PHILLY; General Johnson & Ugene Dozier

[jsmith]

PHILLY; MID 60's ... Norman Johnson & Ugene Dozier were penning some songs together until Gene decided to try his luck in Detroit & then in LA. So their job wasn't finished on one song they had developed together. Norman liked it & so continued work on the song & it became "It Will Be Done" which Eddie Carlton cut. Meanwhile Gene hadn't had too much success @ Motown, so he headed out to LA to try his luck there. Gene had also stuck with the song & come up with a 'finished' version too. He cut a demo version of it himself. He then worked with Lorenzo Manley on another song. Original Sound wanted to release the track Lorenzo had laid down but they had no 2nd recording. So Gene gave them his demo of "Swoop Down On You" and that became the B side of Lorenzo's 45
Norman's effort hit the shops in 65, slightly ahead of Gene's version. ...

[jsmith]

Ugene Dozier's version hit the LA shops a few months after the Swan 45 had been released ... neither did that well [[nationally) & it seems neither guy was aware of the other's efforts at the time.

[woodward]

Interesting to see who the producer of this song was --- Richard Barrett. He was a Philadelphia legend and worked with the Chantels on their recordings.

[mysterysinger]

And managed the Three Degrees - I met him at one of their shows in the UK.

[jsmith]

BTW, while in Detroit, Gene Dozier used the name [[of the more successful Philly guy) Billy Jackson. Think that was to help him get his foot in the door @ Motown and then at smaller Detroit soul labels [[he worked at both ahead of moving onto LA). BUT while at Motown a couple of Philly guys [[G&H ?) visited Hitsville & the guys there said ... OHH, you'll know Billy J then they told the Detroit crew that's not BJ, that's [[U)gene Dozier ... and Gene's time at Motown was over. Gene still used the name Billy Jackson after moving to LA [[hence the writing credits on the Lorenzo Manley cut).
Gene's time @ Motown was not too successful, though he told me he was one of the crowd who sang backing vocals on Stevie's "Uptight". His work there was complicated by the fact that the songs he worked on, being correctly credited to Dozier after his name change was discovered, were assumed by outsiders to be the work of Lamont.