Happy Birthday to Motown songwriter Eddie Holland, who turns 82 on Saturday (October 30th)!!! Holland, his younger brother Brian Holland, and Lamont Dozier — better known as “Holland-Dozier-Holland” — are responsible for writing and producing such Motown classics as Marvin Gaye's “How Sweet It Is”; the Four Tops' “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “Standing In The Shadows Of Love,” “Bernadette,” “It's The Same Old Song,” “I Can't Help Myself,” and “Reach Out (I'll Be There)”; Martha & the Vandellas' “Nowhere To Run,” “Heatwave” and “Jimmy Mack”; and the Supremes' Number One hits “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “Stop! In The Name Of Love,” “Come See About Me,” “Back In My Arms Again,” “I Hear A Symphony,” “You Can't Hurry Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin' On,” “Love Is Here And Now You're Gone,” and “The Happening.”
After leaving Motown in 1967, the team continued on with such hits as “Give Me Just A Little More Time” for Chairmen Of The Board, among others.
The Holland-Dozier-Holland team wrote many hits for the Four Tops. Holland said that “Baby I Need Your Loving” was a surprise hit for the group: “'Baby I Need Your Loving' was a song that sort of fell on the outside. It was just lying around a couple years. And the Four Tops came by, Mickey Stevenson, an A&R director, yes, he said, 'We got anything for the Four Tops?' And we said, 'Yeah, we got this one song, I mean, may be pretty good.' I didn't look at it as anything exceptional. It was nice, it was a nice tune, it was a hit, but I didn't look at it as anything earthshaking. And we did that and it became great. Matter of fact BMI has it as our best-selling record.”