Jerry Long received his first opportunity at Motown in 1964, arranging Marvin Gaye’s “Walk On The Wild Side” on the “Broadway” album. After a four-year gap, he returned to direct the orchestration for the Four Tops’ single “Don’t Let Him Take Your Love From Me”. Norman Whitfield, who co-wrote and produced the song, must have been impressed. In 1969, Long was asked to write further arrangements for songs on the Four Tops’ “Soul Spin” album, on Marvin Gaye’s “That’s The Way Love Is”, on Gladys Knight & the Pips’ “Nitty Gritty”, and on the Temptations’ song “Cloud Nine”. He very quickly became one of Motown’s top arrangers!
On the Gladys Knight and the Pips’ single “Friendship Train” (1969), Long was hired by Norman Whitfield to conduct the orchestration on the track. The following year, he arranged all the tracks on the Smokey Robinson And The Miracles’ album “What Love Has Joined Together”. The Supremes producer Frank Wilson then employed Long as arranger for several tracks on the Supremes’ “Right On” album. Jerry Long’s biggest achievement was probably conducting his masterly arrangements of “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)” for The Temptations in 1971. It was an outstanding recording, one of the best performances by the group, and a wonderful demonstration of Long’s brilliant skills, working with the Funk Brothers and some of Detroit’s classically-trained musicians! Long and his family moved to Pomona, California, in the early seventies, to continue his career on the West Coast.
Wade Marcus wasborn in Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man he played trombone in Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra, but he came to Motown as an arranger. He started working for Motown around 1969, when he arranged songs for Bobby Taylor and Chuck Jackson. He quickly moved up the ladder and was given the opportunity to work on songs for the Four Tops (“Soul Spin”), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (“Point It Out”), Diana Ross & the Supremes (“Cream Of The Crop” album, including “Someday We’ll Be Together”), Marvin Gaye (“That’s The Way Love Is”), David Ruffin (“Feelin’ Good”), and the Marvelettes (“That’s How Heartaches Are Made”). Not bad for his first year!
Photo: Publicity photo for DownBeat (Wikimedia Commons)
In 1970, he worked on songs that appeared on Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ albums “A Pocket Full Of Miracles” and “The Season For Miracles”, the Spinners’ “2nd Time Around”, the Originals’ “Portrait Of The Originals” and “Naturally Together”, and Stevie Wonder’s “Signed Sealed & Delivered”. Soon he was matching David Van DePitte in terms of output. The year continued with arrangements for Edwin Starr’s “War And Peace”, the Supremes’ “Right On”, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas’ “Natural Resources”, Gladys Knight & the Pips’ “Greatest Hits”, the Ruffin Brothers’ “I Am My Brother’s Keeper”, and the Marvelettes’ “The Return Of The Marvelettes”.
He was busy at Motown, but he was a freelance arranger. He managed to fit in work for other record labels including Stax, RCA Victor and Atlantic, as work at Motown reduced during 1971 and the first half of 1972. When Motown’s move to Los Angeles happened, Marcus committed his talents elsewhere.
Willie Shorter is another of Motown’s behind-the-scenes employees. He was a specialist arranger who worked on songs for the Four Tops (“The Key”, 1968), the Originals (“Moment of Truth”, 1969), and Junior Walker & the AllStars (“These Eyes”, 1969, which he also produced). In 1969, he was one of five arrangers who worked on David Ruffin’s album “Feelin’ Good”, and he also worked on the arrangement of “The Weight” on the Supremes & the Temptations’ “Together” album.
After that, his workload increased, with arrangements for the Supremes, Junior Walker & the AllStars, the Spinners (all 1969), Junior Walker again, Yvonne Fair, the Ruffin Brothers and Edwin Starr (all 1970), and Junior Walker & the AllStars, Stevie Wonder, and Gladys Knight & the Pips (all 1971). During the first half of 1972, he was writing arrangements for Junior Walker & the AllStars and the Originals.
Willie Shorter is not well-known, probably because most of his work was carried out for lesser-known songs.
Paul Riser is a Motown legend, a prolific arranger and composer and an outstanding studio musician. He has over one thousand credits to his name and has won several Grammy Awards thanks to his work with Norman Whitfield and the Temptations! His name appeared on several number one hits and several million-selling records between 1968 and 1972.
One of his lesser-known recordings gives an excellent demonstration of Paul Riser’s creative brilliance as a master arranger. He was responsible for arranging the tracks on the album “Strung Out”, released by Motown in 1970. The album was recorded by Gordon Staples And The String Thing, made up of musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, who provided the backing for hundreds of Motown tracks.
Motown had some excellent song writing teams. Their creation was largely the work of Berry Gordy, who realised that the quality of the material available to the company’s artists would be a key factor in achieving success. But a song can be played and sung in many different ways, depending on the instrumentation used. Adding horns and strings became another element in the creation of a hit song, and that was the work of the Motown arrangers. Jerry Long, Wade Marcus, Willie Shorter, and Paul Riser were four of the best. Listen to the strings and horns on the albums mentioned above, and you will hear just how good they were!
