His final days at Chess were clouded by the company’s sale in late ’68 to GRT, and by the machinations of those looking to succeed Billy Davis. So she came up to me, saying she’d heard I was looking for someone to work with. Then I was looking for a collaborator, and I think Ralph or somebody – maybe Hank Cosby – had told Janie Bradford about me. Ralph said, ‘Raynard, put them away, we don’t need to see them.’ “I said, ‘OK, cool, I’m ready for it.’” When Miner travelled to Detroit, “I had all my gold records and stuff with me. “The next thing I know, I’m at my grandmother’s house, laying on the couch, and I get a phone call from Ralph Seltzer.” The Motown official made it plain: the company wanted him. I said that I wanted to be at Motown, and she replied, ‘Yeah, well, just keep going.’ I said, ‘I guess it’s crowded there,’ and she said, ‘Well, remember that it’s at the top, so there’s plenty of room.’ My brother brought her to the table and told her who I was and so on. “The way I got there was because Martha Reeves was performing in Chicago at the Whisky A-Go-Go on Rush Street. Late last year, Raynard spoke to me about those days. Work on a Billy Stewart retrospective put me in touch with Davis more than 30 years ago, when he recalled his success with Wilson and his experiences with others who went on to prosper at Motown, including Johnny Bristol, David Ruffin and Lamont Dozier.Īnother Chicago music man was Raynard Miner, co-author of the above-mentioned “Rescue Me” and “We’re Gonna Make It,” and of Wilson’s platinum-plated “ (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher.” After Billy Davis left Chess in 1968 to join New York advertising agency McCann Erickson, Miner moved to Motown. The maestro involved with all those (and more) was the then-chief of Chess A&R, Billy Davis, previously the co-writer, with Gordy, of Jackie Wilson’s career-shaping solo sides, and the co-owner, with Gwen Gordy, of Anna Records.
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