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Friday 10 February 2012

Motown at 50

To begin (almost) at the beginning...

During a sweltering summer day in 1959, Gordy was in a particularly foul mood. As he walked through the hallway [receptionist] Janie Bradford tried joking with him, only to be gruffly shunted aside. Whe she asked what was wrong, he told her about being stymied with a song. She asked what the song was about. He told her that since most of the popular songs on the charts were about love, he had decided to write about something he needed most at that very moment: money... He took Bradford to the piano and played some chords of his unfinished song. As he went along, he really got into it, loudly singing the chorus... Then suddenly Bradford blurted her own line, "Your love gives me such a thrill, but your love don't pay my bills, gimme some money, baby."  ... "Money (That's What I Want)" was the first song cut at the Hitsville Studio. The actual recording session lasted several days and was more like a party...

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