The Ivy Hunter Story

[snakepit]

some of you will be aware that I am a big fan of Ivy Hunter and his Motown work.
Here, with the permission of author Rob Moss, is a great article on the great man. From Soul Souce web site.

when you see the quality of his work, I am sure you'll agree that Motown/Universal should honour him with a CD of his tracks both his Album and vaulted tracks.

http://www.soul-source.co.uk/article...ob-moss-r2789/

[bradburger]

Many thanks for that Snakepit.

Ivy was one of my favourite writers/producers, and was a classic example of an 'A' team' player who somehow got stuck in the 'B' team whilst at Motown!

Very interesting to read about the Mickey Stevenson songwriting credit arrangement! And then how Ivy repaid Mickey for his help getting him to Motown [[and then guiding him whilst there) by leaving the writing credit agreement as it was, even after Mickey had left the company!

Sounds like a top bloke.

And I totally agree that a CD of his work is long overdue.

Maybe ACE can take this one on!

Cheers

Paul

[RossHolloway]

Great read on Ivy . Was Mickey Stevenson fired or did he leave to take another job and took his wife Kim Weston with him? And the song Keep Stepping and Never Look Back he listed as being recorded by Brenda Holloway, but that's the first I've ever heard that she recorded the track. Carolyn Crawford and Martha & The Vandellas both recorded the track and have been released. And in the liner notes to one of the later COM there was a note that the Marvelettes also recorded the song.

[bradburger]

Mickey Stevenson took a job with MGM in mid to late 1966 if I recall correctly, and took Kim with him.

Here's one of the tracks he produced on Kim: -



I think you might know the tune!

Cheers

Paul

[soulwally]

some of you will be aware that I am a big fan of Ivy Hunter and his Motown work.
Here, with the permission of author Rob Moss, is a great article on the great man. From Soul Souce web site.

when you see the quality of his work, I am sure you'll agree that Motown/Universal should honour him with a CD of his tracks both his Album and vaulted tracks.

http://www.soul-source.co.uk/article...ob-moss-r2789/

Thanks to Snakepit for posting, and many thanks to Rob Moss for his hard work. It's the first 'long' read I've seen with Ivy, and some very interesting quotes therein.
I think one of George Ivy Hunter's biggest mistakes was choosing the name Ivy Jo Hunter, which has led to some confusion with singer Ivory Joe Hunter with critics down the years.
And a little bonus... a pic of the Contours I had never seen before.

[snakepit]

3 tracks from unreleased 1965 on Soulful shack .....Ivy Hunter MIGHT feature

[luckyluckyme]

I know that Aretha released this song written by Ivy Jo Hunter & her sister, Carolyn first, but I've always loved this rendition :

[the sound of young america]

A great article.

Nice to hear Beatrice Verdi getting a mention. A Motown enigma if ever there was. I have never seen a picture of the lady?

[snakepit]

Let's hope Ivy gets his deserved due, and a specialist CD company release a set on him. I'm sure it would sell.
The recent Brenda Holloway CD sold well so were told, so let's hope they pick up on Ivy's stuff.

[woodward]

Does anyone know Ivy Jo's current whereabouts, i. e. UK, USA, elsewhere? What involvement does he currently have on r&b music?
Hopefully he is in good health, but you never hear much about him.

[jobucats]

Ivy Hunter had a hand in the writing of this Four Tops treasure along with co-producing it with Lawrence Payton. Although it appeared on a b-side, I don't think it ever appeared on a regular album release although it did show up on some of the "collections/compilation" albums/cds. My ears are hearing a possible successful single release. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9cHo50XSao

[danman869]

Great article on Ivy! I, too, thought Mickey got a better offer to do A&R at MGM along with the promise to head up Venture Records [[wasn’t that considered to be MGM’s soul imprint?) and took Kim [[as his wife) with him to Los Angeles? Perhaps he was fired by Berry around that time in a fit of pique [[maybe he was miffed that Mickey was looking for a bigger piece of the pie—as well as looking elsewhere?), but I thought Mickey left Motown for more money and autonomy at MGM?

Also, I felt the end seemed very vague. Mickey left Motown and the company had moved to Los Angeles and left two office people behind, so Ivy asked for his contract back? 1967...1972/3...huh? There’s gaps there that leave questions.

I would love to see Soulmusic.com [[who released “Spellbound,” the recent Brenda 2-CD set) handle an artist set on Ivy Jo [[“Is In This Bag...Plus,” but would be fine if Ace took on that set, too. As for a songwriter tribute set dedicated to Ivy’s work, I would love anyone to tackle that, however, it would need more than one disc to be comprehensive—especially including a few pre- AND post-Motown tracks he wrote/produced. I guess the big question would be whether or not th investment would it definitely see a return in sales?

[snakepit]

Ivy probably had a 7 year artists contract, dating from 1964.?
Berry and Motown's top brass were showing less and less interest in Detroit operations, and they had a non creative person in charge of A&R...Ralph Seltzer I think. The remaining artists didn't like him or the situation they were left with.
I think Ivy was in the unfortunate position of fighting the Detroit corner, with Gordy uninterested . No doubt Ivy was seen as chief complainer...read Raynoma's book.
He probably asked for his artist contract back as nothing had been released, and as a result , 2 45s were issued on VIP. Probably saved the company money, which by 1970/71 it seems that the bean counters were firmly in charge in Detroit.
The A&R guys were asked why they wanted a piano!!
The Mickey Stevenson situation is unclear..did he leave or was he pushed, it depends on whose version you read.

[lakedistrictlad1]

I've Jo Hunter was incredibly prolific at Motown. I love his music. And yet he must rank as the writer who had the most work canned surely? It must have taken an incredible drive to keep working while dealing with the endless knock backs.
I would love to see a double CD release of his work on other artists. Followed by his own recordings. Wouldn't that be something?

[theboyfromxtown]

Ivy probably had a 7 year artists contract, dating from 1964.?
Berry and Motown's top brass were showing less and less interest in Detroit operations, and they had a non creative person in charge of A&R...Ralph Seltzer I think. The remaining artists didn't like him or the situation they were left with.
I think Ivy was in the unfortunate position of fighting the Detroit corner, with Gordy uninterested . No doubt Ivy was seen as chief complainer...read Raynoma's book.
He probably asked for his artist contract back as nothing had been released, and as a result , 2 45s were issued on VIP. Probably saved the company money, which by 1970/71 it seems that the bean counters were firmly in charge in Detroit.
The A&R guys were asked why they wanted a piano!!
The Mickey Stevenson situation is unclear..did he leave or was he pushed, it depends on whose version you read.

The story about Eddie Holland seems to be the most believable

[jobucats]

I just had an "aha" idea this morning as I was listening again to an Ivy Hunter song on the Four Tops [[Your Love is Wonderful...on the B-side) which I referenced previously in this thread. This aha idea leads me to these questions/observations: I am assuming that writers/producers got some royalties [[payment) from their songs placed on the "B" side of a single release based on the sales, right? Can I also assume that if the same song was placed on an album, these folk get some royalties from the album sales, right?
Well, it's disheartening that Ivy Hunter was shortchanged being that this particular song [[up until the compilation albums) was not released on a "regular" album. I believe it was on the B-side of Bernadette and that album had some pretty good sales, which Ivy would not have benefitted from if my 'theory' is true.

[keith_hughes]

per the session logs, Ivy Jo's first and last recording dates as an artist were 22 May 1964 and 18 March 1971 ...

[lakedistrictlad1]

per the session logs, Ivy Jo's first and last recording dates as an artist were 22 May 1964 and 18 March 1971 ...

Ooh Keith..you've been studying the session logs. Shall we read anything into that? 😃

[keith_hughes]

Not much I can do to stop you, LDL! But I think Santa might be bringing the fans a new Ivy Jo track later this year.

[144man]

Hopefully Santa will be bringing us "Unreleased Motown - 1967" on download if we're good.