Motown writer, producer Norman Whitfield dies

[September 18, 2008]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Norman Whitfield, who co-wrote a string of Motown classics including "War" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," has died. He was 67.

A spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center says Whitfield died there Tuesday. He suffered from complications of diabetes and had recently emerged from a coma, The Detroit Free Press reported.

Whitfield was a longtime Motown producer who during the 1960s and '70s injected rock and psychedelic touches into the label's soul music. Many of his biggest hits were co-written with Barrett Strong, with whom he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

[Associated Press]

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