QuoteNorman Whitfield, a producer and songwriter whose work propelled Motown Records into more ambitious musical territory, died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 67.

Whitfield had struggled for months with complications from diabetes, and his prognosis had been day-to-day for several weeks. He had recently emerged from a coma.

"It's a very sad day," said Janie Bradford, who with Whitfield cowrote the Temptations hit "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby."

Along with Bradford, Detroit producer Clay McMurray was among the many friends and Motown alumni monitoring Whitfield's situation. He spoke with Whitfield by phone last week.

"It sounded like he was fighting with everything he had to get it together," said McMurray. "Just fighting back."

In the late 1960s the New York-born Whitfield helped push Motown beyond the sweet melodies and puppy-love tales of its early days into edgier, more expansive sounds. Incorporating rock elements and psychedelic textures into his work, he helped groups such as the Temptations keep pace with the '60s musical revolution.

With collaborator Barrett Strong — himself in a Detroit hospital recovering from a stroke — Whitfield cowrote many of Motown's biggest hits, including its single most successful song, "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," recorded by Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips.

Whitfield's post-Motown years in the 1970s most famously included the 1977 hit "Car Wash" by Rose Royce.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been set.