Motown pioneer Barrett Strong dies aged 81
The musical legacy of Barrett Strong - the first Motown star - has been remembered today after his death at the age of 81. Rachel Younger on the hitmaker
Barrett Strong, one of the earliest and most influential Motown artists, has died aged 81.
He was famous for the 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.
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 piano player, but he, along with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work," Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement.
Strong had yet to turn 20 when he let Gordy manage him and release his music as they began to dominate music in Detroit.
Within a year, he was a part of history as the piano player and vocalist for Money, a million-seller released early in 1960 and Motown’s first major hit.
Strong never again approached the success of Money on his own, and decades later fought for acknowledgement that he helped write it.
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He 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.”
His long-time collaborative partner, Whitfield, died in 2008.
The music of Strong and other Motown writers 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 piano without needing lessons and, with his sisters, formed a local gospel group, the Strong Singers.