Ivy Jo Hunter

Ivy Jo Hunter (born George Ivy Hunter and often confused with blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter) was a soul musician and rock and roll pioneer, a songwriter and record producer for the Motown label.

Raised in Detroit, Michigan, he was trained in orchestral music-- primarily trumpet and keyboards. After a stint in the United States Army, Hunter began performing as a singer in the proto-soul venues around Detroit, where he was discovered by Motown's first A&R man, William "Mickey" Stevenson. With Stevenson, Hunter became a principal in the Motown Records house band and began to write some of the most significant hits of the early Motown years. Hunter produced and wrote songs for Motown artists like The Marvelettes, The Temptations and Marvin Gaye, for whom he produced the Top 40 hit single "You" in 1968. As a vocalist he recorded a great deal of material with Motown during the sixties including demosof his own compositions, but nothing was released until 1970. In 1970, Motown issued an Ivy Jo single on their soon to be discontinued VIP label entitled 'I Remember When (Dedicated to Beverly)'. The following year another single on VIP was issuedentitled 'I'd Still love You'. An album was also planned with the title 'Ivy Jo is in this Bag', but was shelved.Shortly after this he left Motown.

With Marvin Gaye and William Stevenson, he cowrote the smash Martha and the Vandellas hit "Dancing in the Street" which, in the fall of 1964, provided an American counterpart to the British Invasion. He continued to write, produce, serve as session musician and perform throughout the 1960s. In 1970, he contributed to Funkadelic's "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?" on that band's eponymous first album.

Persondata
NAME=Hunter, George Ivy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Hunter, Ivy Joe
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Record producer and musician
DATE OF BIRTH=
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=