Dennis Coffey (born November 11, 1940) is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings.

Biography

Coffey learned to play guitar at the age of thirteen, in the Michigan Upper Peninsula town of Copper City. In 1955, as a fifteen-year-old sophomore at Detroit's Mackenzie High School, Dennis played his first record session - backing Vic Gallon in "I'm Gone", on the Gondola record label. In the early 1960s he joined The Royaltones who had had hits with "Poor Boy" in 1958 and "Flamingo Express" in 1961. The Royaltones played sessions with other artists including Del Shannon.

By the late 1960s as a member of the Funk Brothers studio band, Coffey played on dozens of recordings for Motown Records, and introduced a hard rock guitar sound to Motown record producer Norman Whitfield's recordings, including distortion, Echoplex tape-loop delay, and wah-wah; most notably heard on "Cloud Nine", "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" and "Psychedelic Shack" by The Temptations. He played on numerous other hit records of the era including number one singles like Edwin Starr's "War" and Diana Ross & The Supremes "Someday We'll Be Together" and Freda Payne's number three hit "Band of Gold".

"Scorpio" is a song by Dennis Coffey. It charted at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song has been sampled in several hip-hop songs since its release in 1971, most notably Mark Ronson's debut single "Ooh Wee", Public Enemy's "Night of the Living Baseheads", LL Cool J's "Jingling Baby", and Young MC's "Bust a Move".

Background

"Scorpio" was written by Dennis Coffey for his sophomore album Evolution. The guitar line which begins the record actually consists of nine guitar riffs overdubbed on top of one another, spanning three octaves.

It features Coffey on rhythm guitar; Rare Earth's Ray Monette and Joe Podorsic from the Detroit Guitar Band on guitar; Uriel Jones and Richard "Pistol" Allen on drums; Bob Babbitt on bass; "Bongo" Eddie Brown on congas; Jack Ashford on tambourine; and Earl Van Dyke on piano. Bob Babbitt and Eddie "Bongo" Brown perform solos. It was written by Dennis Coffey, produced by Mike Theodore, and arranged by both. Jim Burzzese directed recording, which took place at GM Recording Studios in East Detroit. Ray Hall was in charge of mixing, which took place in RCA Recording Studios in New York.