Marvin gaye and 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 Sky-high Enough” in January 1967, but not released. It finally appeared on a 2010 retrospective of her work, Come On And See Me on Hip-O Select.
• Songwriters Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson first intended “Ain’t No Mountain Steep Enough” for Dusty Springfield. Then Motown called.
• Clyde Wilson (co-writer of “Give A Little Love”) is enhanced 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 Live In Europe, Four Tops’ Greatest Hits.

• Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Dry 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 Elevated Enough.” The writers credited on “Tears” are the original authors of “Mountain,” N
  
  
  
  

  When Marvin Gaye first signed with Motown in the early 1960s, he wasn’t particularly interested in recording R&B music. Although he had broken in professionally singing doo wop with the Marquees and, more importantly, the Moonglows, he preferred the sound of jazzy vocalists such as Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Motown indulged Marvin briefly before nudging him toward more uptempo material like his first R&B hit “Stubborn Caring Of Fellow” in 1962.

  
  Marvin Gaye soon established himself as Motown’s top male solo artist, and he proceeded to chart four consecutive R&B hits starting with “Pride And Joy” which crossed over to # 10 on the Hot 100 in 1963. The hits continued in early 1964 when Gaye’s recording of “You’re A Wonderful One” hit # 3 on the R&B charts and # 15 on the Hot 100.

  
  Motown also saw the potential in Marvin to be half of a powerhouse duet team with Mary Wells, the label’s biggest female star who had just had her first # 1 smash with “My Guy.” This dream team, in Berry Gordy’s mind, would double the potential customer anchor for both albums and singles.

  
  “Together,” the first and only studio album released by Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells was relea
  

  In the past several weeks I have highlighted The Beatles' Abbey Roadand Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry,both released in September of 1969. This week, I focus on other albums released in September and October of that year with an ear to AM Radio. Being fourteen and a white kid from a small farming town, my main exposure to music of the morning came from AM stations.
  
  Even though I never purchased a 45 single or album from Motown (until Stevie Wonder in the 70's), I constantly was exposed to pop, heart and R&B by shadowy artists on AM Radio. I didn't realize it at the time, but those tunes sunk in deep in my mind, and as I got older, I began to appreciate them more and more, and don't you know they stand the test of time.
  
  Three of my all-time Motown favorites are featured here with releases by the singing duo of Marvin Gayeand Tammi Terrell. Tammy died in 1970 at the age of  twenty-four from brain cancer. For me, this was Motown's finest singing duo that was cut way too brief and as the saying goes, "the good cease young." Also got to give a shout out to The Temptationsand The Supremeswho made an album together in 1969. The Supremes are a very special group in the histo
  

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

  
  

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

  Ain't No Mountain Tall Enough

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  In July, the song spent two weeks at No.19 on the Billboard Spicy 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 uppermost by, among others, Marvin and Tammi’s Motown labelmate Stevie Wonder, with “I Was Made To Admire 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 show 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
  
  

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