played bass guitar on the song. One day during fall 1973, producer/keyboardist Leon Huff was leading the members of the MFSBrhythm section and Jackson through a rehearsal. Sigma Sound Studios owner/engineer Joe Tarsia noticed that Jackson had a wah-wah pedal attached to his Fender Precision Bass. Tarsia decided to run Jackson's bassline through a phaser, giving it a swishing sound and later mixed in echo. During the final mixing of the track, Kenny Gamble impulsively reached over to the echo button and added echo to Jackson's opening riffs.
Credits
K. Gamble – producer, composer, lyricist
Leon Huff – producer, composer, lyricist
A. Jackson – composer, lyricist
Awards and accolades
"For the Love of Money" was nominated for the 1975 Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance – Duo, Group or Chorus, losing to "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus. Despite the 1975 snub, in 2016 "For the Love of Money" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
Chart history
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Cover versions
The song was covered by Todd Rundgren's band Utopia on their 1982 album Swing to the Right.
The song was covered by the funk-punk outfit Defunkt on their 1982 album Thermonuclear Sweat.
A cover version recorded by Erroll Starr was nominated for the 1987 Juno Award for "Best R&B/Soul Recording".
It was covered by Carole Davis, under the title "Serious Money," on her 1989 album Heart of Gold.
A medley of "For the Love of Money" and Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" was recorded by Troop, LeVert, and Queen Latifah. The medley is featured prominently in Mario Van Peebles's 1991 filmNew Jack City, and it appears on the film's soundtrack.
Backstreet Boys recorded a version of this song for their Never Gone album, but it was not released.
The song was covered by Queensrÿche on their 2009 album Take Cover.
The song was covered by The Dynamics on their 2011 album 180,000 Miles and Counting.
The song was covered by Tackhead on their 2014 album of the same name, For the Love of Money.
Samples
The song is sampled in Grandmaster Melle Mel's 1985 single "Step Off," and Funky Four's "King Heroin". It has also been sampled by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's single "I Need Money" and Charli Baltimore's single "Money." The Happy Mondays's "Rave On" intro was also based on the opening riff to "For the Love of Money." The British R&B singer/rapper Jentina sampled the money line for the chorus of her debut single "Bad Ass Strippa" in 2004. The rhythm and vocals are also used as the main backing track to Bone Thugs N' Harmony's 1995 single "Foe tha Love of $," featuring Eazy E. The song was sampled for the Papoose featuring Remy Ma single "What's My Name" in 2013. The song was sampled by Dr. Dre on the 2015 album in the eponymous song "For the Love of Money."
