Detroit teen Mike Valvano came to Motown in 1960 with his group the Modifiers, but became far more useful as a behind-the-scenes jack of all trades – studio hand, engineer, acetate cutter, tape op, audition panelist, and eventually a producer and writer. The short lived group released "I Found Myself A Brand New Baby" on Gordy Records in 1962. Motown signed group members to individual contracts and so after the band split Valvano stayed on at Hitsville to honour his 7 year deal. He later wrote "I'm A Winner" for Contours and prepare acetates for Motown's quality control. Michael passed away in 2002.

He cut two of his own singles as an artist for Motown, one credited to “Mike and the Modifiers”, the other to “the Hornets”, but ironically his best-known contribution on the fun side of the mic was his foot-stomping on the Supremes’ breakthrough million-seller Where Did Our Love Go.

Mike left Motown in the mid-Sixties to set up his own production and writing company, scoring a big hit with If This Is Love I’d Rather Be Lonely for the Precisions. Stiffed by another record label over unpaid work in the late Sixties, he was invited back to Motown, where he masterminded sessions for several of the white rock acts on the company’s Rare Earth subsidiary label. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.