b. 5th February 1941, Westpoint, Mississippi, U.S.A.
Barret Strong is the cousin of two members of the R & B vocal group the Diablos, launching his own singing career with Berry Gordy's young Tamla label in 1959.
At the end of that year, he recorded the original version of Gordy's song 'Money', a major US hit that became a rock standard after it was covered by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Strong also wrote Eddie Holland's US hit 'Jamie' in 1961.
Later that year, he briefly joined Vee Jay Records, but he returned to the Motown stable in the early 60's to work as a writer and producer.
He established a partnership with Norman Whitfield from 1966-1973, together, the pair masterminded a series of hits by The Temptations, with Strong contributing the powerful lyrics to classics such as 'Cloud Nine', 'Just My Imagination' and 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone'.
Strong left Motown in 1973 to resume his recording career, finding some success with 'Stand Up And Cheer For The Preacher' on Epic, and 'Is It True', on Capitol in 1975.
1976's 'Live And Love' set contained 'Man Up In The Sky', highly popular on the UK soul scene and covered by Johnny Bristol for Ian Levines' Motorcity label in the early 90's.
Sadly Barrett seems destined to be remembered for his backroom work at Motown rather than his own excellent releases.
In 2001, Barrett, unexpectedly, returned to recording releasing 'Stronghold 2' on his own Blarritt Records label.
Strong stated 'I thought it was about time to do this again, so I mustered up the energy and here we are...'. The album was a mixture of several diffent musical styles.
