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Before The Rolling Stones were stadium gods, they were just another hungry band raiding American R&B for something with bite. Money (That’s What I Want) flips that script, turning Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford’s Motown spark into a raw, swagger-heavy obsession with cash and chaos. The Rolling Stones don’t polish it; they attack it, dragging the groove through early club grit instead of studio shine. It’s less a cover than a declaration, showing a band learning how American soul could fuel their own dangerous identity. Still, Money (That’s What I Want) remains a loud reminder of their restless beginnings period.
Money don’t buy everything it’s true/ What it don’t buy I can’t use…
Written by: Berry Gordy Jr./Janie Bradford Recorded: De Lane Lea Studios, Holborn, London, Nov. 14 1963
Mick Jagger: vocals, tambourine Keith Richards: guitar, backing vocals Brian Jones: harmonica, backing vocals Bill Wyman: bass Charlie Watts: drums
Moreabout The Rolling Stones’ take on Money
*By Marcelo Sonaglioni
A song that shaped two worlds
Before it became a calling card for British rock, Money (That’s What I Want) was already living a double life. Recorded by Barrett Strong in the summer of 1959, the song didn’t roar out of the gate. Its early release barely registered until a quiet reissue in early 1960 on Anna Records, a label run by Berry Gordy’s sisters with songwriter Billy Davis. Co-written by Gordy and Janie Bradford, the lyric flipped a familiar moral—money can’t buy happiness—into something bolder, brasher, and unmistakably modern. At just 18, Strong delivered the words with raw urgency, sounding less like a polished star and more like a young man stating an uncomfortable truth. That tension gave the record its power. It also helped lay the groundwork for Motown, turning one modest hit into a blueprint for an entire musical movement.
From modest hit to Motown blueprint
What made Money (That’s What I Want) so influential wasn’t chart dominance, but timing and attitude. Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford wrote a song that didn’t apologize for desire; it stated it plainly, almost defiantly. Anna Records’ re-release allowed the track to finally find its audience, and once it did, it became impossible to ignore. The groove was simple, the message blunt, and the emotion unmistakable. Over time, that clarity helped turn Money into one of the most familiar and oft-covered standards in all of rock ’n’ roll. Even though it would remain Barrett Strong’s only solo hit, the song quietly announced Motown’s future priorities: rhythm first, honesty second, and crossover appeal always in mind. In hindsight, Moneyfeels less like a debut and more like a mission statement—one that hinted at the empire Berry Gordy was about to build.
Barrett Strong’s unexpected legacy
Ironically the man whose voice introduced that mission would soon step away from the spotlight. Barrett Strong never repeated his early chart success as a solo performer, but his influence only deepened. Teaming up with Norman Whitfield, he became one of Motown’s most important songwriters, shaping the label’s sound from behind the scenes. Together they co-wrote Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, and the blunt protest anthem War. These songs didn’t just top charts; they captured social tension, uncertainty, and change. Looking back, Strong’s teenage recording of Moneyfeels almost prophetic. What once seemed like a one-off hit now reads as the first chapter in a far-reaching creative life—proof that success isn’t always loud or immediate, but often cumulative.
Crossing the Atlantic: Jagger hears potential
While Money (That’s What I Want)echoed across American radio, its impact in England was far quieter. Mick Jagger later recalled buying Barrett Strong’s version and noticing that it never truly caught on there. To Jagger, that felt less like a failure and more like an opportunity. Around the same time, several British Invasion bands began testing the song’s potential, though the only group to score a UK hit with it was the relatively obscure Bern Elliott & the Fenmen, who took it to #14 in 1963—without ever making an impression in the US. The most famous British cover, however, arrived when The Beatles recorded Moneyin July 1963 for their second album, With The Beatles. With John Lennon on lead vocals, their interpretation eventually became the best-known version of the song worldwide, even though it appeared only as an album track.
Mick Jagger: “I can remember buying Barrett Strong’s Money, which was a really big R&B hit in America, but didn’t happen when it came out in England. When we saw that those things were popular, we said, ‘well, let’s do that’. So we did”
The Rolling Stones find their voice
Against that backdrop, The Rolling Stones’ decision to record Money (That’s What I Want)in 1963 felt both bold and risky. Their version appeared on the band’s first British EP The Rolling Stones at the beginning of 1964, but remained virtually unknown in the US for years, as it was never issued there during the 1960s. When it finally surfaced on American shores in the early 1970s via the More Hot Rocks(Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) compilation, it sounded like a snapshot of a band still taking shape. Like The Beatles, the Stones pushed the song at a more frenetic pace than Barrett Strong’s relatively mild original arrangement. Brian Jones’ harmonica wailed, an angry guitar riff cut through the mix, and staccato bluesy single-note runs answered some of Jagger’s vocal lines.
The performance felt raw and unfinished, even threatening to teeter out of control during the instrumental break, as if the band were playing against each other rather than in unison. Yet that very roughness hinted at the swaggering, rule-bending identity the Stones would soon make their own. Over the years, Moneywould be recorded by an extraordinary roll call of artists—from Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker to Etta James, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Supremes—confirming that what began as a modest Motown hit had become a universal rock ’n’ roll language.
Mick Jagger (1964): “We are surprised that the EP has sold so well. We do Poison Ivy and Money on the record, but they have already been hits. Money is on a Beatles EP (sic) and it has sold fantastically by other people. So we couldn’t have been more surprised when the disc made the charts”
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