William "Mickey" Stevenson


William "Mickey" Stevenson is a former songwriter and record producer for the Motown group of labels from the early days of Berry Gordy's company until 1967, when he and his then-wife, singer Kim Weston, left for MGM.

Life and career

He was born William Stevenson and, after spending his formative years recording doowop and gospel music, joined Tamla/Motown in 1959, the year it was founded. He was head of the A&R department there during the company's "glory" years of the mid-1960s when artists such as the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Four Tops, Stevie Wonder and Martha & the Vandellas came to the fore. Stevenson was also responsible for organizing and establishing the company's in-house studio band, which came to be known as the Funk Brothers.
He wrote and produced many hit records for Motown, some with co-writer and producer Ivy Jo Hunter. They included his biggest success, "Dancing in the Street", which he co-wrote with Hunter and Marvin Gaye; "It Takes Two", "Ask the Lonely" for the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted", "My Baby Loves Me", "Can You Jerk Like Me" by the Contours, "Uptight " for Stevie Wonder and Gaye's "Stubborn Kind of Fellow". He also wrote "Devil with the Blue Dress On" in 1964 with Shorty Long, which became a hit for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels in 1966. He also wrote under the pseudonym Avery Vandenburg for Jobete's Stein & Van Stock publishing subsidiary. In 1969, he founded a label called People Records, which recorded Kim Weston and other acts such as Hodges, James & Smith, but the label dissolved around the time James Brown's unrelated label of the same name was founded in 1971. He was appointed head of Venture Records in 1969, a subsidiary of MGM, with a brief to develop their share of the soul and rhythm and blues market, continuing in this role until the mid-70s. Subsequently, he owned another California label, Raintree, releasing a single by Willard King in 1975.
In recent years, Stevenson discovered and produced the R&B female artist Jaisun for an album that reached #1 in major breakout markets, but he has largely been involved in producing stage musicals. The latter include Swann, Showgirls, Wings and Things, The Gospel Truth, TKO, and Chocolate City.