R&B-doo-wop singer Harvey Fuqua, mentor to Marvin Gaye and record executive, dies at 80

R&B singer, Marvin Gaye mentor Harvey Fuqua dies

DETROIT — Singer, songwriter and record producer Harvey Fuqua, an early mentor of Marvin Gaye, has died. Fuqua was 80.

Ron Brewington of the Motown Alumni Association says Fuqua died of a heart attack Tuesday at a Detroit hospital.

The Louisville, Ky., native founded the R&B-doo-wop group the Moonglows, which signed with DJ Alan Freed. The group’s first single was the 1954 hit “Sincerely.”

Fuqua added Gaye and others in 1958 to a reconstituted group Fuqua called Harvey and the Moonglows. It had the 1958 hit “Ten Commandments of Love.”

He started Tri-Phi and Harvey Records in 1961, recording the Spinners, Junior Walker & the All Stars, and Shorty Long.

Motown Records founder Berry Gordy later hired Fuqua to develop recording talent.