Posted on 01/30/2023 5:34:43 PM PST by nickcarraway
Strong -- who passed away Sunday, Jan. 29, at the age of 81 in Detroit -- co-wrote some of Motown's most enduring hits.
More than 73 years ago, Barrett Strong, as a singer, declared “Money (That’s What I Want)” — for the first hit single from the Motown empire.
What he actually wound up getting was musical immortality. As a songwriter.
Strong — who passed away Sunday, Jan. 29, at the age of 81 in Detroit — co-wrote some of Motown’s most enduring hits, with a variety of collaborators but primarily the late Norman Whitfield. Those included “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” for Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips, “War” for Edwin Starr, the Undisputed Truth’s “Smiling Faces Sometimes” and a wealth of material form the Temptations — “I Wish It Would Rain,” “Just My Imagination,” “Cloud Nine,” “Psychedelic Shack” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” for which Strong shared a Grammy Award.
The transition from performer to songwriter suited him well. “I never felt comfortable with myself as a recording artist,” Strong told Billboard in 2016. The father of six and grandfather of 13 noted, “I had to work to support my family. I’m not looking for the spotlight and all the glamour and stuff like that. I just like to work in my studio and see what we can come up with.”
In a statement issued Sunday, Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. — who described Strong as “shy” in his memoir, To Be Loved, said that, “I am saddened to hear of the passing of Barrett Strong, one of my earliest artists, and the man who sang my first big hit … Barrett was not only a great singer and piano player, but he, along with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work, primarily with the Temptations. Their hit songs were revolutionary in sound and captured the spirit of the times … Barrett is an original member of the Motown Family and will be missed by all of us.”
In addition to the Grammy, Strong was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Songwriters in 1990 and a Songwriters Hall of Fame induction in 2004. BMI celebrated his legacy during a special event in 2016.
The son of a Uniroyal plant worker and a housewife, Strong grew up on Detroit’s west side and sang in a gospel group with his four sisters. They toured the local church circuit and befriended stars such as Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke. “When they’d come to town they’d stop by the house and visit with us,” Strong recalled. “We would all sit around the piano and play and sing.”
It was Wilson who introduced Gordy to the Strongs in 1957. Gordy hit it off with the ambitious Strong, who often walked to Gordy’s east side home to exchange song ideas. One day Gordy told Strong, “I like what you can do. I’m gonna do something with you.”
The first thing was a single called “Let’s Rock”/”Do the Very Best You Can,” which received some local airplay but didn’t make a national impact. “Money,” however, was a Top 50 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the R&B charts, later covered by the Beatles and during the ’80s by the avant-garde group the Flying Lizards. Gordy and Janie Bradford wrote the song, but there are three different stories about how it came to be.
In his memoir To Be Loved, Berry claims the “shy” Strong, who plays piano as well as sings on the track, joined the session “uninvited.” Bradford, meanwhile, recalls Gordy inviting Strong into the room and asking him to “give me something,” which became the opening piano riff for the song. Strong? HE remembers jamming on the piano, riffing off of Ray Charles‘ “What’d I Say?” “I was playing, and then that little thing came up and everybody said, ‘What was that?!'” he says. “They said, ‘Let’s write some lyrics,’ and we had a song.”
The rest of Strong’s time at Motown was just as memorable. He recalls that Motown initially didn’t want to release “Grapevine,” which he began writing during a brief tenure working for Vee Jay Records in Chicago. “They didn’t think it was a hit record,” said Strong, adding with a chuckle, “You know how it goes: They say, ‘We don’t like that,’ but when it’s a hit, everybody takes credit.” The Miracles were actually the first to record the song, in 1966, and Gaye recorded it the following year. But it was Knight’s raucous version that came out first, during September of 1967, followed by Gaye’s slowed-down groove 11 months later; Knight’s reached No. 2 on the Hot 100, while Gaye’s topped the chart. Creedence Clearwater Revival turned in an 11-minute version of “Grapevine” on its 1970 album Cosmo’s Factory, while the California Raisins covered it for a TV commercial in 1986, which launched a “career” for the cartoon group.
“Just My Imagination,” meanwhile, was something of a desperation project for Strong and Whitfield after a couple of other songs they wrote for the Temptations didn’t do well. “We had to get our band back,” Strong said. “If we didn’t come up with something they’d have someone else writing for ’em.” Stress aside, Strong had little but positive memories of his songwriting heyday. “It was a great time,” he said. “We were just kids, and we did it for the fun, not the money. We enjoyed being at the studio all day, working.”
“Nowadays people want the money first, which I can understand,” he said. “But we used to put the product first and figured if we worked hard we would get paid. It was just an era.”
Strong left Motown during the early ’70s and resumed his performing career, recording for the Epic and Capitol labels. He also co-wrote singles for the Dells. For a time Strong operated a production company called Boomtown in Detroit, mentoring and partnering with younger artists, and in 2010 he released Stronghold II, his first album in 30 years.
“You don’t quit. You just slow down,” Strong said in 2016. “You take your time more. But you have to keep up, too, and relate to the younger people now. I don’t want to be left behind.”
No cause of death has been revealed for Strong. Funeral details are pending.
The Undisputed Truth - Smiling Faces Sometimes (1971)
Edwin Starr - War (Original Video - 1969)
The Temptations- "I Wish It Would Rain" [This ay be the first one released that he wrote with Whitfield]
The Temptations - Ball Of Confusion (Live)
I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)
The Temptations "I Can't Get Next To You" on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Temptations- "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" 1972
The Temptations "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" on The Ed Sullivan Show
Gladys Knight & The Pips - The End Of Our Road
Gladys Knight and The Pips "Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me" [This is the only one I know of that Whitfield isn't credited as a cowriter.]
I think this guy and Norman Whitfield may be the best songwriters of Motown, as good or better than Smokey Robinson and Holland Dozier Holland.
This was actually written by Motown founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford. I still hear DJs crediting it to the Beatles. SMH ]
I heard “Money Can’t Buy Me Love”...but it can rent it for a few hours at a time.
This song was even covered by a British alternative/Gothic band. I always thought the lyrics of this song were pretty conservative.
Creedence Clearwater Revival turned in an 11-minute version of “Grapevine” on its 1970 album Cosmo’s Factory.
I’ll take that version. Thank You.
I did not realize the Baby’s version of money was a cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnP9WrSitnQ
But you had heard the Beatles version?
Those were the days when the same song could be a hit 3 or 4 times with different artists.
Nope. And I just checked it out. No thanks. Even the old version you posted was better than the Beatles version. Tone and beat are wrong for the song.
This New Wave/Art Rock version was the one I heard a DJ credit as, "a Beatles cover."
God rest his soulful soul.
Think of it, the man who wrote this was an ex-boxer, who wrote some song for Jackie Wilson. He recorded this for the record label he founded, and it was the label's first hit in the summer of 1960. That label would go on to have more hits than any other record label in the 1960s. Amazing.
Yeah CCR didn’t just sing it. They made it into a timeless classic. A masterpiece.
The California Raisins had fun with it too.
CCRs version was like 11 minutes long. The DJs would put it on, and then go outside and smoke a J, while it played.
WOW, just one of the greatest popular song writers ever! His credits are soundtrack of my life from the early 60’s to the present day. Rest in peace, sir, and thanks for the hundreds of memories.
The Barrett version isn’t bad at all.
Hard to believe the record companies didn’t want it. I have heard of many songs they rejected that became huge hits.
When music was music
The groups often got it wrong too.
A piano ballad not typical of Kiss’ sound, this was released as the B-side of “Detroit Rock City,” which was the third single from the album, following “Shout It Out Loud” and “Flaming Youth.”
These three first single releases were hard-driving anthems in the style of Kiss’ previous hit “Rock And Roll All Nite,” but the song that got the most attention was “Beth.”
Radio stations began playing the song, and the record company responded by flipping the sides of the single, with “Beth” becoming the A-side about six weeks later. It became the biggest hit for Kiss, and their only song to get significant airplay on Top 40 radio and even - gasp - Adult Contemporary formats.
Edwin Starr - War (Original Video - 1969)
I wonder how that song would have done if Starr has stuck with his original title, “War and Peace”?
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