(New York) Barrett Strong, one of the founding artists of the Motown label and one of the most gifted songwriters, has died. The one behind the song Money (That’s What I Want)who went on to collaborate with Norman Whitfield on classics such as Heard It Through the Grapevine, War et Papa Was a Rollin’ Stonewas 81 years old.
His death was announced Sunday on social media by the Motown Museum, which did not immediately provide further details.
“Barrett was not only a great singer and pianist, but, together with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, he created an incredible body of work,” Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement.
Barrett Strong was not yet 20 when he agreed to let his friend Berry Gordy, in the early stages of building a recording empire in Detroit, manage it and release his music. In less than a year, he was making history as a pianist and singer of Money, a one-million-selling title in early 1960 and Motown’s first big hit. Strong never again approached the success of Money on his own, and decades later fought to have his contribution to his writing recognized. But, with Norman Whitfield, he formed a productive and eclectic team of composers.
Whereas Sound of Young America by Gordy was criticized for being too slick and repetitive, the Whitfield-Strong team produced hard-hitting and topical works, as well as timeless ballads such as I Wish It Would Rain et Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me). With I Heard it Through the Grapevinethey provided a hit with up-tempo call-and-response for Gladys Knight and the Pips as well as a dark, hypnotic ballad for Marvin Gaye, his 1968 version being Motown’s biggest hit.
As Motown became more politically aware at the end of the decade, the Barrett-Whitfield duo released Cloud Nine et Psychedelic Shack for the Temptations. For Edwin Starr, the anthem of protest War saw the light of day with its widely acclaimed chorus: “War! What is it good for? Absolutely…nothing! (War! What’s the point? Absolutely nothing!)
” With WarI had a cousin who was a paratrooper who was pretty badly injured in Vietnam, Strong told LA Weekly in 1999. I also knew a guy who used to sing with [l’auteur-compositeur de Motown] Lamont Dozier who was struck by shrapnel and paralyzed for life. You talk about these things with your families when you sit at home, and it makes you want to say something about them. »
Whitfield-Strong’s other hits, mostly for the Temptations, included I Can’t Get Next to You, That’s the Way Love Is et Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone. Artists who covered their songs ranged from The Rolling Stones (Just My Imagination) et d’Aretha Franklin (I Wish It Would Rain) to Bruce Springsteen (War) et Al Green (I Can’t Get Next to You).
Barrett Strong spent part of the 1960s recording for other labels, leaving Motown again in the early 1970s and making a handful of solo albums, including Stronghold et Love is You. In 2004, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, which cited him as “a pivotal figure in Motown’s formative years.”
Norman Whitfield died in 2008.
Music by Barrett Strong and other Motown songwriters was later featured 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 together with his sisters formed a local gospel group, the Strong Singers. As a teenager, he became acquainted with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, who was impressed with his songwriting and piano playing. Moneywith its opening cry, “The best things in life are free/But you can give them to the birds and bees”, ironically, would lead to a battle – for money.
Strong was initially listed among the songwriters of the title and he often talked about coming up with the piano riff while playing What’d I Say by Ray Charles in the studio. But it wouldn’t be until decades later that he would learn that Motown had since stripped his name from the credits, costing him royalties for the popular standard covered by the Beatles, Rolling Stones and many others. Strong’s legal case was weakened because he had taken so long to ask for his name to be reinstated. Gordy is one of the song’s credited writers, and his lawyers argued 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 way to get the songs out to the public. The real money is in publishing, and if you have publishing, then hang in there. That’s the whole story. If you give it, you give your life, your inheritance. Once you’re gone, those songs will continue to play. »
