Motown songwriter still feuding with founder

[Dale Latimer]

Sunday's New York Times local edition had a lengthy piece on Barrett Strong, original singer and alleged co-writer of the Motown chestnut "Money (That's What I Want)", whom Berry Gordy on multiple occasions had removed from official records as a writer of the song, despite Strong's contentions he is owed royalties for the tune...

www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/arts/music/for-a-classic-motown-song-about-money-credit-is-what-he-wants.html?hp&_r=1&&pagewanted=all

dL

[1finemrg]

Sept 3, 2013 17:17:03 GMT -5 Dale Latimer said:

Sunday's New York Times local edition had a lengthy piece on Barrett Strong, original singer and alleged co-writer of the Motown chestnut "Money (That's What I Want)", whom Berry Gordy on multiple occasions had removed from official records as a writer of the song, despite Strong's contentions he is owed royalties for the tune...

www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/arts/music/for-a-classic-motown-song-about-money-credit-is-what-he-wants.html?hp&_r=1&&pagewanted=all

dL

From what I read about Motown, unfortunately this doesn't surprise me. Janie Bradford, his secretary, did receive songwriting credit for the lines "Your love gives me a thrill. But your love don't pay my bills." In his autobiography, "To Be Loved" Berry does mention that Barrett Strong entered into the studio "uninvited" during the session and joined in. His enthusiasm did convince Berry that he was the right singer for the song.

There does appear to be a right side (Diana Ross) and a wrong side (Flo Ballard) of Berry to be on.

I'm a huge Motown fan, and the music created by Berry's empire will be timeless. But the song "Money (That's What I Want)" is sort of his philosophy of Motown. The fact that the music is legendary probably means a lot to him, but first and formost he created a successful business.