Harry Balk

American producer, songwriter, and label owner from Detroit, Michigan.

Balk established a business partnership with [a3440549], and the pair set up Embee Productions and Twirl Records in 1959. The pair also managed a publishing company [l285941], a talent agency, and licensed much of their work to labels such as Warwick and Big Top. The pair notably produced [a229195]'s hit single 184363 as '[a2006747]'.

Balk later founded the Detroit, Michigan labels [l102756] and [l155088] which were bought by Motown's Berry Gordy in 1968. After the purchase of his labels, Balk joined Motown as head of A&R, was put in charge of the launch of the Rare Earth label in 1969, and pushed the release of Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' single, which Gordy initially disliked, but ended up becoming one of Motown's biggest albums.

Balk's writing credits are usually under the alias of Tom King, along with those of Micahnik's alias 'Mack'.

Born October 1, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan
Died December 3, 2016 (aged 91) in Oak Park, Michigan