Enriching the world with song

“Won’t you reconsider?” – Sylvia Moy

With those words to Motown mogul Barry Gordy, Moy may have changed music and recording history.  Her plea was for Gordy to reconsider dropping singer Stevie Wonder from the Motown lineup as he grew older and his voice began to change. Moy suggested giving him a second chance by trying “a song or two” that she would write to better fit his new sound.

The results led to many massive hits, including “My Cherie Amour,” and “Uptight (Everything’s Alright).”   The Moy collaboration reignited Wonder’s career and ultimately catapulted Moy into her own successful writing career and finally a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall in 2006, Moy was Motown's first female producer and "pioneered some really, really unique things for women," said Motown arranger and musician Paul Riser.   A native of northeast Detroit she grew up in a family of 9 kids whose earliest performances were on pots and pans.   Never forgetting those humble roots, she co-founded the nonprofit "Masterworks," which trains underprivileged youth in the field of telecommunications and media arts. 

        “Sylvia Moy             made it possible to enrich my world of songs with some of the greatest lyrics,” said Wonder.  “But not only that, she, through her participation and our co-writing those songs, helped me become a far better writer of lyrics.”

For “Saturday’s Poem” here is "My Cherie Amour."  For enjoyable listening, go to YouTube and check out both this song and the terrific hit written for Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston “It Takes Two.” 

My cherie amour, lovely as a summer day
My cherie amour, distant as the milky way
My cherie amour, pretty little one that I adore
You're the only girl my heart beats for
How I wish that you were mine
In a cafe or sometimes on a crowded street
I've been near you, but you never noticed me
My cherie amour, won't you tell me how could you ignore
That behind that little smile I wore
How I wish that you were mine
La la la la la la, la la la la la la
La la la la la la, la la la la la la
Maybe someday, you'll see my face amoung the crowd
Maybe someday, I'll share your little distant cloud
Oh, cherie amour, pretty little one that I adore
You're the only girl my heart beats for
How I wish that you were mine

Read more: Stevie Wonder - My Cherie Amour Lyrics | MetroLyrics

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