Norman Whitfield

There's modesty and there's modesty . Barrett Strong fell into the latter category as he looked back on the many songs he and former partner Norman Whitfield wrote as Motown staff writers during the Detroit soul label's '60s heyday. "We wrote maybe 300 songs and we had 12 good ones," Strong, 49, said, speaking from his home in a Detroit suburb. "So 288 were bad ones." … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: Black Songwriting Duos