William Mickey Stevenson was born in Detroit on January 4, 1937, trained in doo-wop and gospel, and joined Berry Gordy’s company in 1959. As head of artists and repertoire he matched songs, writers and session players to a roster that grew to include the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and Martha and the Vandellas. He organized the label’s in-house band, the Funk Brothers, turning Detroit club musicians into the pulse of the Motown sound, and Smokey Robinson name-checked him in the 1963 hit Mickey’s Monkey.
Often with co-writer Ivy Jo Hunter, Stevenson co-wrote Dancing in the Street, Stubborn Kind of Fellow, It Takes Two, Ask the Lonely and Devil with a Blue Dress, and produced Uptight and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted. He also wrote as Avery Vandenberg for the Stein and Van Stock publishing company under Jobete. He left Motown in 1967, founded People Records in 1969 with acts including his wife Kim Weston, ran MGM’s Venture Records into the mid-1970s, and later produced stage musicals.
- Dancing in the Street, written for Martha and the Vandellas, reached No. 2 on the pop chart.
- Devil with a Blue Dress, written with Shorty Long, became a rock hit for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.
- His People Records folded around 1971, the same period James Brown launched his own unrelated label called People Records.
- He later owned a California label called Raintree.
- His stage productions included Swan, TKO and Chocolate City, and he married Michelle Stevenson in November 2021.
Leave a Reply