Mickey Stevenson
b. William Stevenson. Having spent his formative years recording R&B and gospel music, Stevenson joined the nascent Tamla/ Motown organization in 1959, later co-producing and arranging singles by Marv Johnson. As the company's first A&R director, he was responsible for supervising all facets of recording, assigning acts to producers and songwriters, and enlisting notable musicians like Choker Campbell, Benny Benjamin and James Jamerson. He brought Martha Reeves to the label, where she was also employed as his secretary, and later co-wrote Wild One and Dancing In The Streets for her group, Martha And The Vandellas. Stevenson's compositional and/or production credits included Beechwood 4-5789 and Playboy for the Marvelettes, Needle In A Haystack for the Velvelettes and Stubborn Kind Of Fellow and Pride And Joy for Marvin Gaye, who also recorded with Stevenson's wife, Kim Weston. Their singing partnership was sundered prematurely when she and her husband left Motown in January 1967 to join MGM Records. Although Mickey later founded his own label, People, he was unable to recapture the considerable success he enjoyed earlier in the decade.