War, disastrous sex and a lot of lawsuits: the chaotic

Disenchanted with Motown, star songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland set up a pair of bold new labels: Hot Wax and Invictus. As a new box set is released, its artists remember their personal, political songs – and exhausting battles

Motown Records famously churned out songs like cars on an assembly line, and songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland (HDH) – brothers Eddie and Brian Holland, and the late Lamont Dozier – built some of the company’s most gleaming, purring models, writing smashes such as Martha Reeves and the Vandellas’ Heat Wave, the Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There, and 10 of the Supremes’ 12 US chart-toppers. But while HDH’s tenure at Motown is rightly celebrated, their subsequent work has been neglected by comparison, despite being thrillingly soulful, stylistically diverse and sharply political (as captured on a new vinyl box set).

HDH’s time at Motown ended badly. Around 1967, their attempts to renegotiate their years-old contracts on more equitable terms were repeatedly rebuffed by Motown patriarch Berry Gordy. Dozier writes in his autobiography that HDH then decided to “essentially go on strike” and “stop turning in songs” in protest.