Eddie “Chank” Willis (82) was born June 3, 1936 in Grenada, Mississippi where he also learned to play the guitar. Completely self-taught, Willis moved to Detroit from Mississippi in the early ’50s. He was fresh out of high school when Motown’s first recording star, Marv Johnson (“Come to Me”), brought him into the fledgling label started by songwriter/producer Berry Gordy. The year was 1959, and Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit’s thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company.
Eddie Willis was one-third of the guitar trio that was part of the classic Motown studio band dubbed the Funk Brothers. Along with Joe Messina and Robert White, the threesome created the catchy guitar-laced rhythmic interplay heard on a slew of ’60s/’70s hits from the then Detroit-based independent label. Eddie Willis helped create some of the most distinguished soul music to hit the charts. His guitar playing was heard worldwide on countless Motown Records classics, including the Marvelettes’ ‘Please Mr. Postman’ and Stevie Wonder‘s ‘I Was Made To Love Her.’ Willis’ guitar work also appears on numerous recordings including: “The Way You Do the Things You Do” by The Temptations. Some other Motown hits that feature Willis are “Friendship Train” by Gladys Knight and the Pips and Stevie Wonder‘s “My Cherie Amour” and playing in unison (doubling) an octave lower than White’s telegraph-like line on the Supremes‘ “Keep Me Hangin’ On”. It was Willis or Messina who usually played the backbeat, a key ingredient of the Motown sound that was later used in reggae music (“chunk…chunk”).
He was known for his signature muted guitar riffs which added a distinctive tone to the beat, often timed with the snare drum. Over the next fourteen year period the Funk Brothers were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown’s Detroit era, but when Gordy moved his Motown Company to Los Angeles, he began using top L.A. session musicians (including members of the Crusaders). Even though Willis and the Funk Brothers would occasionally be sent tapes from L.A. to overdub their parts, with the death of Funk Brothers‘ drummer Benny Benjamin, the migration of James Jamerson to L.A., and the retirement of Messina from the music business, the classic studio band soon faded into history. By the end of their phenomenal run however, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined – which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music.
Willis later toured for two decades with the Four Tops and still recorded around Detroit, most notably with producer Don Davis (Rated X-Traordinaire-Best of Johnnie Taylor from Sony Legacy, Albert King‘s Albert King:The Ultimate Collection from Rhino, and David Ruffin‘s ’80s Warner Bros. LPs). Willis also worked as a touring guitarist for Eddie Kendricks.
In 2003 at the 45th GRAMMY Awards, Willis, along with the Funk Brothers, emerged into the spotlight as the movie they were featured in, Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, won Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. That same year, their track “What’s Going On” sung by Chaka Khan won Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance.
Eddie Willis died of complications of polio on August 20, 2018, aged 82 years, at his home in Gore Springs, Mississippi.
