Rod Temperton

rod-tempertonRodney Lynn “Rod” Temperton (9 October 1947 – September 2016) was an English songwriter, record producer, and musician from Cleethorpes, England. He initially made his mark as the keyboardist and main songwriter for the R&B band Heatwave before writing several internationally known songs performed by Michael Jackson, including “Off The Wall,” “Rock With You,” and “Thriller.”

Temperton’s work attracted the attention of Quincy Jones, and he asked his engineer Bruce Swedien to check out the Heatwave album. “Holy cow! I simply loved Rod’s musical feeling – everything about it – Rod’s arrangements, his tunes, his songs – was exceedingly hip,” recalled Swedien. In 1979, Temperton was recruited by Quincy Jones to write for what became Michael Jackson’s first solo album in four years, and his first full-fledged solo release for Epic Records, entitled Off the Wall. Temperton wrote three songs for the album, including “Rock with You” which became the second US No. 1 single from the album.

In the early 1980s Temperton left Germany and moved to Beverly Hills, California. In 1982 Temperton wrote three songs, including the title track, for Jackson’s next LP, Thriller, which became the biggest-selling album of all time. On coming up with the title Thriller, Temperton once said:

I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles and came up with Midnight Man. The next morning I woke up and I just said this word. Something in my head just said, ‘This is the title’. You could visualise it at the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page as ‘Thriller

Here is a glimpse of his works to be found here on the website:

Temperton wrote or cowrote the following songs:

  • Heatwave: “Boogie Nights,” “Always and Forever,” and “Ain’t No Half Steppin’,” from Too Hot to Handle, 1976; “The Groove Line” and “The Star of a Story” (covered by George Benson on Give Me the Night, 1980), from Central Heating, 1977; “Razzle Dazzle” and “Eyeballin’,” from Hot Property, 1979; “Gangsters of the Groove” and “Jitterbuggin’,” from Candles, 1980; “Lettin’ It Loose,” from Current, 1982; and more
  • Michael Jackson: “Rock with You”, “Off the Wall,” and “Burn This Disco Out,” from Off the Wall, 1979; “Baby Be Mine,” “Thriller,” and “The Lady in My Life,” from Thriller, 1982; “Someone in the Dark,” from the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial audiobook/soundtrack album, 1982; and “Hot Street,” an outtake from Thriller
  • Rufus: “Masterjam” and “Live in Me,” from Masterjam, 1979
  • The Brothers Johnson: “Stomp!,” “Light Up the Night,” “You Make Me Wanna Wiggle,” “Treasure,” “All About the Heaven,” “Closer to the One That You Love,” and “Celebrations,” from Light Up the Night, 1980
  • George Benson: “Love x Love,” “Turn Out the Lamplight,” and “Give Me the Night”, from Give Me the Night, 1980; “Family Reunion,” from Songs and Stories, 2009
  • Patti Austin: “Do You Love Me?,” “Love Me to Death,” “The Genie,” and “Baby, Come to Me” (with James Ingram), from Every Home Should Have One, 1981
  • Bob James: “Sign of the Times,” “The Steamin’ Feelin’,” and “Hypnotique,” from Sign of the Times, 1981
  • Herbie Hancock: “Lite Me Up!,” “The Bomb,” “Gettin’ to the Good Part,” “The Fun Tracks,” “Motor Mouth,” and “Give It All Your Heart,” from Lite Me Up, 1982
  • Donna Summer: “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger),” “Livin’ in America,” and “Love Is Just a Breath Away,” from Donna Summer, 1982
  • The Manhattan Transfer: “The Spice of Life” and “Mystery” (covered by Anita Baker on Rapture), from Bodies and Souls, 1983
  • Mica Paris: “You Put a Move on My Heart,” “Love Keeps Coming Back,” “We Were Made for Love,” and “Two in a Million,” from Whisper a Prayer, 1993
  • Siedah Garrett: “Grooverre of Midnight” (originally a demo for Michael Jackson’s Bad), “Baby’s Got It Bad” (a rewrite of “Got the Hots,” an outtake from Thriller credited to Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones on the Japanese edition of the album’s 25th-anniversary reissue), and “Nobody Does Me,” from Kiss of Life, 1988
  • Quincy Jones: “The Dude,” “Razzamatazz,” “Somethin’ Special,” and “Turn On the Action,” from The Dude, 1981; “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)” and “Back on the Block,” from Back on the Block, 1989; “Slow Jams,” from Q’s Jook Joint, 1995, which also features covers of “Rock with You,” “Stomp!,” and “You Put a Move on My Heart”
  • James Ingram: “One More Rhythm”
  • James Ingram and Michael McDonald: “Yah Mo B There”
  • Michael McDonald: “Sweet Freedom”
  • Klymaxx: “Man Size Love”
  • Jeffrey Osborne: “We Belong to Love” (also produced by Temperton)
  • Aretha Franklin: “Livin’ in the Streets”
  • Javaroo: “Change It Up”
  • Second Image: “Lights Out”
  • Stephanie Mills: “Time of Your Life,” “Hold On to Midnight”
  • Karen Carpenter: “Lovelines,” “If We Try”, from Lovelines, 1989, and Karen Carpenter, 1996
  • Wayne Hernandez: “Dancin’ on the Edge,” “Let Me Call You Angel,” “Fazed Out”
  • Tori White: “Make It Home”
  • Lââm: “Fais de Moi Ce Que Tu Veux ,” “Love’s in the House Tonight”
  • Mýa: “Man in My Life” (cover of Michael Jackson’s “The Lady in My Life”)
  • LL Cool J featuring Boyz II Men: “Hey Lover” (listed as cowriter due to sample of Michael Jackson’s “The Lady in My Life”)
  • Angie Stone: “Lovers’ Ghetto” (listed as cowriter due to interpolation of “The Lady in My Life”)
  • C+C Music Factory: “Share That Beat of Love” (listed as cowriter due to interpolation of “Rock with You”)
  • Mariah Carey: “I’m That Chick” (listed as cowriter due to sample of Jackson’s “Off the Wall”)
  • Various Artists: “We Are the Future”