Whitfield was born and raised in Harlem, New York, and spent much of his teen years in local pool halls. In his late teens, he and his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, so that his father could join his sister and work in her husband's chain of drug stores, Barthwell Drugs. He attended Northwestern High School.
The Temptations in 1971, during the time Whitfield produced for them
From 1963 to 1974, Whitfield produced virtually all of the Temptations' music, experimenting with sound effects and other production techniques.[1] He found a songwriting collaborator in lyricist Barrett Strong, the performer on Motown's first hit record, "Money (That's What I Want)", and wrote material for the Temptations and other Motown artists such as Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips, both of whom recorded Whitfield-produced hit versions of the Whitfield/Strong composition "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". The Gladys Knight & the Pips' version was the best-selling Motown single so far, but it was surpassed a year later by Gaye's version. In 1969, Whitfield won three BMI Awards for the songs "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "I Wish It Would Rain," and "You're My Everything."[7]
The psychedelic soul records Whitfield produced for the Temptations and other artists such as Edwin Starr and the Undisputed Truth experimented with and updated the Motown sound for the late-1960s.[1] Longer songs, distorted guitars, multitracked drums, and inventive vocal arrangements became trademarks of Whitfield's productions, and later of records produced by Motown staffers he coached, including Frank Wilson. But friction and antagonism grew between Whitfield and the Temptations; the group hated how Whitfield put more emphasis on the instrumentation instead of their vocals, and that he was writing fewer romantic ballads for them.
Whitfield often recorded notably different versions of songs with different artists in search of a hit, and did so successfully in the cases of Edwin Starr, with "War" (1970; originally recorded by the Temptations), and the Undisputed Truth, with "Smiling Faces Sometimes" (1971; also originally by the Temptations). "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" (1972) was done first by the Undisputed Truth, before Whitfield rerecorded the song with the Temptations for a longer, more definitive (and massively successful) version. The Temptations' version earned a second Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for Whitfield and the Temptations, and Whitfield and Strong shared the songwriters' award for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. The single's instrumental B-side earned Whitfield and arranger Paul Riser a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance,
In the early 1980s, Whitfield began working as a producer for Motown again, helming the Temptations' 1983 hit single "Sail Away" and the soundtrack to The Last Dragon.[1]
On January 18, 2005, Whitfield pleaded guilty for failing to report royalty income he earned from 1995 to 1999 to the Internal Revenue Service. Facing charges of tax evasion on more than $2 million worth of income, he was sentenced to six months of house confinement and a $25,000 fine. He was not imprisoned because of health problems such as diabetes.
During his last months alive, Whitfield was bed-ridden at Los Angeles's Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he underwent treatment for diabetes and other ailments. Whitfield fell into a coma, briefly improved, but eventually succumbed to diabetic complications.[3] Whitfield died on September 16, 2008. He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).
^Corbett, John (1994). Extended Play: Sounding Off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. pp. 149–150. Excerpt: "In fact, Motown's Temptations copped a good bit of P-Funkiness - 'Norman Whitfield should have stayed out of our shows with his tape recorder, recording our shit!' says Clinton, good-naturedly."
