Johnny Bristol

Motown producer

Johnny Bristol first made a name for himself around Detroit as one half of the soul duo Johnny & Jackey, alongside Jackey Beavers, a fellow airman he met during his time in the US Air Force. Together, they put out two singles in 1959 on Anna Records—a label co-owned by Gwen Gordy and Billy Davis—and four more 45s on Tri-Phi, which was run by Gwen Gordy and Harvey Fuqua. None of these records broke out of the Midwest. After Motown absorbed Tri-Phi in the mid-1960s, Bristol teamed up with Fuqua to write and produce.

Their hits included Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Your Precious Love,” and “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You”; Edwin Starr’s “Twenty-Five Miles”; and David Ruffin’s “My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me).” At Motown, Bristol thrived, working with the label’s biggest names. He wrote or produced for the Velvelettes (“These Things Will Keep Me Loving You”), Gladys Knight & the Pips (“I Don’t Want to Do Wrong” and “Daddy Could Swear, I Declare”), and Jr. Walker & the All Stars, who scored with Bristol-penned tracks like “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love),” “Gotta Hold On to This Feeling,” “Way Back Home,” and “Walk in the Night.”

One of his final big successes was Jermaine Jackson’s first solo single, “That’s How Love Goes.” Bristol also produced and co-wrote the last singles for both Diana Ross & the Supremes and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, just before each group lost its lead singer. The Miracles’ “We’ve Come Too Far to End It Now” was an original, but the Supremes’ “Someday We’ll Be Together” was a re-recording of a Johnny & Jackey track from 1961. On that version, Bristol provided the male response vocals to Diana Ross’s lead—though Ross had actually cut the song as her first solo release, backed by the Waters Sisters.

Producer and solo performer

After leaving Motown in 1973, Johnny Bristol became a producer for CBS, working with both up-and-coming artists like Randy Crawford—for whom he penned “Caught in Love’s Triangle”—and established names such as Tom Jones, Marlena Shaw, Johnny Mathis, Jerry Butler, and Boz Scaggs. In 1974, he wrote and produced “La La Peace Song,” which was cut by both Al Wilson and O.C. Smith; Bristol himself sang on Wilson’s version. Wanting to restart his own recording career, he signed with MGM after CBS/Columbia showed little interest.

At MGM, he released two successful albums, Hang On in There Baby and Feeling the Magic, and scored several charting singles, including “Hang On in There Baby” (1974, number 8 US Pop, number 2 US R&B, number 3 UK), “You and I” (1974, number 20 US R&B), “Leave My World” (1975, number 23 US R&B), and “Do It to My Mind” (1976, number 5 US R&B). He also cut the original version of “Love Me for a Reason,” later a big hit for The Osmonds. In 1975, he earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, losing to Marvin Hamlisch.

Bristol then made two albums for Atlantic: Bristol’s Creme (1976) and Strangers (1978). One track from that era, “Strangers In The Dark Corners,” became a favorite on the European rare-soul circuit. He kept producing on the side, mainly for Columbia Records artists, including Boz Scaggs, whose 1974 album Slow Dancer he helped shape into a blue-eyed soul sound. He also produced Tom Jones’ 1975 album Memories Don’t Leave Like People Do, which featured five covers of Bristol’s songs, including the title track.

Other acts he worked with included Tavares, Margie Joseph, the Jackson Sisters, and two duets with Linda Evans, “Sweet and Deep” and “Share with Me My Dream,” on his 1981 album Free to Be Me.