Frank Wilson

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Frank Wilson · Frank Edward Wilson was an American songwriter, singer and producer for Motown Records. He was born on 5 December 1940 in Houston, Texas, and died on 27 September 2012. He studied for a year at Southern University in Baton Rouge, but lost his scholarship after a civil rights protest. As a teenager he moved to Los Angeles. In 1963 Berry Gordy asked the producers Hal Davis and Marc Gordon to open a Motown office in Los Angeles, and Wilson joined that team. The first single to appear from that West Coast branch, Stevie by Patrice Holloway in December 1963, also carried his name as a writer.

Music and breakthrough

Wilson also started publishing companies of his own and, over four years, wrote and produced more than forty compositions for others. He also recorded a single himself, Do I Love You (Indeed I Do), which was to appear as a Motown release on the Soul label. Reportedly 250 demo copies were pressed, but Wilson preferred to concentrate on producing and had them destroyed. In 1976 he left Motown, became a born-again Christian and a minister, and wrote books with his wife Bunny.

Influence

Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) from 1965 is a soul song with the typical Motown build: a solid rhythm section, tambourine and a singer who sings with great power. The story of the almost vanished record shows how chancy it is that a classic comes into being, and that it is sometimes the makers behind the scenes who write soul history.

Listening

• 
  Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) · Frank Wilson, 1965
  Apple Music ↗

See also

• Northern soul