| Holland-Dozier-Holland gained fame by
writing and producing approximately 7.5% of the national hit records in the mid sixties
for the famous Motown Records Label. Artists such as Diana Ross (and the
Supremes), The Four Tops, Martha Reeves (and the Vandellas) owe their "star"
status to their efforts. In the seventies, after Motown, the team continued to
get hit records with their own Invictus and Hot Wax labels. |
| Somewhere in the mid-seventies, amid
distribution problems with the Invictus label, there became a "crack" in the
famous songwriting/production team with Lamont Dozier entering into label affiliations
without the Hollands. Although the original team still remains close and re-forms
for specific projects, Holland Group Productions (without Dozier) became the surviving
record company. While continuing to make good money in the business, the glory days
of hit after hit seemed a thing of the past. |
| In 1998 Holland Group began a
re-organization to re-launch the Holland-Dozier-Holland record labels as an active hit
machine type of company. In their first year (1999) the company released three
nationally charted records but without attaining a significant national hit. This
year, however, Holland Group has its first valid national hit in over two decades with the
release of "Dream A Little" in the smooth-jazz/adult contemporary music
category. Project Manager (Assistant to Edward J. Holland, Jr.) describes the
process of getting this record to its hit status: |
| Bob Dennis: You were
behind Holland Group signing an established Jazz artist like Ronnie Laws to the label.
Why Ronnie Laws? |
| Ron Dunbar: Besides
being available, Ronnie Laws was an established artist who has proven himself to be among
the elite at his particular craft. He was one of the first Jazz artists that was
able to get a million dollar record deal. He had tremendous success with some
previous records that had been released and, because of this, has continually performed
live and establish himself as master saxophonist with a world-wide following. He
plays the tenor, baritone and soprano sax and does it in such a way as to be unique. |
| Bob: How is the Dream
A Little record doing? |
| Ron: It's been number
1 on The Wave (LA) which is one of the biggest smooth-jazz/adult contemporary radio
stations in the nation and he's been three or four weeks number 1 in New Orleans. He
also has a tremendous amount of air play around the entire country in both the smooth jazz
and adult contemporary idioms. The record is in the middle of the smooth-jazz
national charts and climbing with a "bullet." The "bullet" means
that the record is significantly gaining momentum in both air play and in sales.
|
| Bob: How long has the
record been out? |
| Ron: The "street
date" (the date it was in the stores and available for purchase) was September 12th
of this year. Prior to that, however, the national smooth jazz stations had promo
singles and there was airplay before the record was released to the public.
The stations heard this promotional single, really liked the record and we had a promotion
team contacting the stations about air play in advance of the release date. |
| Bob: It appears that
some of the key elements of this record being a hit has to do with the caliber of the
artist (master musicianship, built-in fan base, previous success, etc...) and a properly
executed promotion plan for the record (with advance exposure and a promotion team to
contact radio stations). What other factors contribute to this record's success? |
| Ron: The record has to
be, as we say, "in the groove." It has be be done well, recorded well,
performed well, produced well and have strong appeal to the market - to the type of person
that will listen to and purchase this style of music in today's market. You can
spend a lot of money on the promotion and marketing of a record without getting back the
return. There have been cases of a million dollars being spend on this, just to have
the record flop (so to speak). You can also have a situation where an artist has a
record that does well and just as much time, effort and money is put into promoting and
marketing the next record with little result. The bottom line is that you have to
have something to promote "in the groove." With an established artist
there will be a certain number of fans that will buy anything that that artist puts out;
but you need to, at some point, move beyond this fan bass and sell to new listeners and
new fans. |
| Bob: Also I noticed
that there is also sort of a Urban Contemporary element to this record with guest artists
appearing on the CD in the rap/hip-hop type vein. Guest artists have appeared in
recent time on established artist releases with much success. The most dramatic
success was the recent multi-platinum Santana CD put out by Arista Records. Can you
explain the thinking behind this approach? |
| Ron: Forshe
and Felecia from the group For You did some background work on the CD and Eloise
Laws (Ronnie's Sister who also has a large following) plus a Broadway singer. This
tended to make the product have a broader and more current appeal. He will
also be touring next year joined by his sisters Eloise and Debra as well as his son(who
also performed parts on the current CD with his father). We will keep you informed
regarding the cities and the schedule of the tour. |
| Bob: Who Produced this
record? |
| Ron: Ronnie produced
this record although I helped with one cut called "Old Days Old Ways." |
| Bob: So what was your
role on this record? |
| Ron: I was the product
manager. I brought him into the company and got him signed. I helped arrange
some of the guest appearances (although he brought in a lot of guests himself). I
made sure that everyone working on it worked together to get this record produced,
released, distributed and promoted properly. |
| Bob: Tell me something
about where it was cut and mixed and the format used. |
| Ron: It was cut at
various LA studios with Frank Clark the engineer at Mad Hatter and Private Island Tracks
studios. It was mixed at Cherokee Studios with Dave Hindsly and personally
mastered by Bernie Grudman off of quarter inch two track analog tape. |
| Bob: It is very
interesting that it it was both cut on and mixed on analog tape. Do you notice, like
I do, that there's almost an analog resurgence in the industry today? |
| Ron: Definitely - more
and more of the top producers are insisting on the analog warmth in their product. |
| Bob: I want to thank
you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us about this release and let
the readers know that the CD is called "Dream A Little" by Ronnie Laws and that
it is readily available at stores throughout the nation. |
