The creator of Motown’s hit songs is gone.
Barrett Strong passed away on Sunday, January 29th. Mediapunch/Shutterstock
Barrett Strong, the songwriter who wrote numerous hit songs of the past years, has died. Strong was 81 years old when he died. Among other things, the news covered the matter Billboard. Strong’s cause of death has not yet been released.
Strong, who passed away on Sunday, was a significant figure in the international rise of the Motown label and black music since the 1960s. He recorded Motown’s first hit Money (That’s What I Want) as a singer in 1959, but after that he gained fame primarily as a songwriter.
Together with Norman Whitfield, Strong co-wrote the soul hits I Heard Through the Grapevine (1967), Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) (1971), Smiling Faces Sometimes (1971) and Papa Was a Rolling Stone (1972), of which from the last one he won the best R&B’s Grammy Award.
Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. announced Strong’s passing and sent his condolences to the family.
– I am saddened to hear about the passing of Barrett Strong. He was one of my first artists and the man who sang our first big hit. Barrett was not only a great singer and pianist, but he and Norman Whitfield created an incredible duo that worked with the Temptations, among others. Their hit songs were sonically revolutionary and captured the spirit of the time. Barrett is an original member of the Motown family and we will all miss him,” Gordy Jr. wrote.