Singer Barrett Strong, known for the song ‘Money’, dies (PHOTOS)

• Money (That’s What I Want) singer Barrett Strong has died.
• His death has shocked his fans.
• He is recognized for his incredible talent.

Sad news for the music world is flooding social media. Singer Barrett Strong, known for the hit song Money has died.

Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists and most talented songwriters, who was the lead vocalist on the company’s first big hit Money (That’s What I Want) has died. He was 81 years old, according to The Associated Press.

Singer Barrett Strong dies

The Motown Museum announced Barrett Strong’s death Sunday on Twitter but did not disclose more details. «Barrett was not only a great singer and pianist, but also, along with fellow composer Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work,» Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement.

Strong was not yet 20 years old when he agreed to let his friend Gordy, who was in the early stages of building a music empire in Detroit, manage his career and distribute his music. In a matter of a year, Barrett went down in history as the pianist and vocalist on Money, which was released in 1960 and sold a million copies. It was Motown’s first big hit.

Strong was unable to come close to the level of success of Money again

Strong was never able to approach the level of success of Money on his own again and decades later he struggled to be recognized as a co-writer of the work. But with Whitfield he formed a productive and eclectic songwriting team, according to the AP.

Although Gordy’s song Sound of Young America ​​was criticized for being too sophisticated and repetitive, Whitfield and Strong’s dumbbell spawned hits including the ballads I Wish It Would Rain and Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me).

Strong achieved success thanks due to his incredible talent

With I Heard it Through the Grapevine they scored a hit with a faster call-and-response tempo for Gladys Knight and the Pips, and a dark, hypnotic ballad for Marvin Gaye, their 1968 version being one of the biggest hits in music. Motown history.

As Motown became more politically conscious later in the decade, Barrett and Whitfield produced Cloud Nine and Psychedelic Shack for The Temptations, and for Edwin Starr they wrote the protest anthem War and its widely quoted line: «War! What is it good for? Absolutely…nothing!»

Barrett Strong is remembered for his remarkable career

“With ‘War,’ I had a cousin who was a skydiver who was seriously injured in Vietnam,“ Strong told LA Weekly in 1999. “I also knew a guy who used to sing with (Motown singer) Lamont Dozier who was hit by shrapnel and crippled for life. You talk about these things with your family when you are at home and it inspires you to say something about it.”

Other hits for Whitfield and Strong, notably for the Temptations, included: I Can’t Get Next to You, That’s the Way Love Is and the Grammy award-winning Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone. Artists who also recorded his work range from The Rolling Stones (Just My Imagination) and Aretha Franklin (I Wish It Would Rain) to Bruce Springsteen (War) and Al Green (I Can’t Get Next to You).