Authorship (Musical)

I love oldies. In my opinion, 1964 - 1979 was the greatest musical era - there was just so much innovation, talent and real musicianship. You had the rise of Motown, disco's ups and downs, Pink Floyd's psychadelic peak, the birth of electronica and powerful songs that reflected a turbulent political scene. Basically everything heard today is derivative of something from that era.

But where did those songs come from? To what extent do we just like the writers behind the hits, as opposed to the artists themselves?

Take for example, the famous Motown songwriter Norm Whitfield. I know that he wrote a couple of songs for The Temptations, but a little more research via wikipedia showed that he wrote all of these:
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
Just My Imagination
Beauty's Only Skin Deep
You're My Everything
I Wish It Would Rain
Cloud Nine
Can't Get Next To You
Psychadelic Shack
Ball of Confusion
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
(Also Car Wash - Rose Royce and War - Edwin Starr)

As a huge Temptations fan, I can tell you that that list covers every Temptations song of note except "My Girl" and "Get Ready." So I love.. Norm Whitfield? Lamp?

Semantics.