New Delhi, Aug. 24 -- Janie Bradford Hobbs, an early Motown songwriter who co-wrote "Money (That's What I Want)" and penned songs recorded by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and Martha & The Vandellas, has died following an extended illness. She was 87.

Bradford Hobbs died on Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she had long lived, her family said.

Although she later founded Mountain Goat Music and opened the Music Notes Gift Shop in Beverly Hills, Bradford Hobbs first made her name in Detroit during the early years of what would become one of the most influential record labels in American music.

Born in Charleston, Missouri, she later moved to Detroit, where her neighbour, singer Jackie Wilson, introd...