Richard Morris

[soulwally]

I've checked the archives and it seems the last question about Richard's career was answered pre-motown [[a producer-writer at Lupine, although his exact path to Motown was unclear); but what happened to him, presumably after the West Coast move, seems unclear. Anybody know?
I first heard of him when he was involved in Edwin Starr's Soul Master album, then seemed to work a lot with Martha.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

I've checked the archives and it seems the last question about Richard's career was answered pre-motown [[a producer-writer at Lupine, although his exact path to Motown was unclear); but what happened to him, presumably after the West Coast move, seems unclear. Anybody know?
I first heard of him when he was involved in Edwin Starr's Soul Master album, then seemed to work a lot with Martha.

soulwally, I couldn't find much on Richard Morris, either, but I've always loved his compositions and productions on Martha Reeves & The Vandellas. The best I could come up with was this page from Discogs which, although interesting, still doesn't tell us much about him. I'm guessing that he didn't make the move to L.A. with Motown, as we never heard hide-nor-hair from him again after that.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/469456-Richard-Morris-2

[no_place_like_motown]

Some other great songs that Richard composed that come to mind are "Don't Say You Love Me" by Smokey & the Miracles; "Just Another Lonely Night" by Fantastic Four; and "I'm So Glad It's Twilight Time" by the Velvelettes.

[soulwally]

boyfromcrosstown: Can you ask Cal and the girls?
Ralph: anything?

[woodward]

boyfromcrosstown: Can you ask Cal and the girls?
Ralph: anything?

Does anyone know if Richard Morris is still with us or has he expired? I was surprised that the Motown Encyclopedia does not have a presentation on him.

[kenneth]

I found this article about a copyright infringement suit he brought against Motown in the 90s. The links are to the main page, and the continuation of the article from Billboard.

https://books.google.com/books?id=5A...0motown&f=true

https://books.google.com/books?id=5A...0motown&f=true

[RossHolloway]

Does anyone have a picture of Richard Morris? I'm also interested to know what happened to him.

[theboyfromxtown]

boyfromcrosstown: Can you ask Cal and the girls?
Ralph: anything?

It would be Cal only....I asked a long time ago and there's not really much to say other than she worked with him. He was a nice person.

I had to remind her of the songs he did but she was real happy when I mentioned Twilite Time. That is a HUGE favourite of hers

[soulwally]

It would be Cal only....I asked a long time ago and there's not really much to say other than she worked with him. He was a nice person.

I had to remind her of the songs he did but she was real happy when I mentioned Twilite Time. That is a HUGE favourite of hers

Thanks to all for your interest in this thread. Kenneth, thanks for the links to the publication reporting on the royalties dispute

[carole cucumber]

https://books.google.com/books?id=RG...MOtown&f=false

[carole cucumber]

http://soulfuldetroit.com/web15-Holi...lden-World.htm

[kenneth]

Thanks to all for your interest in this thread. Kenneth, thanks for the links to the publication reporting on the royalties dispute

You're welcome. Leave it to Carole to always find some good information too. As Hillary says, we're "stronger together!"

[woodward]

I am in the process of reading Al Kent's book Custodian of the Humming Bird. It was unbelievable how much of a leading role that Richard played in the development and success of Golden World. He was heavily involved there far more than I ever realized.
I know he went on to greater fame [label wise] with Motown after his stint with the Primettes.

Has anyone ever seen in music publications or other sources [other than the SDF] any writeups on Richard? I still wonder if he is alive today. I don't think we know the answer to this yet, do we?

[soulwally]

Thanks for reviving this thread Woodward. Yes, we’re all still waiting on news of the mystery man

[mysterysinger]

I've seen something recently on Richard Morris - I'll see if I can remember where I saw it. He doesn't get a write up in the Motown Encyclopedia sadly.

[Roger Polhill]

"Just Another Lonely Night" is by Ivy Jo Hunter and Mickey Stevenson. Richard Morris wrote "Just The Lonely". Richard Morris wrote around 40 songs for Motown and associated labels. Martha & the Vandellas recorded 12 of his titles. There are photos.

[nsoule]

Here's his Motown Center ID card.

[Roger Polhill]

Well done nsoule. i`ve seen another on line.

[mysterysinger]

Wow that's a fantastic find nsoule. I've not seen it before.

In this piece from Record Collector, Mary Wilson suggests that Morris was around Motown in the early days and he was at their Motown audition.

"Mr Gordy had only started the company in 1959, it was very small in terms of what it
became later, but we knew the records it was putting out, we knew of Marv Johnson, the Miracles and Mary Wells. We’d hear their songs on the local radio station. Diane knew Smokey Robinson, they had been neighbours and through him we got our audition. We did our set, the three songs, and we were so excited, to us it was another step up the ladder, just being there was like wow! We weren’t quite 15. Mr Gordy said we were really good but why didn’t we come back after we had graduated from high school.

We were really disappointed not to be signed right away on the spot. One of the gentlemen who were there at the time though, the writer/producer Richard Morris, he talked to us after the audition and told us about a small label in Detroit called Lupine, he said to go there and try out. It was run by Bob West, and we did some things there, and the backgrounds for a couple of people; Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd.

Didn’t you record Tears Of Sorrow backed with Pretty Baby for Lupine in 1960?

Yes but we decided we weren’t going anywhere with them so we went back to Motown and just started hanging out there in their lobby all the time. We were extremely likeable and they knew we were harmless."

[mysterysinger]

I've seen something recently on Richard Morris - I'll see if I can remember where I saw it. He doesn't get a write up in the Motown Encyclopedia sadly.

So what I saw would have been Adam's West Grand Blog "Swingers and Humdingers" in April. It doesn't add much to the discussion on Richard Morris sadly but can be seen here
https://www.adampwhite.com/westgrandblog/swingingtime

Whilst there's little information available on Richard Morris, there is even less on his business partner Homer Davis who was also involved with The Primettes [[and is presumably the Hom in "A Hom-Rich Production". Does anyone have any gen on Homer Davis?

[Graham Jarvis]

Well done and thanks for the two details above. I love Detroit's "Lu Pine" 45 records, as you asked [the second one above] Here is three 45's you might be interested.

PS I have many more.

[soulwally]

Glad to see this thread still has some legs. And thanks for the picture of Richard on his ID card

[mysterysinger]

Glad to see this thread still has some legs. And thanks for the picture of Richard on his ID card

And we're still only scraping the surface in our understanding of Richard Morris - songwriter [[and artist known as Richard Kateo?).

[robb_k]

And we're still only scraping the surface in our understanding of Richard Morris - songwriter [[and artist known as Richard Kateo?).

Richard Kateo was a guitarist and songwriter who worked on some records for Fortune Records during the late 1950s. I seem to remember that he was later a fairly big Detroit record collector, too, and even was an infrequent poster on this forum during its earliest days. Kateo wasn't his real name, but I think his birth family name started with a "K". I don't think Richard Morris was Kateo. I think we had a few early threads on which his work was discussed, but I'm guessing they were lost when Lowell changed The Forum's operating platform. I'd bet the farm that Richard Morris was NOT Richard Kateo.

Ralph should know who Kateo was.

[luckyluckyme]

[luckyluckyme]

[robb_k]

I thought I remembered Kateo having that released on Fortune records in 1959. That Northern record was from 1960. Maybe that was its 2nd release? It shows Robert West's LuPine Music, which, I think, started in 1962 [[or maybe late 1961) Before that, Robert West's music publisher was Higgins-West. Maybe it was released on Johnnie Mae Matthews' Northern Records in 1959 [[black label), and this is a 1960 or '61 re-issue?

In any case, Richard Morris was the songwriter. So, that makes me wonder if my memory about this is wrong, and Kateo WAS Richard Morris. Lucky, Lucky Me, is THAT what you're getting at with this post? Do you know for sure? Or did you just post this as a clue from added information?

[luckyluckyme]

In any case, Richard Morris was the songwriter. So, that makes me wonder if my memory about this is wrong, and Kateo WAS Richard Morris. Lucky, Lucky Me, is THAT what you're getting at with this post? Do you know for sure? Or did you just post this as a clue from added information?

I only chanced upon the videos and thought they might trigger something in your memory. Sorry if I confused things further.

[luckyluckyme]

https://www.lexjansen.com/fortune/fortune_singles.pdf

[luckyluckyme]

Not much help but interesting:

https://www.lexjansen.com/fortune/fortune_article.pdf

[luckyluckyme]

[luckyluckyme]

https://www.discogs.com/label/158052-Northern-Records-5

[luckyluckyme]

It 's listed as being issued twice [3740 & 3744] here

https://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/northern.htm

[mysterysinger]

Discogs has Kateo and Morris as one and the same person but it's not always 100% correct.

[robb_k]

Discogs has Kateo and Morris as one and the same person but it's not always 100% correct.

I've seen many, many errors on Discogs. But in this case, they MAY be correct, given that Richard Morris was the writer, and, I MAY have remembered incorrectly, that Richard Kateo was a Fortune artist, now seeing "Tommy Kato" on their discography. I may have mixed up Kato and Kateo.

So Johnnie Mae Matthews' Northern Records released it twice, first in 1960, and later in 1962. So, maybe it wasn't on Fortune or a Robert West label first, in late 1959, after all. But, I DID remember correctly that it was issued twice, and heard it come back to the radio again a couple years later.