Janie Bradford, the Motown songwriter who helped write "Money (That’s What I Want)," died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after an extended illness. She was 87.
For listeners, Bradford’s name is tied to one of the records that helped make Motown matter. "Money (That’s What I Want)" was the first big hit for Berry Gordy’s label and later became one of the catalog’s most durable songs, covered by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Flying Lizards, The Supremes, Boyz II Men and Charli XCX. Bradford also co-wrote "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby," which Marvin Gaye carried to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.
Her path into Motown started far from the studio floor. Born June 2, 1939, in Charleston, Missouri, she said she was inspired to write after her idol, Robert Frost, visited her high school. Later, while living in Detroit with her sister, Clea, she became friends with Jackie Wilson. Wilson introduced her to Berry Gordy after he had launched Tamla and Motown in 1959, and Bradford brought him a collection of poetry. Gordy hired her as a receptionist, and Bradford soon began adding her own verse to what became "Money (That’s What I Want)."
She was part of the label’s early machinery in a way that rarely fit the spotlight. Bradford worked on songs for Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, the Four Tops and Martha & the Vandellas, and later served as head of writer relations for Jobete. Her credits also included "Contract on Love," "Your Old Standby," "I Am Me," "Time Changes Things" and "We Should Be Closer Together." Yet her role often surfaced through credits and recollections more than the kind of standalone profile that usually cements a public legacy.
Gordy said Bradford had been with him from the beginning, before there was even Motown, and called her Motown’s first receptionist. He said her talents quickly carried her far beyond that desk. After about 25 years at Motown, she founded the Heroes and Legends Awards in the 1990s, a program that honored music icons and gave scholarships to students pursuing higher education. In June, she was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. Survivors include her husband of 55 years, Wardean, her children Lance and Nicole, her daughter-in-law Carolyn, and her grandsons Bradford and Austin.
Her death closes the chapter on one of the early Motown figures who helped define the label from inside its walls. What remains is the music itself: a hit about money that became a Motown calling card, and the quieter story of the woman who helped write it.
