Ron Miller 1932–2007 · Orlando Murden 1925–1994 · written 1965 for Motown’s Stein & Van Stock
Miller, born Ronald Norman Gould in Chicago, was Motown’s first white staff writer, a lyricist with a show-tune sensibility who also gave Wonder “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday” and “Heaven Help Us All”. He wrote this lyric to Murden’s existing melody the night his daughter was born in 1965, then hustled it round Detroit clubs, handing lead sheets to any singer who would try it out. Murden, a pianist and singer thought to have been born in Chicago in 1925, noted for his boogie playing and once billed on Arthur Godfrey’s talent show, remains the shadowy half of the partnership. Both men were dead before the song’s authorship became widely understood — Murden in 1994, Miller in 2007, the year a recording of their song won a Grammy.