Performance · Other credits

Roger Penzabene

real name Rodger L. Penzabene

Roger Penzabene is credited on 1,131 releases across 273 albums tracked on Gatefold, active 1967–2025 — the collector-built map of who actually made the music.

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1,131

Credits

273

Albums

Decades active

176

In collections

Biography

American soul songwriter, born 1945. Committed suicide on 31 December 1967.
Rodger Penzabene also mistakenly known as Roger Penzabene, was a songwriter for Motown. Among his most notable compositions as a lyricist are "Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me" by Gladys Knight & the Pips; "The End of Our Road" by Gladys Knight & the Pips and Marvin Gaye; and a trilogy of hits for The Temptations: "You're My Everything", "I Wish It Would Rain", and "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)".Penzabene was of Sicilian and Irish extraction, and attended Mumford High School in Detroit, Michigan.
He was a childhood friend and neighbor of Cornelius Grant, with whom he wrote "You're My Everything". After Grant became musical director for the Temptations, Penzabene continued to contribute songs for the group, and for other Motown acts. Family members have claimed that Penzabene contributed, but was not credited for, other successful Motown songs including "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". The mournful songs "I Wish It Would Rain" and "I Could Never Love Another" reportedly drew from Penzabene's real-life pain and suffering.
Otis Williams wrote that: "We liked Roger a lot. He was young, nice-looking, but kind of quiet and reserved, and very humble. Ironically, the inspiration for these great songs was his unhappy personal life".

Bio from Discogs