# Al Cleveland

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{{Infobox musical artist
| name            = Al Cleveland
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| birth_name      = Alfred W. Cleveland
| birth_date      = {{Birth date|1930|03|11}}
| death_date      = {{Death date|1996|08|14}}
| origin          =
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| genre           = {{hlist|[Motown](/source/Motown_music)|[soul](/source/Soul_music)|[dancehall](/source/dancehall)}}
| occupation      =
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'''Al Cleveland''' (born '''Alfred W. Cleveland'''; March 11, 1930 – August 14, 1996) was an American [songwriter](/source/songwriter) for the [Motown](/source/Motown_Records) label. Among his most popular co-compositions are 1967's "[I Second That Emotion](/source/I_Second_That_Emotion)" and 1969's "[Baby, Baby Don't Cry](/source/Baby%2C_Baby_Don't_Cry)" performed by [Smokey Robinson & the Miracles](/source/The_Miracles)<ref name="Marsh1999">{{cite book|last=Marsh|first=Dave|title=The heart of rock & soul: the 1001 greatest singles ever made|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OGNPTZplEvQC&pg=PA183|access-date=5 July 2010|date=6 May 1999|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=978-0-306-80901-9|page=183}}</ref> and 1971's "[What's Going On](/source/What's_Going_On_(song))"  performed by [Marvin Gaye](/source/Marvin_Gaye).<ref name="Thompson2001">{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Dave|title=Funk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RIEjkWXZdrMC&pg=PA66|access-date=5 July 2010|year=2001|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-87930-629-8|page=66}}</ref>

Cleveland was born in [Pittsburgh](/source/Pittsburgh), [Pennsylvania](/source/Pennsylvania), United States, to Alfred W. and Dorothy Cleveland.  Al has two sisters, Edna Grate and Mamie Jett, as well as one brother, Robert Cleveland. His sons Alfred D Cleveland and Theodore Mills survive him.
He had a long and distinguished writing career, initially for New York artists on the Scepter/Wand labels such as [Dionne Warwick](/source/Dionne_Warwick) and [Tommy Hunt](/source/Tommy_Hunt), as well as [Gene Pitney](/source/Gene_Pitney) before moving to Motown, where he provided songs for Smokey & [The Miracles](/source/The_Miracles), [The Marvelettes](/source/The_Marvelettes), [David Ruffin](/source/David_Ruffin), the [Four Tops](/source/Four_Tops) and [Chuck Jackson](/source/Chuck_Jackson) before hitting the big time with a co-authorship of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On?" and "Save the Children."

In later years, he produced [Native American](/source/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas) music. He died of heart disease in Las Vegas at the age of 66.<ref name="RS #744">{{cite magazine |date=October 3, 1996 |title=Chronicle |magazine=[Rolling Stone](/source/Rolling_Stone) |publisher=Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. |issue=744 |pages=32 }}</ref>

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleveland, Al}}
Category:1930 births
Category:1996 deaths
Category:African-American songwriters
Category:Songwriters from Pennsylvania
Category:Motown artists
Category:Musicians from Pittsburgh
Category:20th-century American composers
Category:20th-century American male composers
Category:20th-century African-American musicians
Category:20th-century American songwriters

{{US-songwriter-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Al Cleveland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cleveland) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cleveland?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.