Sonny Sanders

American soul producer, singer, arranger and songwriter based in Chicago.

Born August 6, 1939, Chicago, Illinois, USA - died October 12, 2016.

He made his first records in 1956 with Sax Kari & The Quailtones and was a founding member of the Motown group The Satintones. Sanders also worked as a backing singer at Motown, on such records as Marv Johnson's "You Got What It Takes" and Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)"; and as an arranger. After leaving Motown he remained active in Detroit writing and arranging a large number of songs for Ric-Tic/ Golden World. He went to Chicago in 1965 for Carl Davis at Brunswick Records, working with Jackie Wilson, Gene Chandler, the Chi-Lites, and Tyrone Davis. With Eugene Record of the Chi-Lites, he co-wrote Barbara Acklin's "Am I the Same Girl", the backing track of which later became "Soulful Strut" credited to Young-Holt Unlimited. He also worked on Mary Wells' early post Motown recordings and was later active at Ian Levine's Motorcity label.