Song:Money (That's What I Want)
Album:The Complete Motown Collection
This 1960 hit was the song that allowed Berry Gordy to start Motown Records. For Barrett Strong, it was his only hit as a recording artist. But he was a Motown staff songwriter usually working with producer Norman Whitfield. And he's still around today. Strong was born Feb. 5, 1941 in West Point, MS and grew up in Detroit. He was one of the first artists signed to Gordy's new Tamla label and Money was the very first Motown hit single in 1960. It reached #2 on the R & B Singles chart and #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gordy wrote the song with long time Motown employee Janie Bradford. It generated enough revenue so Gordy could open Motown and the rest is history. Many artists have covered Money including The Beatles. The Kingsmen had a top 20 hit with Money in 1964. But the most significant cover was the goofy novelty hit by The Flying Lizards in 1979. Strong recorded other songs for Motown but most of them weren't released. 10 of the 22 songs on this Motown UK comp were never released. You can also get Money on plenty of Motown various artists comps. Among the songs Strong wrote with Whitfield were I Heard It Through The Grapevine, War and a lot of the "psychedelic soul" songs for The Temptations including the Grammy winner Papa Was A Rolling Stone. Barrett Strong left Motown in 1972 and recorded for Capitol in the mid 70s He continues to record occasionally on independent labels. Here's the DTV video for Money by Barrett Strong.
No comments:
Post a Comment