
Hear Jerry Ross on "The Lost 45s."
Jerry J. Ross, 84, a hit songwriter and record producer who was inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame in 2013, died Wednesday, Oct. 4, of prostate cancer at the Holy Redeemer Hospital hospice unit in Meadowbrook.
Mr. Ross co-wrote âIâm Gonna Make You Love Meâ with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. It was a 1968 hit recorded as a duet by Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Temptations.
Mr. Ross is credited with discovering and mentoring Gamble in a relationship that goes back to the late 1950s, when he helped Gamble and Thom Bell record âSomedayâ for his Heritage label as Kenny and Tommy.
âJerry Ross was instrumental in introducing Thom Bell and me to the music business, including signing me to my first recording artist deal with Columbia Records,â Gamble said in a statement Friday. âHe mentored Thom Bell and me to write songs. He was our good friend and was key to the beginning of the Gamble, Huff and Bell legacy.â
Gamble pinch-hit in 2013 when Mr. Ross was unable to attend his Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame induction ceremony. âJerry Ross is a very special person,â Gamble said then. âHe had faith in me at a young age and taught me a lot of things about the music industry.â
Gamble said it was a shame Mr. Ross wasnât able to be there because âhe used to call me every year and say, âTry to get me in the Walk of Fame.ââ Gamble smiled and said, âSo, Jerry, you are in the Walk of Fame.â
Reading from an acceptance speech Mr. Ross had prepared, Gamble said, âBefore there was Rodgers and Hammerstein, there was Rodgers and Hart. Before there was Gamble and Huff, there was Gamble and Ross.⌠The day that I met Kenny Gamble, our lives changed.â
Mr. Ross, who broke into the music business during his Temple University student days when got the booth announcer gig on Dick Clarkâs American Bandstand, wrote or produced gold records including âSunday Will Never Be the Sameâ (by Spanky and Our Gang), âApples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pieâ (Jay and the Techniques), âSunnyâ (Bobby Hebb), and âVenusâ (Shocking Blue).
Mr. Rossâ daughter, Cheri Dorwart, remembered growing up with a dad who was immersed in music.
âIâd be in my second-floor bedroom and my dad would be in his basement office, playing tapes on his reel-to-reel, and I could hear every song he was playing,â she recalled, including ââYou Gave Me Somebody to Loveâ by the Dreamlovers, which he wrote for my mom.â
She said her father referred to himself as a musicologist or a musical architect, and was proud of his ability to discover talent, including what he called his âDutch Invasionâ trip to the Netherlands, where he found the rock band Shocking Blue and produced the million-seller âVenus.â He also brought us the George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag."
âHe had this thing about him,â Dorwart said. âHe would know instinctively whether a group would be successful or not. Even if they were performing a song he didnât like, he always knew if he could do something with them.
âWhen he heard a song,â she said, âhe would know within the first couple of bars whether it was a yes or a no. Sometimes, there were songs that the big companies would turn down, and my dadâs like, âTheyâre all wrong. I know this is a hit.ââ
He told his daughter that he started his own record labels because âIâm tired of being told no by other people. They donât hear what I hear. Itâs going to be a hit and they will realize they made a mistake.â He proved it by producing the hit single âWhen We Get Marriedâ by the Dreamlovers on his own Heritage label in 1961.
He is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren. Mr. Ross was predeceased by his wife, Janice, and son Kenneth.