Money [[That's What I Want)!

[marv2]

Was this one of the greatest songs released by Motown? Why was Barrett Strong eventually given the shaft with the writers' credits? Who are all those folks on the background?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeVx1C73o8k

[marv2]

Was the Flying Lizards' version that drained every ounce of soul out of the song more effective given it's subject matter?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_iQZiVD_zA

[marymary]

The issue with the royalties has been discussed in length here:

http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?9970-Barrett-Strong

[marv2]

The issue with the royalties has been discussed in length here:

http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?9970-Barrett-Strong

Thanks, but I was specifically referring to songwriters credit.

[thomas96]

I talked to Barrett about this... He was young and naive and got completely screwed over. He also had an album, "Money & Other Big Hits" planned for release and later shelved because BG didn't like that he was writing more material... Got completely screwed over.

[marv2]

I talked to Barrett about this... He was young and naive and got completely screwed over. He also had an album, "Money & Other Big Hits" planned for release and later shelved because BG didn't like that he was writing more material... Got completely screwed over.

Now we are getting down to what I wanted to know about.......thank you Thomas!

[BigAl]

Who are all those folks on the background?

That woud be The Rayber Voices [["Rayber" being a contraction of "Raynoma and Berry.") It was an informal grouping, usually using whoever happened to be knocking around the studio on any given day so there was no established line-up, but the most regular participants were Robert Bateman, Raynoma Gordy, Sonny Sanders, and Brian Holland [[pictured). Later, they added Gwendolyn Murray, Louvain Demps, and eventually also would include members of the Temptations, Martha And The Vandellas, and the Miracles. I'm guessing the core group [[Bateman, Sanders, Holland and Ray Gordy) is doing the backing on "Money."

8257

[marymary]

Thanks, but I was specifically referring to songwriters credit.

I guess you didn't even click on the link to see what the thread was all about...

[mysterysinger]

Not the first time - or last time either - Bobby Parker's "You Got What It Takes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0reSOZtHM3k

[marv2]

That woud be The Rayber Voices [["Rayber" being a contraction of "Raynoma and Berry.") It was an informal grouping, usually using whoever happened to be knocking around the studio on any given day so there was no established line-up, but the most regular participants were Robert Bateman, Raynoma Gordy, Sonny Sanders, and Brian Holland [[pictured). Later, they added Gwendolyn Murray, Louvain Demps, and eventually also would include members of the Temptations, Martha And The Vandellas, and the Miracles. I'm guessing the core group [[Bateman, Sanders, Holland and Ray Gordy) is doing the backing on "Money."

8257

The Rayber Voices! That's it, Al told me about them. So even from the very beginning, Motown used any and everyone to get a hit. Thank you BigAl , nice picture too.

[144man]

According to Janie Bradford, the only thing she contributed was the couplet "money can't buy everything etc.", and that Berry Gordy insisted that she get a writer's credit for that. As Berry Gordy therefore could have taken full writer's credit, it seems strange that on the one hand he would have had Janie Bradford included and on the other hand exclude Barrett Strong.

[marv2]

According to Janie Bradford, the only thing she contributed was the couplet "money can't buy everything etc.", and that Berry Gordy insisted that she get a writer's credit for that. As Berry Gordy therefore could have taken full writer's credit, it seems strange that on the one hand he would have had Janie Bradford included and on the other hand exclude Barrett Strong.


Thank you 144man

[StuBass1]

Janie Bradford was one of the original architect's of Motown. If Berry Gordy felt that Janie's contribution's to Money and several other songs she participated in were significant enough for songwriting credits, so be it. She has used her money and influence to form the HAL awards foundation which honors performers from the past and contributes to music education for aspiring musical artists and musicians. She hasn't thrown her money away on ill advised investments...

[marv2]

Janie Bradford was one of the original architect's of Motown. If Berry Gordy felt that Janie's contribution's to Money and several other songs she participated in were significant enough for songwriting credits, so be it. She has used her money and influence to form the HAL awards foundation which honors performers from the past and contributes to music education for aspiring musical artists and musicians. She hasn't thrown her money away on ill advised investments...


Janie deserves more recognition overall for all the things she has done to help others.

[heikki]

Hi!

Let's have a look at another story and a different angle on the composing of Money. As Reese mentioned in the earlier thread, Sam Moore has declared himself the writer of the song.
Below are short extracts from the book "For the Record/Sam and Dave" in 1998. There are altogether over two pages that he devotes to this song.

"One day Sam Early [[a local Miami R&B Singer) and I are trying to get paid for some little gig we did, and we couldn't. Out of that came 'Money'. Only in our version it was called 'Getting Paid'. It didn't work with the lines in the song; it needed some work...."

"I was humming 'money buys everything, it's true/what it don't buy, I can't use/I want money'. The way I was singing it was in a Willie John kind of thing. A little more flowing, a little slower than the way Motown did it. We eventually finished the words to that."

"Stuff like this, it turns your mind around. The songs says Berry Gordy. But there's plenty of people know I wrote it. Dan Ackroyd says so on stage... Sam and I wrote some other stuff like that... The Night Lights, with a girl named Chanel, went in the studio up around Daytona, somewhere. I got a tape on it. The way Chanel was singing that song, man, she got signed to a record company... Sam asks me what I thought, and I said it was good, because she was nailing that line 'that's what I want'."

"I didn't want anything 'til I heard the song with Barrett Strong. I listened, and I said 'that's my shit'. I talked with Sam - before Sam got shot in the head. Way before... He had sold the song to Henry Stone for some little nothing, and Henry had gone and sold it to somebody else. Sam told me he was gonna set up a meeting with me and Henry and get all this straight, 'cept a few weeks later, he got shot."

"I even said something to Berry Gordy at Mary Wells's funeral. I walked up to him and I said, in a joking way - but I was dead serious - 'hey Berry, how you doing?' 'Oh, hello Sam, how are you?' 'Hey man, you want to take care of that?', and he looked at me and said 'What you talking about?'. 'You want to take care of me on that Money thing?' Berry looked away for a second and he said 'I ain't gonna give you nothin'. I ain't givin' you shit! I got mine! And I don't want to talk about it no more, Sam. Now leave me alone'. Like that, dirty.

Best regards
Heikki

[marv2]

AWwww..... It's gettin' hawt in here! LOL!!!!!