*I first met Clay McMurray in the late seventies. I was at Club Mozambique on Detroit’s westside with David Ruffin. Ruffin pointed him out to me saying, “wherever you saw Norman Whitfield, you saw Clay.”
It was obvious Ruffin had a lot of respect for him. McMurray eventually became A&R Director for Whitfield’s own Whitfield Records. He worked on the soundtrack for the hit movie Car Wash.
Here’s a complete list of his credits: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/clay-mcmurray-mn0000140691/credits
At Motown, McMurray produced, engineered and arranged alongside Motown’s elite like Hank Cosby, Wade Marcus, Willie Shorter, Frank Wilson, Paul Riser and David Van De Pitte. McMurray is best known for “If I Were Your Woman” – a blockbuster hit for Gladys Knight & The Pips – that he co-wrote with Pam Sawyer and Gloria Jones (a/k/a LaVerne Ware). That song has been covered by many including Stephanie Mills and Alicia Keys.
Over the years I would see McMurray mostly at Janie Bradford’s annual Heroes and Legends (HAL) Awards. I last saw him at the Biltmore Hotel in 2017 where Clarence Avant and Lee Bailey were honorees at The Black Business Association’s “Salute to Black Music Awards Gala.”
Here’s McMurray in his own words as he was being inducted into the R&B Hall of Fame in 2018:
Here’s another tribute article written by Chris Rizik of Soul Tracks:
[(September 6, 2019) He was musical royalty in Detroit, and played a role in some of the biggest soul music hits of the 70s. Tonight we are sad to inform SoulTrackers of the death of the great producer, engineer and songwriter, Clay McMurray.
McMurray first made waves in 1967 when he teamed with local singer Spyder Turner to create a fun and humorous take on Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” that had Turner singing the song while doing impressions of such notables as Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson and David Ruffin. The song became a smash hit and Turner’s signature song, shooting into the upper ranks of both the R&B and Pop charts.
Four years later, McMurray would help create a classic, producing Gladys Knight’s first #1 Motown hit, the McMurray, Pam Sawyer and Gloria Jones composition “If I Were Your Woman,” a song that has become an all-timer, and that has been remade several times – but none as great as the original.
Over the following years, McMurray worked with virtually all the great Motown acts, from The Four Tops to The Spinners to The Supremes. He then followed fellow Motown producer Norman Whitfield and worked on the monster movie soundtrack for Car Wash.
Clay McMurray continued to be a force in Detroit music for years after national fame faded, and he helped groom multiple generations of artists, with the years of wisdom and experience he obtained. He will be missed.]
Larry Buford is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” (Steuben Pub) www.amazon.com. E-mail: [email protected] Visit the author at www.larrybuford.com. (213) 220-8101
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