Barrett Strong, Motown Artist Dead At 81

NEW YORK (AP) – Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists and most gifted songwriters who sang lead on the company’s breakthrough single “Money (That’s What I Want)” and later collaborated on such classics as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “War,” has died. He was 81. Strong’s death was announced Sunday on social media by the Motown Museum, which did not immediately provide further details. “Money,” a million-seller released in 1960, was Motown’s first major hit. Strong and Norman Whitfield became one of Motown’s most productive and eclectic songwriting combinations, writing several hits for the Temptations.