Revenge of the Thirty-Day Song Challenge - Day 8

Day 8 – A 50’s Song

We’ve entered the decade-creeping portion of the challenge, where we’ll look at songs from each of the X0’s up until present day. Spoilers. Anyway, I decided to start with the 50’s, since it was the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, and I figured more people have Elvis on their iPod than Glenn Miller.

Barrett Strong – “Money (That’s What I Want)”



My 50’s musical exposure isn’t incredibly deep, and I sometimes need a little something extra if I want to discover new tunes from that era; the proverbial spoonful of sugar for my medicine. In the case of “Money,” I caught it on an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, during an episode dedicated mostly to animated music videos (to music whose copyrights had coincidentally expired. Hmmm…). The song was sung by Montana Max, an egotistical little twerp whose lust for cash knows few bounds; thematically, it makes a ton of sense.

There’s nothing super special about “Money,” other than a catchy melody and fun guitar line. I certainly enjoy the old-fashioned, bluesy song structure, and dig the guitar riff used during most of the song, but I’m a bit perplexed by the absurd amount of cover versions made of this song. Maybe they thought it was cool because The Beatles did it too?

Whatever. “Money” is a fun bit of 50’s rock ‘n’ roll with a good hook, decent instrumentation, and an old-timey charm; and despite it being in constant rotation at my work’s muzak station, I still enjoy listening to it. Go figure.