Willie Garrett -- Motown Songwriter

[jsmith]

Willie E Garrett seemed to make a slow start when it came to song writing. He started off with a bang, helping pen "Please Mr. Postman" & "Mashed Potato Time". After a quiet spell, he hit the ground running from 1966, writing loads of songs recorded by D-Town, Wheelsville & Ric Tic / Golden World artists. In 67 he wrote for & produced Buddy Lamp for Wheelsville [[also working with Lee Rogers & the Fabulus Peps). From then into 1968 he seemed to be concentrating [[writing / producing) on the Fantastic Four [[Ric Tic).
In 68, a Westbound act cut one of his songs [[more Westbound / Eastbound acts followed suit in 71, 72 & 73). But in 69, he seemed to be one of the Golden World / Ric Tic team who were absorbed into the Motown team. Quite a few of his songs were then cut by Motown artists but after Motown moved west, he seemed to disappear from writers listings all together.
. . . ANYWAY, back in summer 1967, Ric Tic put out a 45 by Willie G, both sides of which were penned [[with helpers) by Willie Garrett. Willie Garrett also produced both tracks, so it's no giant leap to say Willie G was Willie Garrett.
BUT why would a songwriter, who up till then, had only sung on demo's of his own songs [[an educated guess made here) suddenly get a 45 release.
WELL, Motown had just bought up the contract of existing Ric Tic artist Edwin Starr, so no doubt, the label used one of the guys not taken by Motown and released a version of song by Willie himself.
CONFIRMATION of this would seem to come via Ric Tic RT-126 which was withdrawn at the time of Motown's take-over. This 45 was supposed to be Edwin Starr on "MEET ME HALFWAY" [[the song which was released by the label on Willie G) coupled with "THROW IN THE TOWEL". Willie had written the song in conjunction with Buddy Lamp.
Ric Tic 125 [[Willie G's release) came out of order with other Ric Tic 45 releases, following on after the release of RT-127 & 128.
So, it seemed that the Willie G release was a bit of an after-thought brought on by Edwin's departure from the label and therefore their inability to put out his version of "Meet Me Halfway".
Has Edwin's recording of "Meet Me Halfway" [[& of "Throw In The Towel") ever surfaced ??? as no doubt, they would eventually [[late 60's) have ended up in the Motown tape vaults) and if not, does evidence that he actually cut these 2 songs exist in recording session logs ??
Is it known what became of Willie Garrett in the mid 70's and afterwards ?
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