Who Produced the Four Tops' "Just As Long As You Need Me"?

Who produced the Four Tops "Just As Long As You Need Me", the b-side of "Shake Me Wake Me [[When It's Over)"?

The obvious answer is Holland & Dozier. After all, that's what it says on the label, that's what it says in TCMS and DFTMC, and Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote the song.

However, as H&D's production code is "H", the matrix numbers on the singles they produced for Motown begin with that letter. Uniquely, the matrix number on "Just As Long As You Need Me" begins "QQX...".

As "Q" is a miscellaneous code, usually allocated to staff who do not have a producers' contract, this does indeed raise the question of who really produced "Just As Long As You Need Me".

144 i don't know,but the classic[shake me-wake me]is only my favorite four tops song,levi nailed it as he did with all his leads.

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Originally Posted by arr&bee

144 i don't know,but the classic[shake me-wake me]is only my favorite four tops song,levi nailed it as he did with all his leads.

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Records show it indeed as being written by HDH and produced by Holland Dozier

It certainly sounds like a Holland-Dozier production all right. The matrix numbers are normally reliable, so I wonder what caused the inconsistency.

A good question 144man.

I'm sure there's one singles DM [[Duplicate Master) number that has Q-Q-Q on it!

This translates to an 'unknown' or 'other' producer, recording engineer, and mix engineer!

As for the Tops 'Just as long as You Need Me', at least we know who mixed it!

[[X = Tom Nixon )

Cheers

Paul

This probably has no bearing.
But it has been written that when R.Dean Taylor came to Motown he was taken for a time under the wings of HDH and especially Eddie Holland. A performer & writer, some propose {and I remember vaguely that R.Dean had stated so himself} that he helped write more songs with HDH than he is credited for.
R.Dean also mentions here:

http://www.rdeantaylor.com/rdeantaylor/Biography.html

how he wanted to learn all he could about producing.

Is it possible that HDH might have allowed R. Dean to take a stab at producing, even though he did not have a producer's contract??? If he did, having studied the style and techniques of HDH and having been influenced by them, could he replicate their touch?

Thanks for the post, I enjoyed relistening to the track. It sure sounds like classic HD production.

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Originally Posted by carole cucumber

This probably has no bearing.
But it has been written that when R.Dean Taylor came to Motown he was taken for a time under the wings of HDH and especially Eddie Holland. A performer & writer, some propose {and I remember vaguely that R.Dean had stated so himself} that he helped write more songs with HDH than he is credited for.
R.Dean also mentions here:

http://www.rdeantaylor.com/rdeantaylor/Biography.html

how he wanted to learn all he could about producing.

Is it possible that HDH might have allowed R. Dean to take a stab at producing, even though he did not have a producer's contract??? If he did, having studied the style and techniques of HDH and having been influenced by them, could he replicate their touch?

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That's a plausible theory, Carole, but unfortunately there's no way to corroborate it.

All the relevant H&D produced singles have the "H" code when given, and for other singles with the "Q" code, the producer is obvious. There is no way to identify the producer by matrix codes on albums.

If R. Dean Taylor had been given an early stab at production by HDH. it would have most likely been on his own recordings. However, he had no singles released in 1965 except for "Let's Go Somewhere". The most likely candidate would have been its b-sde, "Poor Girl", but presumably as it was completed in 1964 the matrix only bears a 1- not a 3-digit matrix code, so that's no help.

The Tape Filing Card shows Holland, Dozier and the Session Logs say [[H) for producer.

But the Label Copy does say QQX. Often there are second and third versions of Label Copy, where someone has spotted a typo and fixed it. But not in this case.

I can't think of another case where the label producer code "contradicts" the other evidence so reluctantly I'm going to suggest it's a typo and no-one's picked it up ... till now ...