RIP Rod Temperton

[soulwally]

Amazing songwriter [[Heatwave, Michael Jackson, the list goes on) has died at 66
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37565125

[MIKEW-UK]

And an extremely affable, kind and sincere man according to a pal in the industry who worked with him over a number of years.

Let's not forget the Academy Award for the song in the movie The Color Purple he co-wrote with Quincy Jones and Lionel Ritchie - "Sister [[Miss Celie's Blues)" vocals by Tata Vega....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3C0p5PF554

[soulster]

Wow! Another musical giant taken by cancer. I loved his music.

RIP, Rod!

[TomatoTom123]

So sad
Such a great loss


RIP, Rod Temperton

Mellow out with this CLASSIC laidback tune, written by none other than Rod himself


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d96evg9gXxY&app=desktop

[marv2]

I just saw the story. This is a huge loss. Rest in peace Rod:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5J7fjGzN6U&feature=gp-n-y&google_comment_id=z13tuf1rynzoj30xq04ccbprzuqbin3q ejs

[marv2]

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/thriller-songwriter-rod-temperton-dies-london-age-66-42584159

[manny]

RIP a great songwriter...! :-[[

Many times I read "Rod Temperton"as songwriter in the credits of 70's and some 80's soul classics. perhaps my favorite is Quincy Jone's "Ai No Corrida"

[Guy]

Fantastic songwriter. Love all the MJ, Quincy Jones and Heatwave stuff.

Temperton also wrote and produced "You Made A Move On My Heart" for, and originally recorded, by Mica Paris. Later recorded by Tamia and Jennifer Hudson. A beautiful song, one of my favorites, but it never became the hit it deserved to be.

[Jerry Oz]

Well, my day has been ruined. Rod Temperton was my favorite song writer of the '70s and '80s thanks to his work with Heatwave and Quincy Jones. Heatwave remains one of my favorite bands and his fingerprints are on all of their greatest hits. His keyboard riffs and rhythm arrangement were singularly wonderful. You won't find a lot about him on line because he was said to be a very private man.

Rest in peace, Rod. I pray that your family and friends handle this tough time with fond remembrances instead of only feeling your loss.

[Jerry Oz]

I just saw the story. This is a huge loss. Rest in peace Rod:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5J7fjGzN6U&feature=gp-n-y&google_comment_id=z13tuf1rynzoj30xq04ccbprzuqbin3q ejs
Marv, that album is in my top 10. Every song on it is one of my favorites.

[marv2]

Marv, that album is in my top 10. Every song on it is one of my favorites.

That album was on constant rotation on my stereo during my senior year in high school. Definitely a part of the soundtrack of my life! "Star of Story"............

[manny]

Rod Temperton also wrote Heatwave's "Boogie Nights"...?! I likes a lot the jazzy riff piano in the intro!

[Jerry Oz]

That album was on constant rotation on my stereo during my senior year in high school. Definitely a part of the soundtrack of my life! "Star of Story"............
Yes! Eric Johns played a heck of a Spanish guitar solo on that track. I scat along to it every time I hear it. And Mario Mantese was great on bass for them. Johnny Wilder, Jr. had the smoothest voice in his generation. What a band. I enjoyed the "Unsung" about them, although it felt [[like they all do) incomplete and had more than its fair share of sadness.

I saw Heatwave in concert [[with GQ and Sister Sledge) after Wilder's horrible accident and felt like the band was incomplete with the new members, even though they still sounded great.

Sister Sledge headlined the show but I was a bigger fan of the other two acts and would have paid more for them to double the length of their sets. LOL.

[Jerry Oz]

Rod Temperton also wrote Heatwave's "Boogie Nights"...?! I likes a lot the jazzy riff piano in the intro!
"Boogie Nights" is one of those songs that remind me of exactly where I was in my life when it was rocking the radio. Things were so much more fun and innocent back then. "Too Hot To Handle" was a surprise to a lot of us stateside because the band was so solid for a debut album.

[Jerry Oz]

One of my favorite Rod Temperton songs by the Brothers Johnson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj-jY0_qoUc

[Jerry Oz]

Another Q collaboration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0e7OyxFsxQ

[Jerry Oz]

And so many great Michael Jackson songs. I flipped out when I saw Temperton's name on the credit of several songs on "Off the Wall".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-Mrc2l1d0

[Jerry Oz]

And although "Secret Garden" had several writers, his input can be heard on it, especially on the background vocals. He and Quincy Jones were magic together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8G1SzUhJsM

[Jerry Oz]

This is probably my favorite song by him [[as mentioned before):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylxma3orbcs

[Jerry Oz]

And I flipped my sh*t when I heard him and Bob James collaborate. My favorite R&B keyboardist and my favorite jazz keyboardist working together?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkB-6Vy117s

[Jerry Oz]

Quincy had him work with Rufus and Chaka, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttGXpOmtfNo

[Jerry Oz]

And "Sweet Freedom" and "Yah Mo B There" by Michael McDonald.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-xetxYwyak

[Jerry Oz]

Another one of my favorite Rod Temperton songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7K7WfjP7SM

[midnightman]

What a legend. May he RIP. I don't know how the Los Angeles R&B sound would've been without his input.

[marv2]

"Boogie Nights" is one of those songs that remind me of exactly where I was in my life when it was rocking the radio. Things were so much more fun and innocent back then. "Too Hot To Handle" was a surprise to a lot of us stateside because the band was so solid for a debut album.

My high school band played "Boogie Nights" while it was still new on the radio. They tore it up!!!

[marv2]

"Boogie Nights" is one of those songs that remind me of exactly where I was in my life when it was rocking the radio. Things were so much more fun and innocent back then. "Too Hot To Handle" was a surprise to a lot of us stateside because the band was so solid for a debut album.

When we first heard of Heatwave around late summer/early fall of 1977 all we heard was that they were a band out of Germany. I was quite surprised to later learn that some of it's members were actually from Dayton Ohio. Their two albums "Too Hot to Handle" and "Central Heating" were musical bookends to my senior year in high school. I cannot remember a party or a dance that year that did not feature their music. "Always and Forever" was even the theme of our Homecoming.

[Jerry Oz]

Funny how I never thought about him as a great ballad writer, but in hindsight, his book had many of my favorite show jams in it. I remember my big brother asking my folks if "Always And Forever" was a cover of an older soul record. He couldn't believe it was a newer song in that era of repetitive beats and fast tempos. I don't think there has ever been a better produced record than that one. Admit it: you sing along with it when you hear it, don't you?

[marv2]

Funny how I never thought about him as a great ballad writer, but in hindsight, his book had many of my favorite show jams in it. I remember my big brother asking my folks if "Always And Forever" was a cover of an older soul record. He couldn't believe it was a newer song in that era of repetitive beats and fast tempos. I don't think there has ever been a better produced record than that one. Admit it: you sing along with it when you hear it, don't you?


You almost had to! The song was so massively popular at the time I did sing along and use to be able to hold that long, long note at the end. LOL!

[manny]

Buuuff!! I forget about "Give Me The Night"!! How many times I played the single and the B side "Dinorah, Dinorah" [[much after I purchased the album in the CD reedition and around a half of the tracks, including the fantastic "Love X Love" are by Rod Temperton).

I ignored the collaboration between those two greats Temperton and Bob James. Bob James is another favorite of mine since in my teens I purchased the LP "Three" with the guest appearance of Grover Washington, Jr. [[who I discovered here!) and the fantastic "One Mint's Julep". I have many LP's and CD's by him with Earl Klugh, David Sanborn and others. He made a very mellow cover of The Stylistic's "You're Right As Rain" and I was very hungry when some criticals says he is the typical "smooth jazz" example and his music is "bland" [[!!!???).

[Jerry Oz]

Manny, I reject anybody calling Bob James "typical", "bland", or even "smooth jazz". I had his first nine albums and loved his music, especially his collaborations with Grover. "Westchester Lady" and "Brighton By the Sea" are two of my favorite jazz records. Regarding the "Give Me The Night" LP, I'm a huge George Benson fan [[my favorite jazz guitarist) and when I heard "Off Broadway", which was produced by Quincy Jones and written by Rod Temperton, it took the top off of that album for me. I played it to death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6bG_WsTV0I

[soulwally]

I think I've told this story on this forum before, but in the circumstances it's worth retelling.
Sometime in the mid-70s friends who were fellow soul fans urged me to attend a small club in the next town, to see a group they'd seen when they last appeared there.
The club was small, decidedly unfunky, being the social club of an amateur football team. But the music, from Johnnie Wilder's Chicago Heatwave, as they then were called, was amazing.
Johnnie of course took the eye most, but the band absolutely cooked. They were slightly odd looking, with a white drummer [[who turned out to be Czech), a chubby bass player [[Spanish), and an acne-scarred keyboardist [[Temperton), who came from the very uncool town of Cleethorpes in the UK.
Very early in their career, but they ended up massive.

[soulster]

They were slightly odd looking, with a white drummer [[who turned out to be Czech), a chubby bass player [[Spanish), and an acne-scarred keyboardist [[Temperton), who came from the very uncool town of Cleethorpes in the UK.

The interesting thing is that their original drummer, Ernest "Bilbo" Berger, could not speak or understand English, but, somehow, it all worked. Music is the international language, as they say. He is one of the best drummers in R&B ever!

Rod was a tall, lanky fellow, wasn't he? Ever hear him speak? He had a thick cockney[[?) accent. Very charming fellow, though.


Very early in their career, but they ended up massive.

I'm happy they did!

This isn't the thread for it, but we in the U.S. don't know anything about Producer Barry Blue. Who was he? he did a fantastic job with Heatwave, and, IMO, gave them their sound: heavy, loud drums, loud, deep bass, and that very British, in-your-face keyboard and guitar sound.

[manny]

Manny, I reject anybody calling Bob James "typical", "bland", or even "smooth jazz". I had his first nine albums and loved his music, especially his collaborations with Grover. "Westchester Lady" and "Brighton By the Sea" are two of my favorite jazz records. Regarding the "Give Me The Night" LP, I'm a huge George Benson fan [[my favorite jazz guitarist) and when I heard "Off Broadway", which was produced by Quincy Jones and written by Rod Temperton, it took the top off of that album for me. I played it to death.

You're so right, Jerry Oz... I was immediately falling in love with the flute intro in "Woman Of Ireland", "You're Right As Rain", "Nautilus", by Bob James and definitively is NOT "bland" or "smooth"... some criticals are so stupid! I have read that "all the stuff by Creed Taylor's CTI records is the begining of the degeneration of Jazz and the beginning of the smooth wave" [[!!!!). I have a lot of Freddie Hubbard, George Benson, Stanley Turrentine, Esther Philips vynils on wich you can hear anything but "bland"...!

Returning to the thread and about Rod Temperton, yesterday I visited one of my favorite music blogs "Any Major Dude" [[I don't want to put the link because there's downloads and could be a legal problem, ??) and there's a tribute article with a nice compilation of his diverse stuff [[from "Sweet Freedom" by Michael McDonalds!!!... to Karen Carpenter, passing trough Anita Baker).

Cheers to all

[Jerry Oz]

Rod was a tall, lanky fellow, wasn't he? Ever hear him speak? He had a thick cockney[[?) accent. Very charming fellow, though.

LOL! For some reason, I thought about the liner notes thank yous for the Brothers Johnson on their "Light Up The Night" LP where they acknowledge him by saying "God bless his wooley, the bloody genius!", which I assume is a cockney phrase he used with them at some point or another.

[arr&bee]

Very sorry to hear this,another legend gone-r.i.p.

[MIKEW-UK]

Rod was from Cleethorpes in the North of England, and never lost his regional dialect, which is very far removed from the cockney accent of the east end of London.

if you listen to this interview with Questlove, he plays the 'Rock With You' demo made by Rod Temperton. Not only can you hear how fully formed the demo was with arrangements, orchestration etc, but actually hear Rod singing the melody without the words....that's because he hadn't yet written the lyrics!!!!!

click on the sound file embedded in the article once you have brought up the article by clicking on this link
http://www.getintothis.co.uk/2016/10/michael-jackson-rod-temperton-rip/

[Jerry Oz]

MikeW, thanks for this. As I stated, I'm a huge fan and I like reading things like this article.

I just remembered an instance when I was working shortly after my high school days [[1984 or so). I was singing Heatwave's song "Gangsters of the Groove" when one of my ignorant co-workers remarked "you can tell that song was written by a Black guy". I made sure he knew that he was as racist as he was wrong.

[Sotosound]

This isn't the thread for it, but we in the U.S. don't know anything about Producer Barry Blue. Who was he? he did a fantastic job with Heatwave, and, IMO, gave them their sound: heavy, loud drums, loud, deep bass, and that very British, in-your-face keyboard and guitar sound.

You can check Barry Blue out on Wikipedia but in short he was a writer, producer and also a pop artist who had some UK hits in the early 70s on Bell Records that seemed to be well aimed at the girlie teeny bopper market. His music was all over BBC Radio 1 for a year or so.

As for Rod Temperton, I bought "Boogie Nights" during my very early days in the record industry and always loved the jazz-tinged intro.

"Always and Forever" is best heard in full-length version and was a frequently played "slowie" during my mobile DJ days. An absolute classic.

And what I found was that Rod Temperton had a way with melody that was all his own and that made many of his songs immediately recognisable - all different but all from the same pen. [[The same also applied to Al Green and Willie Mitchell's output during their peak period.)

[soulster]

I know I can google him up and check Wiki, but it makes for nice discussion here.

[Sotosound]

Indeed it does, and I was surprised when Barry Blue turned up as producer for Heatwave.

[nysister]

And so many great Michael Jackson songs. I flipped out when I saw Temperton's name on the credit of several songs on "Off the Wall".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-Mrc2l1d0

What a great writer Mr. Temperton was. The lyric that gets me every time on "Rock with You" is the line, "Dance you into Day" because that's all we loved to do was dance man! Thank you for the good music Mr. Temperton, and may you rest in peace.

[Jerry Oz]

That song is so interesting. Most will consider it a ballad, but the tempo is actually quite fast. I'm not sure how to categorize it.

[soulster]

That song is so interesting. Most will consider it a ballad, but the tempo is actually quite fast. I'm not sure how to categorize it.
Most people I know call it disco. I hear it as a ballad.

[soulwally]

Here's how his [[former) local newspaper reported his death. Rod had worked in a frozen food factory, it reports, to support his early career in music
http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/the-man-who-wrote-thriller-dies-lincolnshire-pays-tribute/story-29784103-detail/story.html

[soulwally]

A longer piece, with interesting pix, from his other local paper
http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/tributes-to-rod-temperton-the-grimsby-fish-filleter-who-reeled-in-fortune-for-wacko-jacko/story-29782224-detail/story.html

[nysister]

[QUOTE=Jerry Oz;351504]That song is so interesting. Most will consider it a ballad, but the tempo is actually quite fast. I'm not sure how to categorize it.[/QUOTE

We stepped and we did the rock to this song.