In the Groove | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 26, 1968 | |||
Recorded | 1967–68 | |||
Genre | Soul | |||
Length | 31:55 | |||
Label | Tamla | |||
Producer | Norman Whitfield, Ivy Jo Hunter, Frank Wilson | |||
Marvin Gaye chronology | ||||
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Singles from In the Groove | ||||
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In the Groove is the eighth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on August 26, 1968 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. It was the first solo studio album Gaye released in two years, in which during that interim, the singer had emerged as a successful duet partner with female R&B singers such as Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. In the Groove was reissued and retitled as I Heard It Through the Grapevine after the unexpected success of Gaye's recording of the same name, which had been released as a single from the original album.
By the end of 1967, Marvin Gaye had released only one solo single in 18 months. Between his Kim Weston duet, "It Takes Two" and his Tammi Terrell duets, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Your Precious Love" among others, Gaye had released "Your Unchanging Love", which peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Motown brought Gaye back to the studio in the beginning of 1967 to record a solo album. Recording difficulties aside, Gaye's vocals went through a transition through this period. Perhaps done on purpose, Gaye's earlier collaborator Norman Whitfield and his pupil, Frank Wilson, began to write songs they felt fit the singer's chaotic personal life: Gaye's marriage to Anna Gordy was turbulent as was life on the road in which Gaye grew a constant dislike to live performances and his personal disagreements with Motown CEO Berry Gordy had started to create strain in his relationship with the Motown label.
On top of that, during an October 1967 engagement at Hampden-Sydney College with Terrell, the younger Terrell collapsed from exhaustion into Gaye's waiting arms. Terrell was later diagnosed at the end of the year with having a brain tumor, which depressed Gaye. Some speculate Terrell's illness and subsequent death two and a half years later affected Gaye's performances in which he went from being a soul stylist in the same way his idol Sam Cooke had been into a more gospel-influenced soul vocalist who sounded more in par with Otis Redding, James Brown, and Temptations lead singer David Ruffin. However, during the recording of what would become Gaye's biggest-selling and signature single of his career, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", Whitfield decided to force Gaye to raise his vocal register higher than what he was used to, which Whitfield already tried successfully on Ruffin during the recording of the Temptations hit, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". Though Gaye and Whitfield reportedly argued over the sessions of "Grapevine", Whitfield was able to get what he wanted from Gaye.
When Whitfield presented "Grapevine" to Berry Gordy, the producer was stunned when Gordy turned it down sensing the song "wasn't a hit" and that "it sucked". In response, Whitfield recorded a different version of the song by Gladys Knight & the Pips in an attempt to "out-funk Aretha Franklin's "Respect". This version, released in September 1967 became the biggest Motown hit to date. After the success of Gladys Knight & the Pips' version Whitfield was still determined to get Gaye's version of the song released as a single. Again Gordy refused but eventually agreed to allow "Grapevine" on the album.
Retrospective professional reviews | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ ( ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Instead of releasing "Grapevine" as a single, Motown issued the Ivy Jo Hunter-produced "You", which was recorded after "Grapevine". The single was released in December 1967, eight months prior to the release of the album. The song showcased Gaye hollering in falsetto for the first time. The single would peak at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 7 on the Hot-Selling Soul Singles.
In the Groove was eventually released in August 1968 accompanied by a second single, "Chained". The single would eventually peak at number 32 on the pop chart and number 8 on the R&B chart. The song was still climbing the charts when radio deejays began playing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". When Gordy finally allowed the release of Gaye's version of "Grapevine", the song blew up on the charts upon its October 1968 release. By the end of the year, the song had hit number-one on both the Hot 100 and the Hot-Selling Soul Singles charts and by 1969 had reached number one on the UK Singles chart becoming Gaye's first international smash and outselling the Gladys Knight & The Pips version of the song, thus becoming the most successful Motown single to date. However, when Gaye heard about its success, he acted coldly to it due to his depressed state over Tammi Terrell. He later told a biographer he felt the song's success was "undeserved".
After the single's commercial success, Motown re-released the album as I Heard It Through the Grapevine [1] and, as a result, the album shot up to number 2 on the R&B albums chart and peaked at number 63 on the pop albums chart, his biggest selling album to date. The album also marked Gaye's first attempts at producing himself in the studio with his own self-penned songs, the funky gospel dancer, "At Last I Found a Love", and the smoother "Change What You Can". Though Whitfield only produced one song on the album (producers included Ivy Jo Hunter, Ashford & Simpson and Frank Wilson), Gaye and Whitfield would embark on a two-album collaboration.
Gaye's album wasn't the only album to be re-released after a hit single: in 1970, The Miracles' Make It Happen album, initially released in 1967, was re-released in 1970 as Tears of a Clown, after that song hit number-one in the US and internationally. That same year, Diana Ross' self-titled debut album was re-released as Ain't No Mountain High Enough after that song's success.
Critical reception to In the Groove has been generally positive. According to Robert Christgau, it was an example of how "Gaye was so rhythmically and dynamically astute that his albums sustained" even during his phase as "a Motown matinee idol". [4] Fellow critic Tom Hull singled out Gaye's cover of "Some Kind of Wonderful" as "nonpareil" while deeming the rest of the album "solid", although he concluded that "as a single he can't quite compete on songs you know from Motown's groups." [5] AllMusic reviewer John Bush found it indicative of Gaye never being too dependant on Motown's Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting-production team, as he "weathered their departure pretty well" with the album. [1]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "You" | Jeffrey Bowen, Jack Coga (Goga), Ivy Jo Hunter | 2:25 |
2. | "Tear It on Down" | Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson | 2:35 |
3. | "Chained" | Frank Wilson | 2:38 |
4. | "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" | Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield | 3:14 |
5. | "At Last (I Found a Love)" | Marvin Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Elgie Stover | 2:37 |
6. | "Some Kind of Wonderful" | Gerry Goffin, Carole King | 2:19 |
7. | "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" | Ivy Jo Hunter, Stevie Wonder | 2:43 |
8. | "Change What You Can" | Marvin Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Elgie Stover | 2:37 |
9. | "It's Love I Need" | Stephen Bowden, Ivy Jo Hunter | 2:54 |
10. | "Every Now And Then" | Eddie Holland, Frank Wilson | 3:06 |
11. | "You're What's Happening (In The World Today)" | George Gordy, Robert Gordy, Allen Story | 2:19 |
12. | "There Goes My Baby" | Benjamin Nelson, Lover Patterson, George Treadwell | 2:24 |
Chart (1968) | Peak position |
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US Billboard Top LPs [6] | 63 |
US Billboard Soul LPs [6] | 2 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [7] | Gold | 100,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye, was an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B, soul and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s.
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Tammi Terrell was an American singer-songwriter, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably for a series of duets with singer Marvin Gaye.
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a single in September 1967. It went to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and shortly became the biggest selling Motown single up to that time.
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Barrett Strong Jr. was an American singer and songwriter known for his recording of "Money ", which was the first hit single for the Motown record label. He is also known for his songwriting work in association with producer Norman Whitfield; together, they penned such songs as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "War", "Just My Imagination ", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone".
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is a song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966 for the Tamla label, a division of Motown. The composition was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and became a hit again in 1970 when recorded by former Supremes frontwoman Diana Ross. The song became Ross's first solo number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
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American music artist Marvin Gaye released 25 studio albums, four live albums, one soundtrack album, 24 compilation albums, and 83 singles. In 1961 Gaye signed a recording contract with Tamla Records, owned by Motown. The first release under the label was The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye. Gaye's first album to chart was a duet album with Mary Wells titled Together, peaking at number forty-two on the Billboard pop album chart. His 1965 album, Moods of Marvin Gaye, became his first album to reach the top ten of the R&B album charts and spawned four hit singles. Gaye recorded more than thirty hit singles for Motown throughout the 1960s, becoming established as "the Prince of Motown". Gaye topped the charts in 1968 with his rendition of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", while his 1969 album, M.P.G., became his first number one R&B album. Gaye's landmark album, 1971's What's Going On became the first album by a solo artist to launch three top ten singles, including the title track. His 1973 single, "Let's Get It On", topped the charts while its subsequent album reached number two on the charts becoming his most successful Motown album to date. In 1982, after 21 years with Motown, Gaye signed with Columbia Records and issued Midnight Love, which included his most successful single to date, "Sexual Healing". Following his death in 1984, three albums were released posthumously while some of Gaye's landmark works were re-issued.
Motown Remixed is a 2005 compilation album containing remixed versions of Motown hits, released on May 24, 2005 by Motown/Universal Records.
"You" is a 1967 single released by American singer Marvin Gaye on the Tamla label.
"The End of Our Road" is a single written by Roger Penzabene, Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1967. Originally recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips and issued as a single in 1968, the Pips' version of the song, became another top forty hit for the family group as it peaked at number fifteen on the pop singles chart and number five on the R&B singles chart.
"California Soul" is a funk-soul tune written by Ashford & Simpson, issued originally as the B-side of the Messengers' single "Window Shopping" in 1967 under the Motown group of labels.
Everybody Needs Love is the third album by Gladys Knight & the Pips and their first album for Motown Records' Soul imprint. The LP, chiefly produced by Norman Whitfield, features the singles "Just Walk in My Shoes", "Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me", "Everybody Needs Love" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".
Motown Chartbusters is a series of compilation albums first released by EMI under licence on the Tamla Motown label in Britain. In total, 12 editions were released in the UK between 1967 and 1982. Volumes 1 and 2 were originally called British Motown Chartbusters; after this the title Motown Chartbusters was used.
"Don't You Miss Me a Little Bit Baby" is a 1967 soul song originally recorded by Motown singer Jimmy Ruffin and released on the company's Soul subsidiary label.