Music
Leon Ware
1940–2017 · songwriter, producer, singer
Detroit-born Motown songwriter and producer behind Marvin Gaye's I Want You, Michael Jackson's “I Wanna Be Where You Are” and Minnie Riperton's “Inside My Love.”
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Marina del Rey, California
aged 77- Detroit years
- 1940–late 1960s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Leon Ware was born and raised in Detroit. At five a slingshot accident left him temporarily blind for two years, and he spent time at the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing. Back in his hometown he joined Motown as a staff songwriter, co-writing for the Isley Brothers, which gave him his first gold record, as well as for Martha and the Vandellas and the Jackson 5. With Diana Ross's brother Arthur “T-Boy” Ross he wrote “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” a 1972 hit for Michael Jackson. In the mid-1970s he worked on Quincy Jones's Body Heat and co-wrote Minnie Riperton's “Inside My Love.” Demos he made for his own Motown album caught Berry Gordy's ear, and the songs went instead to Marvin Gaye, becoming the sensual album I Want You (1976), which Ware co-produced. Two decades later he co-wrote Maxwell's neo-soul hit “Sumthin' Sumthin'.”
Highlights
- Motown staff songwriter from his Detroit years
- Co-wrote “I Wanna Be Where You Are” for Michael Jackson (1972)
- Co-wrote and co-produced Marvin Gaye's I Want You (1976)
- Co-wrote Minnie Riperton's “Inside My Love”
- Co-wrote Maxwell's “Sumthin' Sumthin'” (1996)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1960s
Motown Museum
Motown's Detroit headquarters, where he started as a staff songwriter. Now the Motown Museum.