This dark horse single, the first release from Motown subsidiary ‘Mel-o-dy Records,’ played a quiet role in the making of iconic Detroit songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland. They are credited with creating the so-called “Motown Sound” and were responsible for more than 70 charting singles between 1963 and 1968.

Back in 1962, however, a twenty-year-old Lamont Dozier was still struggling to make a name for himself. History points to this song as H-D-H’s bridge from anonymity to notoriety, since it marked their first collaboration:

Where do you consider the Motown story to really begin? Is it with… ‘Money (That’s What I Want),’ the first great Motown record? [Or] ‘Please Mr. Postman,’ Motown’s first Number 1 hit?

Maybe. Or maybe, it really starts right here, with [‘Dearest One’]… the first Motown appearance of a baby-faced 20-year-old Detroit singer-songwriter named Lamont Herbert Dozier—a genuine genius who’d go on to co-write and produce some of the most memorable hits of the label’s mid-Sixties Golden Age…

This, we’re told, is the foundation stone for that success, not only the first time Dozier appeared on a Motown record, but the first appearance of that Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team.

–Motown Junkies

Strangely enough, “Dearest One” is credited to ‘Dozier-Holland-Dozier’ on the record label, which resulted in some confusion among music historians. It turns out to be accurate information, since it was technically written by Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, with help from Elizabeth Dozier—Lamont’s wife.