Who Were Those Two Cass Students Who Helped Launch Motown? Hint: They Were White

Barrett Strong 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 on the song that launched Motown Records.

One carried a guitar, the other an electric bass. They plugged in, and they played. They helped make history, and then they made tracks.

Who were they? Where are they? Have they spent five decades telling disbelieving friends that they're the backbone of a song that's the backbone of a dynasty?

Maybe it's only curiosity, or maybe it comes with age and the sound of too many contemporaries' final notes. But Strong has been wondering.

He was only 18 himself when he recorded "Money," which made it to No. 23 on the pop chart and No. 2 in R&B.