John William Bristol (February 3, 1939 – March 21, 2004) was an American musician, most famous as a songwriter and record producer for the Motown label in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Johnny Bristol was born in Morganton, North Carolina. He attended and graduated from high school in his hometown, performing in a group called the Jackets that appeared at school functions. At the time, he had no plans to make music a career. After graduating, Bristol moved north and joined the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan, married his first wife, Maude and continued to dabble in music with a group of fellow servicemen in a group called the High Fives.
Soon Bristol and another member, Jackey Beavers, experienced conflict with the other musicians and left the group. As a duo they performed around Battle Creek, sometimes sharing the stage with another local act, Junior Walker and the All Stars. They also met Akim Fakir, brother of Abdul "Duke" Fakir of the group the Four Tops, and that got them an introduction to Gwen Gordy, the sister of Motown label founder Berry Gordy Jr. Gwen Gordy signed the pair to her new Anna label in 1959 where they recorded two singles.
Johnny & Jackey moved to Tri-Phi, another of the small labels that came together to form Motown; it was headed by key Motown songwriter and producer Harvey Fuqua. Many of their singles were modeled on the styles of other rhythm-and-blues singers of the day, but one release from November of 1961, "Someday We'll Be Together" (Tri-Phi), had a rich, romantic sound all its own. Bristol wrote the song with Beavers and Fuqua. The duo had moderate success around the Midwest but never broke out nationally. In 1963, when Tri-Phi was absorbed by rapidly growing Motown, Bristol put his own career on hold to sign on with Motown as an assistant to Fuqua in the label's artist development department.
Bristol became part of the Motown "family" in more ways than one: he also married Berry Gordy's niece Iris. As the close-knit creative team at the label grew, he got the chance to contribute to Motown recordings directly, as a producer, writer, and arranger. Notably, Bristol was the producer and co-writer of the final singles for both Diana Ross & the Supremes and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, before each group lost its namesake lead singer. While the Miracles'"We've Come Too Far to End It Now" (1972) was an original, the Supremes'"Someday We'll Be Together" (1969) was a remake of a Johnny & Jackey single from 1961. Bristol is the male voice on the Supremes' version of "Someday We'll Be Together", singing response to Diana Ross' lead vocal.
But he became disenchanted with Motown after the company's move to Los Angeles in 1972, although he too moved to the West Coast. In the early and middle 1970s Bristol worked as a producer for various artists, including Jerry Butler and Tavares. He was signed as an in-house producer by the Columbia label and helped to turn Boz Scaggs into a middle-of-the-road soul-style star with the album Slow Dancer (1974). Still hoping for a hit of his own, however, he signed with the MGM label.
At MGM, Bristol recorded two successful albums and charted with several singles, notably "Hang On in There Baby". He also recorded the original version of "Love Me for a Reason", later a major hit for The Osmonds. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975 for Best New Artist, ultimately losing out to Marvin Hamlisch. By the time the disco style began to dominate pop charts in the 1970s, Bristol was in his late thirties, and although his albums Feeling the Magic (1975) and Bristol's Creme (1976) continued to feature his songwriting and production, they had limited success.
Bristol moved to Polydor for the latter release and recorded Strangers for the label in 1978. Bristol's main market was in Europe by the early 1980s. His duet with Amii Stewart on a medley of "My Guy - My Girl" reached #39 in the UK Singles Chart in 1980. An affiliation in 1989 with the UK record label Motorcity Records was brief, but did result in one of Bristol's most popular releases, "Man Up in the Sky", and a cover of the Bristol-penned "What Does it Take to Win Your Love"
He recorded for several small labels in the 1980s and 1990s, releasing an album called Life and Love in Japan in 1996. In 2002 he sang "Someday We'll Be Together" on a Public Broadcasting Service television special with Mary Wilson of the Supremes. Bristol lived near Howell, Michigan, northwest of Detroit, in his later years, and he was working on a gospel album at the time of his death.
Bristol suffered an apparent seizure at his home and was pronounced dead at the hospital on Sunday the 21st of March 2004 at the St. Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital in Howell, Michigan. He was 65.
(Edited from Encyclopedia.com & Wikipedia)