IT'S NO WONDER

Sylvia Moy may not be among the names that come to mind when thinking of the Motown sound. Painfully shy, Moy was nevertheless respected by peers at the Detroit record label—for her musicality as a lyricist and her sharp instincts for song construction on paper and in the studio. But before second-wave feminism blossomed in the 1970s, unless a woman worked with a male artist (think Carole King and Gerry Goffin), she wasn’t likely to get a songwriting credit; a production credit was out of the question. Christian, a former journalist at Ebony and Jet magazines, writes, “With all the things [Moy] cultivated at Motown, for her to have been the first woman contracted in-house to simultaneously…write songs and produce alongside her male counterparts during the label’s peak in the sixties, and not be distinguished for it at the time, is deplorable.” Full appreciation of Moy’s work would have to wait decades. Before her death at age 78 in 2017, peers who worked with her during Motown’s golden age, including Martha Reeves and, above all, Stevie Wonder, were already giving the artist her due as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Hits she contributed to include Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” and “My Cherie Amour” and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Honey Child” and “Forget Me Not,” among many others. Christian has a tricky task of making her taciturn subject stand out from the background of a vibrant scene full of colorful characters, but Moy comes alive as the author describes the productive relationship with Wonder as he moved from wunderkind to mature artist, just before the label was ready to drop him for failing to earn a hit.