Songwriter Kenny Thomas (aka.
Yennik Samoht) explains how a talent show led producer Frank Wilson to come by and check his songs:

He came by and had me play several of the songs I played at the contest. He asked if I had anything else, and I said, ‘Yes, there’s this song I’m working on right now, that I haven’t actually performed yet.’ And I played ‘Stoned Love.’ He said, ‘Oh my goodness, this is wonderful.’ I’m seventeen, I’m beaming because I’m thinking, ‘My family is finally getting a break.’ Frank had me play the song about ten times.

Arranger David van dePitte said:

Frank said, ‘Kenny has written this tune, and I want you to hear it.’ We went down in the basement and this kid gets out a guitar. There were only two strings on it. The kid had worked out a system of binary chords that he could plunk along, and he was singing this tune. The problem was that not having the third member, at least, of the chord structure, you don’t know whether he is in major or minor, you don’t know exactly what the changes are. Then Frank sat down with the kid at the piano and went over what he thought he heard.

Frank Wilson said:

I loved working with Jean Terrell and we did the vocals in Washington, D.C. [The Supremes] were doing the Shoreham Hotel, so I had to go there to record from about 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.