charts, making the trio the only Invictus/Hot Wax act to ever top either chart.
“Want Ads” and its follow-up, “Stick Up,” are built from shared elements: a high-concept premise (in “Want Ads,” the narrator turns to the classified section for a new boyfriend; in “Stick Up,” the boyfriend is a thief who steals her love and runs); a mid-tempo groove, highlighted by scratchy guitars and funky basslines; and catchy interjections tailored to jump out of radio speakers “Wanted: young man, single and free,” “Extra! Extra! Read all about it,” “Help! I’ve been robbed!”). “Stick Up” was nearly as successful as its predecessor, climbing to #11 on the Hot 100 and again topping the R&B charts; both it and “Want Ads” also went gold. Honey Cone were not only the biggest act on Hot Wax, but also seemed poised to take up The Supremes’ mantle as the be the premier girl group of the ‘70s.
Before Honey Cone scored their first Top 10 hit and gold record, another Hot Wax act managed the same feat. HDH formed the group 100 Proof (Aged in Soul) as a way to bring together a number of jobbing Detroit-area musicians, including Joe Stubbs (brother of the Four Tops’ Levi) and lead singer Steve Mancha. Their first single, “Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup),” barely scraped the charts, but set the template for 100 Proof’s subsequent releases: a heavier sound than most other Invictus/Hot Wax acts, courtesy of Mancha’s soul-drenched vocals, with such extensive use of metaphors and double-entendre (often food-based) that they veer into novelty song territory. (Perhaps that’s why The 8th Day was able to steal hits like “She’s Not Just Another Woman” and “If I Could See the Light in the Window” out from under 100 Proof – neither of those songs had enough puns.)
The group’s second single, 1970’s “Somebody’s Been Sleeping,” borrows from fairytale motifs (“fee-fi-fo-fum,” “somebody’s been sleeping in my bed”) to tell the story of a man coming home to discover evidence that someone had been in with his woman while he’d been out. The record sold over a million copies and went to the Top 10 on both the pop and R&B charts, but the gimmicky sound, fairly or not, marked 100 Proof as one-hit wonders.
Follow-ups “One Man’s Leftovers (Is Another Man’s Feast),” “Driveway,” and “90 Day Freeze (On Her Love)” tilled the same ground as “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” and “Too Many Cooks,” to diminishing returns – though “Driveway” (as in, “I don’t want nobody parking in my baby’s … ”) is actually the best of all the group’s singles, with a sleekly propulsive arrangement, one of Mancha’s fiercest vocals, and a central conceit that’s just naughty enough not to be completely hokey.
In fact, the B-sides of 100 Proof’s singles are often a better showcase for the group. Songs like “Not Enough Love to Satisfy” and “Love is Sweeter (The Second Time Around)” may lack the conceptual hooks of their flipsides, but are solid slabs of soul that prove the group had more talent than the jokey premises of their singles let on. Listeners seemed to agree – once 100 Proof finally broke out of their formula, they would be rewarded with their second-biggest hit.
The other major male act on Hot Wax’s roster, Flaming Ember, could scarcely have been further removed from 100 Proof. The all-white group were more of a pop-rock band with soul influences – sort of a junior-level Blood Sweat & Tears, minus the jazzy elements. And unlike 100 Proof, Flaming Ember were often painfully serious, with maudlin ballads like “Shades of Green” and “Sunshine” forming the nadir of Hot Wax’s output.
Nevertheless, the group was one of the most consistent hitmakers of the label’s early era. “Mind, Body and Soul,” the group’s Hot Wax debut and the label’s second-ever release, became the first of Flaming Ember’s three singles to enter the Top 40. The other two, “Westbound #9” and “I’m Not My Brother’s Keeper,” would also climb to the Top 20 of the R&B charts. The latter, a mid-tempo plea for racial understanding (in the sense that black people should not judge all white people as racists) was followed by “Stop the World and Let Me Off,” a mid-tempo plea to a woman to leave her girlfriend and give men a chance.
As dodgy as some of their material was, however, Flaming Ember did manage to cut one stone-cold classic. “Westbound #9” sounds like a slightly more rock-inflected version of a standard HDH stomper, but the flashback-heavy lyrics borrow from the narrative style of country songs like “Ode to Billie Joe.” While the narrator reminisces about life in his old hometown, however, “Westbound #9” is firmly anti-nostalgic; all the anecdotes and evocative images serve to illustrate why he chose to ride the rails out of town.
One thing that Flaming Ember did share with 100 Proof, however, was a tendency for B-sides far more interesting than the tracks they backed. “Deserted Village” has an appealing Neil-Diamond-on-peyote vibe, while “Robot in a Robot’s World” and the acid-drenched protest song “1200 Miles” showed that the guys could get legitimately get funky. Nevertheless, after one final single for Hot Wax, the Joe Cocker-ish “If It’s Good to You (It’s Good for You),” the group renamed themselves Mind, Body and Soul in honor of their first hit, and retired to the Detroit bar scene.
Of all the acts signed to Invictus/Hot Wax, Laura Lee was probably the one who came to the label with the biggest name. After spending time in famed gospel group The Meditation Singers (where she replaced Della Reese), she signed to Chess Records as a secular artist, recording at Muscle Shoals and netting a few R&B hits in the late ‘60s like “Dirty Man” and “Uptight Good Man.” Yet she earned her biggest successes after joining Hot Wax in 1970, although her grittier, bluesier style never quite meshed with the HDH sound.
Nevertheless, Lee offered a valuable counterpoint to other Invictus/Hot Wax stars – more mature and pessimistic about love than Honey Cone, rawer and more aggressive than Freda Payne. “Wedlock is a Padlock” established the persona that she would inhabit for most of her stint at the label: the straight-talking, street-level feminist who wouldn’t take any of her man’s guff – and who would probably cheat on him before he cheated on her. But it was the follow-up, “Women’s Love Rights,” that would be her breakout hit, climbing to #36 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the R&B charts.
Lee dedicates the track “to all the women liberators and men sympathizers,” imploring them to “stand up and fight.” The “love rights,” as enumerated by Lee, range from the critical (“you’ve got a stake in all he owns and makes”) to the less essential, but still valuable (“be taken out to eat, at least once a week”). Lee’s ever-ragged voice evokes a woman who’s been pushed to the end of her rope, but the triumphant, upbeat arrangement makes the song feel less like a mope than an anthem.
In addition to its quartet of star acts, Hot Wax also released singles by a pair of other artists. McKinley Jackson & Politicians were the Funk Brothers of Invictus/Hot Wax, backing up many of the labels’ artists, but they also managed to release one LP under their own name. “Love Machine” is one of their few non-instrumentals, featuring vocals by in-house producer/songwriter Ronald Dunbar. It shares a conceit with the Miracles song of the same title, but beat it to the punch by four years, with a much sunnier, groovier sound than that disco hit.
Unlike The Politicians, Silent Majority were outsiders – a Philadelphia act that sounded it, and wrote their own material rather than relying on HDH or the other in-house writers. “Frightened Girl” is pleasant if not revelatory example of Philly soul, with a languid pace, dreamy strings, and sweet falsetto harmonies. Its B-side, “Colors of My Love,” is more in keeping with the Detroit sound, with a thudding Four Tops-ish beat and gruffer vocals, but neither track made much of an impression.
By late 1971, Hot Wax was awash in success. Yet the cracks were already beginning to show: only Honey Cone, 100 Proof (Aged in Soul), and Laura Lee actively recorded for the label anymore, with no new acts signing on to join them. All three artists would go on to score solid hits in the year to come, but it would only be a matter of time before the party ended and the money ran out. But even if the label seemed to be sitting on a time bomb, at least it (mostly) went out on a bang – as we’ll explore in The Unhooked Generation, Part 6: Hot Wax Records, 1971-1977.
