Guitarist Robert White was a part of the guitar trio integrated into Motown's studio band the Funk Brothers. Some of White's signature parts are the high-part of the telegraphic intro of the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On, the lead lines on the Temptations' My Girl, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' I Second That Emotion. The guitarist would often double the parts of pianist Earl Van Dyke, for example, on the Supremes' number one hits You Can't Hurry Love and Ain't That Peculiar. White shared a 14-year history with the label along with fellow Motown guitarists Joe Messina and Eddie Willis. The three can often be found playing off of each other on numerous Motown hits. Their intricate counterpoint was the result of their "talky" five-minute pre-recording session confabs where they'd discuss which part each guitarist would play. At the end of a tour with the Moonglows (which included a pre-stardom Marvin Gaye), White found himself in Detroit. He began playing on sessions for Anna Records, owned by future Motown mogul Berry Gordy's sister, which is how he wound up in "the Snakepit," the nickname for the small basement studio of the converted house of Hitsville Records, later known as Motown. Not a great sight reader, White's music theory was steeped in chord construction and the voicing tips he's picked up from his uncle. His basic role with the Funk Brothers was as a rhythm guitarist, for example, Stevie Wonder's number four hit My Cherie Amour and his number two hit For Once in My Life. As the march of the Motown hits began, the grueling six, sometimes seven-day recording schedules of the Funk Brothers began to wear on them. White and the other musicians would blow off steam by playing jazz sets at the Chit Chat Club, the Twenty Grand Club, and Phelps Lounge. Under the tutelage of fellow Funk Brothers keyboardist Earl Van Dyke and guitarist Joe Messina, White's skills grew as a musician. After Motown moved to Los Angeles in the mid-'70s, White's session career dried up. In the '80s, the guitarist backed the Temptations during their reunion tour. In the late '80s, he co-owned the former recording studio of producer Giorgio Moroder (Donna Summer). At the age of 57, Robert White died of complications from heart surgery in 1994. ~ Ed Hogan, Rovi