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Doo-Wop Star, Motown Executive Harvey Fuqua Dies

By Ruth Manuel-Logan on Jul 7th 2010 10:17AM

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Doo-wop star, Motown executive Harvey Fuqua dies



Former doo-wop singer and Motown jack-of-all-trades Harvey Fuqua died yesterday in a Detroit hospital of a coronary-related problem.
Fuqua was not only a singer, songwriter and record producer but he is also heralded as one of the major players behind the development of the Motown label.

As founder of the '50s doo-wop group The Moonglows (pictured below), Fuqua is credited with giving legendary soul singer Marvin Gaye his jump-start in to the music business. Gaye became a member of The Moonglows in the late'50s and then launched a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960. Gaye, who was murdered by his father in 1984, once told biographer David Ritz that he considered Fuqua to be his surrogate dad.

Marvin Gaye's Mentor Harvey Fuqua Dead at 80

After leaving the singing group, the Louisville, Ky., native began another career as an executive with Anna Records, where he rubbed elbows with the likes of such music producing icons as Lamont Dozier, Johnny Bristol and Billy Davis.
Doo-wop star, Motown executive Harvey Fuqua dies
Fuqua started his own record label, Tri-Phi and Harvey Records, in 1961. His roster of talent included Gaye, the Spinners and Jr. Walker and the All Stars. Fuqua eventually grew tired of record producing on an independent label and accepted a job as a Motown executive, where he produced such enormously successful hits as Gaye and Tammi Terrell's duet hit 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' and 'Your Precious Love.'


After Motown, Fuqua landed at RCA, where his streak of successful recording productions continued into the '70s and '80s, discovering and producing such disco dynamite finds as Sylvester with his mega hit 'You Make Me Feel Mighty Real' and Two Tons of Fun (aka The Weather Girls) and their hit 'Just Us.'

In his later years, Fuqua became Smokey Robinson's road manager and eventually reunited with The Moonglows, who were inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.


Fuqua's nephew is film director Antoine Fuqua.

Watch Harvey Fuqua in his heyday here:




Listen to Etta James and Harvey Fuqua here:


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