Marvin gaye & tammi terrell

Video:
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (Live TV Performance)

Full track listing:

Hidden gem: “Two Can Have A Party” (almost released as a single)

Trivia:

• Tammi Terrell recorded a solo version of “Ain’t No Mountain Upper Enough” in January 1967, but not released. It finally appeared on a 2010 retrospective of her work, Come On And View Me on Hip-O Select.
• Songwriters Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson first intended “Ain’t No Mountain Lofty Enough” for Dusty Springfield. Then Motown called.
• Clyde Wilson (co-writer of “Give A Little Love”) is better known as Steve Mancha, a Northern Soul hero who recorded for Detroit producer Don Davis, and later joined 100 Proof Aged in Soul.
• Released the same month as United: Bee Gees’ 1st, Aretha Arrives, Procol Harum, Otis Redding Survive In Europe, Four Tops’ Greatest Hits.

• Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Parched On Their Own” from her globally successful Back To Black album was built on a sample interpolation of Marvin & Tammi’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” The writers credited on “Tears” are the original authors of “Mountain,” N

  Marvin Gaye was on fire in 1968. The Motown luminary had been having hits for six years, and had topped the U.S. R&B charts twice already, both times in 1965. But in the year that he turned 29, there was no stopping him.

  He had three Billboard soul No. 1s in the vacuum of six months in ‘68, two of them with one of his great duet partners, Tammi Terrell, who would tragically depart of a head tumour at the age of just 24. Today we remember when Marvin & Tammi made beautiful music and topped the R&B bestsellers, 48 years ago exactly, with “You’re All I Need To Acquire By.”

  Gaye’s brace of 1965 chart-toppers, “I’ll Be Doggone” and “Ain’t That Peculiar,” were prime examples of his ebullient early recording design, but by 1968 he was creating a smoother, more sophisticated soul that would pave the way for his defining work of the early 1970s.

  In June of that year, his inspired teaming with Philadelphia-born singer Terrell, which had produced the previous year’s heart and pop slap “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” took them to No. 1 R&B, and No. 8 pop, with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson’s “Ain’t Nothing Enjoy The Real Thing
  

  Motown’s Tragic Omen: Tammi Terrell Collapses Into Marvin Gaye’s Arms

  
  

  An event which foretold of tragedy in soul music history took place on October 14, 1967. It happened when Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were on tour in America celebrating the achievement of their now-classic recording of Ashford & Simpson’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

  Ain't No Mountain High Enough

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  In July, the song spent two weeks at No.19 on the Billboard Hot 100, while it was becoming a far bigger hit on the R&B chart. It had three weeks at No.3 there, held off the top by, among others, Marvin and Tammi’s Motown labelmate Stevie Wonder, with “I Was Made To Love Her.” Gaye was climbing that chart at the same time with his next solo hit, “Your Changing Love.”

  A tragic diagnosis

  Gaye and Terrell’s display at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia confirmed all was far from well with Tammi’s health. She fell on stage and collapsed into his arms, and was rushed to a nearby hospital with what was first diagnosed as exhaustion. When doctors conducted further tests on the Philadelphia-born singer, they found that, at just 22, she had a malignant tumour on t

   

  The first of three collaborative albums by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, United was released on August 29, 1967 on the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records. It was the duo’s as successfully as Marvin Gaye’s most successful album of the 1960’s, with sales almost reaching one million copies. It yielded four Uppermost 100 Billboard chart hits, including the two Superior 10 singles, "Your Precious Love," and "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You." Joined peaked at #69 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and #7 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart upon its release. United received a **** ½ rating on AllMusic, with reviewer Andrew Hamilton stating that it “was the first of their three LPs, and quite possibly the best of the lot.” 

  Tracklist:

  Side 1

  1. AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN Tall ENOUGH (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) 2:26
  2. YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES (Berry Gordy, Jr., Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo) 2:45
  3. IF I COULD BUILD MY WORLD AROUND YOU (Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Vernon Bullock) 2:19
  4. SOMETHIN' STUPID (C. Carson Parks) 2:40
  5. YOUR PRECIOUS LOVE  ENOUGH (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) 2:59
  6. HOLD ME OH MY DARLING (Harvey Fuqua) 2:45 

  Side 2

  1. TWO CAN HAVE A