The Motown Years

William Goldstein: The Motown Years

The Best Of William Goldstein was released in February 2009 by Motown and the Universal Music Group, as a response to a groundswell of interest in the work Goldstein created during his Motown Years. This 85 minute compilation, put together by Harry Weinger, VP of A&R for Universal’s catalog group, and Andy Skurow, UMG’s vault specialist, contains two of the most requested, unavailable (until Feb. 3rd 2009) tracks in the Motown archives, Smokey Robinson's Old Fashioned Man and Thelma Houston's One Out Of Every Six. Both tracks were written and produced by Goldstein and Ron Miller and appeared in the cult film "Norman Is That You". Also contributing to the re-discovery of these dynamic tracks, was the placement on YouTube of Midnight Rhapsody (Goldstein's biggest hit) & Back To Bach by a 20 something fan named "Franklin Disco".

Berry Gordy "discovered" William Goldstein in 1975. At the time Goldstein had written the theme for the ABC Morning show AM America.

Mr. Gordy heard this theme every morning and after a few months asked the head of Motown's creative department Suzanne dePasse to find Goldstein and have him produce a record version of his memorable theme. Ms. dePasse found Goldstein visiting Los Angeles in the spring of '75 and the label entered into a "singles deal", where Goldstein would produce a record version of the AM America theme and two other sides. Goldstein returned to New York and went to work. At that time he was also finishing a commission for a Bicentennial work, CELEBRATION OVERTURE 1776-1976, which was to be performed by the National Symphony Orchestra in May of 1976.

In July he sent three masters back to dePasse in Los Angeles. In early August dePasse called Goldstein and asked, "are you ready to be a star?" Goldstein demurred,"what do you mean?" "Well", said dePasse, "Berry (Gordy) and I listened to the AM America track, terrific. Then we listened to the "B" side Southern Comfort, nice groove, then we heard the third side Dreams of a Young Girl, .....it blew us away!"

A few weeks later Goldstein was on his way to Los Angeles under contract to Motown as a recording artist, record producer, composer and arranger, and a promise to open the doors to Hollywood. The promises were kept. During this period Goldstein wrote for & produced Smokey Robinson, Thelma Houston, Jermaine Jackson, Syreeta Wright, Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis and Dionne Warwick. He had a hit as a disco artist, Midnight Rhapsody.

Find William Goldstein in the Motown roster!

Motown, under the guidance of Ms. dePasse, introduced Goldstein to Universal and MGM where he scored such films as The Bingo Long Travelling All Stars & Motor Kings with Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor and Norman Is That You? with Red Foxx & Pearl Bailey.

In addition to scoring these films, he wrote songs for them as well. For Bingo Long he wrote Razzle Dazzle with lyricist Ron Miller. Also with Miller he wrote Old Fashioned Man, which was heard in Norman Is That You?, and was recorded by Smokey Robinson.

It was a very interesting and rewarding time.........