Janie Bradford was a poetry-loving receptionist, not yet out of her teens, when she provided her boss, Berry Gordy Jr, with the lines that helped him complete a song called Money (That’s What I Want). Gordy, then in the early stages of establishing Motown Records and searching for what would become the label’s signature sound, was sitting at the piano in the summer of 1959 when Bradford, who had been listening to him at work, came up with a couplet that drove home the song’s message: “Your love gives me such a thrill / But your love don’t pay my bills.”
Money (That’s What I Want) was the first record to be made at Motown’s new Detroit studios, to be known as Hitsville USA. Sung by the 18-year-old Barrett Strong, it was released in the US in August 1959 and reached No 2 in the R&B charts and No 23 in the pop charts. In recognition of her contribution, Gordy added Bradford’s name to his own in the songwriting credits.
