Janie Bradford, the co-writer on Motown’s first hit “Cash (That’s What I Need)” and different songs for the famed Detroit label, has died on the age of 87.
Bradford’s household introduced the songwriter’s demise Saturday, including she died August 21 at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital following an prolonged sickness.
Motown founder Berry Gordy stated in an announcement Saturday, “I was deeply saddened to study of the passing of Janie Bradford Hobbs. Janie was there with me from the very starting, earlier than there was even a Motown, and she is going to all the time maintain a really particular place in my coronary heart and within the Motown household.”
Bradford was launched to Gordy by her neighborhood buddy Jackie Wilson, who on the time had recorded the Gordy-penned “Reet Petite.”
“Janie was sensible, intelligent, witty, and enjoyable. She was additionally gifted and decided. In these early days, all people did what was wanted to be executed, and Janie was no exception. She turned Motown’s first receptionist, however her abilities rapidly took her far past that desk,” Gordy added.
In 1959, Bradford and Gordy co-wrote “Cash (That’s What I Need),” which turned Motown’s first hit single when it was recorded by Barrett Robust; 4 years later, the track was as soon as once more successful due to the Beatles, who recorded the track for his or her 1963 album With the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones laid down their very own rendition on their first EP in 1964.
“Sooner or later, as Gordy was engaged on a track, Bradford joined him by the piano so as to add her personal verse – ‘your love provides me such a thrill, however your love don’t pay my payments. Gimme some cash child!’,” the Motown Museum wrote of their tribute to Bradford.
Throughout her quarter-century tenure at Motown, Bradford additionally co-wrote the Marvin Gaye hit “Too Busy Pondering About My Child,” Mary Wells’ “Your Previous Standby,” and songs for Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Surprise, the Temptations, the Marvelettes, and extra.
“Janie was certainly one of a particular group I’ve all the time regarded as the Unique Motown Household—The Unsung Heroes who believed within the dream earlier than anybody knew what Motown would turn out to be. She was one of many individuals who helped make Motown what it turned,” Gordy added.
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“Janie’s dedication to others didn’t finish with Motown. By way of her Heroes and Legends Scholarship Fund, which she based within the Nineteen Nineties, she spent a long time serving to deserving younger folks pursue their desires whereas celebrating so lots of the individuals who helped construct our music neighborhood. Her annual gatherings all the time felt like outdated residence week as a result of Janie saved that great sense of household alive.”
Her household added, “Only recently, Janie was inducted into the Ladies Songwriter’s Corridor of Fame and over time has been awarded quite a few awards and commendations.”
