“I’d hear pieces of records,”
Willis says. “I had no idea what
it was until I heard it on the
radio and would recognize the
pieces — ‘Ooh, that’s the base-
line I heard!’ If I didn’t grow up
in Detroit, I probably wouldn’t
be a songwriter.
“I loved Marvin Gaye, the
Supremes, the Temptations.
When Motown came along, if
you weren’t black, I didn’t have
time for you, musically. If it
came out of Motown, I was all
over it. And there were a lot of
other labels, too. These song-
writers — Ashford & Simpson,
Holland Dozier Holland,” she

says. “There was a disc jockey,
Martha Jean ‘The Queen’ on
WJLB. During the riots, she
stayed on for 48 hours and
was credited with calming the
city down. She was the first
woman to own a radio station.
My mom passed away sud-
denly when I was 15. I had my
learner’s permit then. I’d jump
in the car and lock myself in.
She saved my life.
“I was very aware of Berry
Gordy. I wrote him a fan letter
when I was 12. I didn’t meet
him until Motown the Musical
was in town,” she says. “The
director went over to him and

I could kind of hear them. ‘Do
you know who that is?’ ‘She
wrote what?’ I thanked him for
letting me sit out on the lawn.
He said, ‘No. Thank you.’”
After graduating from
Mumford High School in
1965, Willis majored in jour-
nalism and advertising at
the University of Wisconsin-
Madison before heading to New
York to work as a copywriter
for Columbia Records. In 1972,
Willis was riding a bus down
Columbus Avenue, listen-
ing to the song “Alone Again,
Naturally” by Gilbert O’Sullivan.
“I wrote a whole new lyric to

LEFT: Allee Willis TOP: Visiting her
family’s Walled Lake cottage, c.
1953. ABOVE: Willis with Maurice
White, founder of Earth, Wind &
Fire — and already rocking her
trademark hairdo.

details

Allee Willis performs Allee
Willis Loves Detroit! May
18-19 at the City Theatre in
Detroit. $45. (800) 745-3000;
313presents.com.

continued on page 42

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