{"id":11653,"date":"2023-02-02T11:11:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T11:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=11653"},"modified":"2023-02-02T11:11:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T11:11:33","slug":"motown-hitmaker-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=11653","title":{"rendered":"Motown\u2019s Hitmaker, Barrett Strong, Dies At 81"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>One of Motown Records\u2019 original hitmaker and songwriter for \u201cMoney (That\u2019s What I Want),\u201d and other soul classics, Barrett Strong has died at age 81.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Strong was perhaps best known for his collaborations with fellow Motown hitmaker Norman Whitfield, which include Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u201cI Heard It Through the Grapevine,\u201d and Edwin Starr\u2019s \u201cWar,\u201d along with several songs performed by the Temptations like \u201cJust My Imagination (Running Away With Me)\u201d and \u201cCloud Nine,\u201d among many others.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>News of Strong\u2019s death was confirmed early Sunday afternoon by the Motown Museum on Twitter.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Motown founder Berry Gordy issued the following statement, \u201cI am saddened to hear of the passing of Barrett Strong, one of my earliest artists, and the man who sang my first big hit ,Money (That\u2019s What I Want) in 1959.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cBarrett 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 like \u2018Cloud Nine\u2019 and the still relevant, \u2018Ball of Confusion (That\u2019s What the World is Today).\u2019 My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends. Barrett is an original member of the Motown Family and will be missed by all of us.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Strong was a pivotal figure in music during the late \u201960s and early \u201970s, both as a singer and a composer who contributed massive hits throughout Motown\u2019s formative years. He was among Gordy\u2019s first signings to the label, and performed their first hit, 1959\u2019s \u201cMoney (That\u2019s What I Want).\u201d The track, which was originally released on Tamla, Gordy\u2019s first label, was written by the Motown founder and his then-secretary, Janie Bradford.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Money went on to be covered by several popular bands such as the Beatles (1963), the Flying Lizards (1979) and the Rolling Stones (1964), to name a few.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The same year he released Money, Strong appeared on the little-distributed \u201cLet\u2019s Rock,\u201d under Tamla. From that point forward, he went on to become one of Motown\u2019s most successful songwriters in partnership with Norman Whitfield.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The duo was critical to the label\u2019s switch from orchestral soul to a blend of rhythmic funk and rock. Strong received a Grammy for best rhythm and blues song in 1973 for the Temptations\u2019 \u201cPapa Was a Rollin\u2019 Stone.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>By 1972, Strong had left Motown after the label had moved to the West Coast. Instead, he pursued a solo career which kicked off with a pair of albums on both Capitol Records and Epic Records. Under Capitol, he released the 1975 LP, \u201cStronghold,\u201d which achieved some success with standout single \u201cIs It True.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Strong had sporadic releases throughout the beginning of the 80s and beyond, though he continued to write for other artists like the Dells. In 2004, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2008, he recorded a sequel to his \u201cStronghold\u201d album, aptly titled \u201cStronghold II.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of Motown Records\u2019 original hitmaker and songwriter for \u201cMoney (That\u2019s What I Want),\u201d and other soul classics, Barrett Strong has died at age 81.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6333,6334],"class_list":["post-11653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-motown-hitmaker","tag-motown-records"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11655,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11653\/revisions\/11655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}