Dennis Coffey
Biography
Dennis Coffey (b. in Detroit, MI, USA), is a guitarist, notable as a prominent studio musician, for many soul and rnb recordings. He began learning the guitar when he was thirteen, in Ontonagon County (Michigans upper peninsula). At fifteen he played on his first recording session, backing Vic Gallon, on Im Gone (Gondola). In the early 60s, he joined The Royaltones - having hits with Poor Boy (1958) and Flamingo Express (1961) - who played sessions with other artists, including Del Shannon.
As a member of the Funk Brothers studio band, Coffey played on dozens of recordings for Motown Records, and introduced the wah-wah guitar sound to Motown producer Norman Whitfields recordings. He also played on Edwin Starrs "S.O.S. (Stop Her on Sight)," The Isley Brothers "Its Your Thing", and Freda Paynes "Band of Gold". In addition, Coffey scored the blaxploitation film Black Belt Jones.
Read full biography ↓
In 1971, Coffey recorded Scorpio which was a million selling single and in 1972 Taurus, both with The Detroit Guitar Band. Since then, he has recorded several solo albums, most of them for the Sussex and Westbound labels. In 2004, he published a memoir, Guitars, Bars and Motown Superstars.
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.
