Barrett Strong remembers where he saw the Primes — who would eventually grow into the Temptations — at a club called the Phelps Lounge on Oakland Avenue. But who were those two white kids?
In 1959, Strong recorded a song called "Money (That's What I Want)" that became the first hit for Motown Records. Now he's 71 and he's had a … well, he won't call it a stroke the way his friends do, but the left side of his body just won't obey orders.

Even so, his memory keeps the beat. That place on Second Avenue where he used to do a Ray Charles act with a little band was the Dairy Workers Hall, and when the friends are trying to remember who sang "Cry Baby" back in 1963, he's the one who comes up with Garnet Mimms.

Those white kids, though, are a vexation. He remembers the recording session, and half a century later, we all know what came out of it:

The best things in life are free
But you can give them to the birds and bees
I need money (That's what I want)

But he never knew the white boys' names, and he can't picture their faces. All he knows is that two kids from Cass Tech stepped off a bus, tapped on the door of what became Hitsville U.S.A., and asked if they could sit in....