There are competing versions of the origin
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 9:29 am
Later covered by the Beatles, the Doors and the Rolling Stones, among other bands and performers, “Money” quickly shot to No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. That spring, David A. Carson, in “Grit, Noise, & Revolution,” wrote: “It seemed like everyone was turning up the radio to hear the pounding piano riffs that kicked off” the song.
Mr. Strong was a teenager when he met Gordy, a friend of his sister. On a visit to the Strong house, Gordy heard Mr. Strong playing Ray Charles songs on the piano and invited him to the studio to record.
“Gordy was working with Motown songwriter and office administrator buy phone number list Janie Bradford on a new song,” according to the Motown Museum. “He explained to her the thing he wanted most at that moment was not love but money. Barrett Strong was in the studio that day and heard them working.”
“He slid next to me on the piano bench, playing away and joining me singing the chorus,” Berry wrote in “To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown.” His voice was soulful and passionate. I didn’t have to think twice about who I could get to sing my song. Barrett was it.”
Mr. Strong explained it a different way, telling the New York Times in 2013, in an account backed up a recording engineer, that the song emerged from him riffing on a Charles song. Gordy heard the instrumentals, Mr. Strong said, and then he, Gordy and Bradford wrote the lyrics.
The matter was never quite settled. Gordy and Mr. Strong squabbled over royalties and credit for “Money,” with Mr. Strong accusing Motown of removing him from copyright documents.
Mr. Strong was a teenager when he met Gordy, a friend of his sister. On a visit to the Strong house, Gordy heard Mr. Strong playing Ray Charles songs on the piano and invited him to the studio to record.
“Gordy was working with Motown songwriter and office administrator buy phone number list Janie Bradford on a new song,” according to the Motown Museum. “He explained to her the thing he wanted most at that moment was not love but money. Barrett Strong was in the studio that day and heard them working.”
“He slid next to me on the piano bench, playing away and joining me singing the chorus,” Berry wrote in “To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown.” His voice was soulful and passionate. I didn’t have to think twice about who I could get to sing my song. Barrett was it.”
Mr. Strong explained it a different way, telling the New York Times in 2013, in an account backed up a recording engineer, that the song emerged from him riffing on a Charles song. Gordy heard the instrumentals, Mr. Strong said, and then he, Gordy and Bradford wrote the lyrics.
The matter was never quite settled. Gordy and Mr. Strong squabbled over royalties and credit for “Money,” with Mr. Strong accusing Motown of removing him from copyright documents.