When Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland (AKA Holland-Dozier-Holland, AKA H-D-H) left Motown over a royalty dispute in 1968, they formed their own record label. Actually, they formed two labels, Hot Wax and Invictus. They signed a bunch of new or newish artists to those labels and kept working their magic, turning out hit after hit.
One of the groups signed to Hot Wax was a white blue-eyed soul group from Detroit called the Flaming Ember. (That’s “ember,” singular, not “embers,” plural.) The group, named after a local restaurant, had formed way back in 1964 and originally signed to Ric-Tic Records, where they had a minor R&B hit in 1967 called “Hey Mama Whatcha Got Good for Daddy,” which was written by funkmeister George Clinton. When Berry Gordy bought Ric-Tic in 1968, the members of Flaming Ember opted not to continue on as part of the Motown stable—or maybe they got let go, it’s not really clear.
Instead, the Flaming Ember signed with H-D-H’s then-new Hot Wax Records. That proved to be a good move, as they had their first big hit in 1969 with the song “Mind, Body and Soul.” They followed that up early the next year with today’s classic song of the day, “Westbound #9.”
Released in January of 1970, “Westbound #9” was written by Daphne Dumas (the wife of Lamont Dozier), Ron Dunbar (a key employee of H-D-H), and “Edyth Wayne” (the fake name used by H-D-H during this period). Decode all that and it’s likely the tune was fully written and produced by the H-D-H team; it certainly sounds like an H-D-H track. It got all the way to #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #15 on Billboard’s R&B chart.
The Flaming Ember had one more decent hit, 1970’s “I’m Not My Brother’s Keeper,” but that was the extent of their national success. They went back to playing the Detroit bar scene and kind of faded away towards the end of the 1970s.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the Flaming Ember lip-synching “Westbound #9” on some television show in 1970. Damn if lead singer Jerry Plunk doesn’t sound a little like Levi Stubbs, don’t you think?
