Barrett Strong, Motown hitmaker and co-writer of I Heard It Through The Grapevine, dead at 81

Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists and the most talented songwriter who sang on the company’s breakthrough single. Money (that’s what I want)later collaborated with producer Norman Whitfield on classics such as I Heard Through the Grapevine, war and Papa was a Rollin’ Stone, has died. He is 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 he, along with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work,” Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement.

Strong was not yet 20 when he agreed to let his friend Gordy, at the beginning of building a record empire in Detroit, manage and release his music. In one year, he became part of history as a pianist and vocalist for MoneyMotown’s first major hit from 1960 and a popular standard soon covered by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many others.

Strong never again approached the success of Money himself, and decades later struggled to admit that he helped write it. However, with Whitfield, he formed a prolific and eclectic songwriting team.

Tim Whitfield-Strong activated hard-hitting and topical works, along with timeless ballads such as I hope it rains and Only My Imagination (Run With Me). with I heard it through the Grapevinethey provided up-tempo, call-and-response hits for Gladys Knight and the Pips and dark, hypnotic ballads for Marvin Gaye, whose 1968 version was one of Motown’s all-time sellers.

Many songs are covered

Barrett-Whitfield helped lead the way when some Motown artists moved beyond just love songs in the late 1960s with politically conscious material. They turned out Cloud Nine and Psychedelic Shack for the Temptations and for Edwin Starr’s protest song war and the much-quoted refrain, “War! What’s the point? Really … nothing!”

“By warI have a cousin who was a paratrooper who got really hurt in Vietnam,” Strong told LA Weekly in 1999. “I also know people who used to sing along. [Motown songwriter] Lamont Dozier suffered a fracture and was paralyzed for life. You talk about it with your family while sitting at home, and it inspires you to talk about it.

Whitfield-Strong’s other hits, mostly for the Temptations, include I Can’t Get Close To You, That’s the Way of Love and Grammy-winning chart-topper Papa was a Rollin’ Stone. The artist who covered her songs is Detroit native Aretha Franklin (I hope it rains), Bruce Springsteen (war), Al Green (I Can’t Get Close To Youand Paul Young (Wherever I Lay My Hat).

Strong also included the Motown name cited in Billy Bragg Tears of Levi Stubbs: “Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong / Here to right all the wrongs.”

Strong was born in West Point, Miss., and moved to Detroit a few years later. He is a self-taught musician who learned the piano without taking lessons and, with his sister, formed a local gospel group, the Strong Singers.

At a young age, he was introduced to artists like Franklin, Smokey Robinson and Gordy, who impressed him with his writing and piano playing. MoneyWith the opening cry, “The best things in life are free / But you can give to the birds and the bees,” will, ironically, lead to war – over money.

‘Songs beyond people’

Strong was originally listed among the writers and he often talked about the pounding piano riffs he used to jam to Ray Charles. What did I say in the studio.

But only a few decades later would he learn that Motown had removed his name from the credits, at the expense of royalties. Strong’s legal argument is weakened by the fact that he has long sought to have his name restored.

“Songs outlive people,” Strong told The New York Times in 2013. “The real reason Motown works is publishing. The record is just a vehicle to get the songs out to the public. The real money is in publishing, and once you publish it, then replace it. That’s all. If you give, you give a life, a legacy. If you’re gone, those songs will still be playing.”

Strong spent part of the 1960s recording for other labels, leaving Motown again in the early 1970s and making several solo albums. In 2004, he was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, which called him “an important figure in the formative years of Motown.”

Whitfield died in 2008.

Music from Strong, Whitfield and other Motown writers was later featured in Broadway hits Don’t Be Proud: Life and Times of Temptation.