NEW YORK (AP) — Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists and one of Motown’s most talented songwriters who sang the title track for the company’s hit single “Money (That’s What I Want)” and later collaborated with Norman Whitfield on classics like “I Heard It Through.” the Grapevine”, “War” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”, has died. He was 81 years old.
His death was announced Sunday on social media by the Motown Museum, which did not immediately provide further details.
“Not only was Barrett a great singer and pianist, but he, along with fellow writer Norman Whitfield, created incredible work,” Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement.
Strong was not yet 20 years old when he agreed to let his friend Gordy, in the early days of building a recording empire in Detroit, run it and release his music. Within a year, he made history as the pianist and vocalist on “Money,” a million-selling hit released in the early 1960s and Motown’s first big hit. Strong never again came close to the success of “Money” on his account, and decades later fought for recognition that he helped write it. But, with Whitfield, he formed a productive and eclectic songwriting team.
While Gordy’s “Sound of Young America” was criticized for being too witty and repetitive, Whitfield-Strong’s team produced hard-hitting, topical works, alongside timeless ballads like “I Wish It Would Rain” and “Just My imagination”. Running Away with Me).” With “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” they provided an up-tempo call-and-response hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips and a dark, hypnotic ballad for Marvin Gaye, their first 1968 cover. of all time Motown.
Political Cartoons
As Motown became more politically conscious at the end of the decade, Barrett-Whitfield produced “Cloud Nine” and “Psychedelic Shack” for the Temptations and for Edwin Starr the protest anthem “War” and its widely quoted refrain, “War.” What is it for? Absolutely nothing!”
“With ‘War,’ I had a cousin who was a paratrooper who got hurt pretty bad in Vietnam,” Strong told LA Weekly in 1999. by shrapnel and crippled for life. They talk about these things with their families when they are sitting at home, and it inspires them to say something about it.”
Whitfield-Strong’s other hits, primarily for the Temptations, included “I Can’t Get Next to You”, “That’s the Way Love Is”, and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” (sometimes spelled “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”). “). Artists who covered his songs ranged from the Rolling Stones (“Just My Imagination”) and Aretha Franklin (“I Wish It Would Rain”) to Bruce Springsteen (“War”) and Al Green (“I Can’t Get Next to You”).
Strong spent part of the 1960s recording for other labels, left Motown again in the early 1970s, and made a handful of solo albums, including “Stronghold” and “Love is You.” In 2004, he was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, which cited him as “a pivotal figure in Motown’s formative years.”
Music by Strong and other Motown writers later appeared in the Broadway hit “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations.”
Strong was born in West Point, Mississippi and moved to Detroit a few years later. He was a self-taught musician who learned the piano without the need for lessons and, with his sisters, formed a local gospel group, the Strong Singers. In his teens, he met artists such as Franklin, Smokey Robinson, and Gordy, who was impressed with his writing and piano playing. “Money,” with his opening cry, “The best things in life are free / but you can give them to the birds and the bees,” would ironically lead to a fight over money.
Strong was initially listed among the writers and often talked about coming up with the piano riff while playing Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” in the studio. But only decades later would he learn that Motown had removed his name from the credits, costing him royalties for a popular standard performed by the Beatles, Rolling Stones and many others and a memento on John’s home jukebox. Lennon. Strong’s legal argument was weakened because he had taken too long to ask for his name to be reinstated. (Gordy is one of the song’s credited writers, and his lawyers contended that Strong’s name only appeared due to a clerical error.)
“Songs outlive people,” Strong told The New York Times in 2013. “The real reason Motown worked was publishing. The records were just a vehicle to get the songs to the public. The real money is in post, and if you have post, then stick with it. That’s all it is. If you give it away, you are giving away your life, your legacy. Once you’re gone, those songs will keep playing.”
Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
