The final inductee into the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class is the sort of artist for whom the Musical Excellence category was designed.
Norman Whitfield is not a performer, and not a name most people would recognize, but his fingerprints are all over some of the greatest songs ever recorded. As a writer and producer, he played a key role in developing the Motown sound.
Whitfield wrote such classics as ‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,’ ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine,’ ‘War,’ ‘Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me),’ Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,’ and ‘Car Wash.’ He replaced Smokey Robinson as the principal producer for The Temptations and helped shape their sound for nearly a decade.
Whitfield died in 2008, well before his Rock Hall induction, but it’s nice to see a key behind-the-scenes talent recognized by the institution.
I know you wanna leave me
But I refuse to let you go
If I have to beg and plead for your sympathy
I don’t mind ’cause you mean that much to me
[Chorus]
Ain’t too proud to beg, sweet darlin’
Please don’t leave me girl, don’t you go
Ain’t too proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don’t leave me, girl, don’t you go
[Verse 2]
Now I heard a cryin’ man is half a man
With no sense of pride
But if I have to cry to keep you, I don’t mind weepin’
If it’ll keep you by my side
[Chorus]
Ain’t too proud to beg, sweet darlin’
Please don’t leave me, girl, don’t you go
Ain’t too proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don’t leave me, girl, don’t you go
[Verse 3]
If I have to sleep on your doorstep all night and day
Just to keep you from walkin’ away
Let your friends laugh, even this I can stand
‘Cause I want to keep you any way I can
[Chorus]
Ain’t too proud to beg, sweet darlin’
Please don’t leave me, girl, don’t you go
Ain’t too proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don’t leave me, girl, don’t you go
[Verse 4]
Now I’ve got a love so deep in the pit of my heart
And each day it grows more and more
I’m not ashamed to come and plead to you, baby
If pleadin’ keeps you from walkin’ out of that door
[Chorus]
Ain’t too proud to beg, sweet darlin’
Please don’t leave me, girl, don’t you go
Ain’t too proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don’t leave me, girl, don’t you go
[Outro]
Baby, baby, baby, (Ooh, sweet darlin’)
Please don’t leave me
Meet Me In Montauk 
I’ve never heard of him, but he wrote some classic great songs.
Any one who helped create the Motown sound deserves an award 👏👏