History
The album was recorded in 1966 and 1967 during the time Gaye and Terrell's first collaboration album United was released. After recording You're All I Need,Tammi Terrell collapsed onstage while performing with Gaye at the Hampden–Sydney College homecoming in Virginia. She was later diagnosed with a brain tumor,and could no longer record nor perform live. According to Gaye,the final Gaye/Terrell album, Easy ,would be completed by having Valerie Simpson fill in for Tammi Terrell on most of the album's songs,and having Gaye overdub archived Terrell solo tracks for two tracks. Simpson vehemently denies this and says they had to record Tammi's vocals in pieces in order to get the project done,but in the Unsung documentary about Terrell,she admits to singing guide vocals intended for the unavailable Terrell.
Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson produced the singles "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing","Keep On Loving Me Honey," and "You're All I Need to Get By." [2] Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced the rhythm tracks and Terrell's vocal for "You Ain't Livin' 'Til You're Lovin'," with Ashford and Simpson completing the production and supervising Gaye's vocal. [2] Fuqua and Bristol also produced "I'll Never Stop Loving You Baby" while Motown CEO Berry Gordy,Jr.'s brother Robert Gordy produced "I Can't Help But Love You." [2] Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced "Come On and See Me," "Baby Dont'cha Worry," "Give In,You Just Can't Win," "When Love Comes Knocking At Your Heart," "That's How It Is (Since You've Been Gone)," and "Memory Chest" as Tammi Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966,and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them to create duet versions. [2]
The hit title track was revived 25 years later as a duet between rapper Method Man and hip-hop soul singer Mary J. Blige. Their rendition,titled "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need",won Method Man and Blige a Grammy Award for Best Rap Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1995.
Easy is an album recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and released by Motown Records on September 16, 1969 under the Tamla Records label. One song on the album, "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By", was a hit single and remains popular to this day. Terrell had been ill, suffering from complications caused by a brain tumor, since the fall of 1967. Marvin Gaye later claimed that as a result, most of the female vocals on this album were performed by Valerie Simpson, who served as co-songwriter and co-producer for the LP with her boyfriend and future husband Nickolas Ashford.
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.
Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting, production, recording duo composed of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson.
"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.
"Your Precious Love" is a popular song that was a 1967 hit for Motown singers Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. The song was written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and produced by Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol. The doo-wop styled recording features background vocals by Fuqua, Gaye, Terrell and Bristol, and instrumentals by The Funk Brothers with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The song peaked at #5 on Billboard Pop Singles chart, #2 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, and the top 40 on Billboard's Easy Listening survey. The song was later sampled by Gerald Levert on the song, "Your Smile", on his 2002 album, The G Spot.
"You're All I Need to Get By" is a song recorded by the American R&B/soul duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and released on Motown Records' Tamla label in 1968. It was the basis for the 1995 single "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By" from Method Man and Mary J. Blige.
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" is a 1968 single released by American R&B/soul duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, on the Tamla label in 1968. The B-side of the single is "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl" from the duo's United LP. The first release off the duo's second album: You're All I Need, the song—written and produced by regular Gaye/Terrell collaborators Ashford & Simpson—became a hit within weeks of release eventually peaking at number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Soul Singles chart, the first of the duo's two number-one R&B hits. In the UK "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" reached number 34.
United is a studio album by soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced all of the tracks on the album, with the exception of "You Got What It Takes" and "Oh How I'd Miss You". Fuqua and Bristol produced "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "Two Can Have a Party" as Tammi Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966, and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them in order to create duet versions of the songs.
Diana & Marvin is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Gaye and Ross were widely recognized at the time as two of the top pop music performers.
Love Child is the fifteenth studio album released by Diana Ross & the Supremes for the Motown label in 1968. The LP was the group's first studio LP not to include any songs written or produced by any member of the Holland–Dozier–Holland production team, who had previously overseen most of the Supremes' releases.
The Return of the Magnificent Seven is the second collaborative album between Motown label-mates The Supremes and Four Tops, released in 1971. The production only featured two covers compared to their first album together, The Magnificent 7, that included more than eight. Although the three albums the Supremes recorded with the Four Tops did not match the commercial success of the Supremes/Temptations duet albums, what they did have instead were original tunes, soulful lead vocals by Jean Terrell and Levi Stubbs and high production values in terms of arrangements and orchestration.
Dynamite is the third and last collaborative album between labelmates The Supremes and The Four Tops, released on the Motown label in 1971. The album was a collection of material recorded for the Magnificent Seven albums, but which had not been included on either of those two albums. The cover artwork was an illustration based on photo sessions from the Return of the Magnificent Seven album artwork. In the US, Dynamite was as commercially unsuccessful as The Magnificent 7 (1970) and The Return of the Magnificent Seven (1971), peaking at the lower hundreds of the Billboard Top 200. The album fared much better on the Billboard R&B charts, peaking at 21.
Irresistible was the only solo album for Tammi Terrell, which was released in January 1969 by Motown Records. Due to complications with a malignant brain tumor in 1968 which caused her death in March 1970, Terrell did not record a subsequent solo album. This album compiles solo recordings Terrell made for Motown between 1965 and 1968. Two of the tracks included on this album were dubbed with vocals from Terrell's frequent singing partner Marvin Gaye to create album tracks for the duo's joint albums. These tracks were "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "I Can't Believe You Love Me". A re-recorded version of "Come On and See Me" appears on the 1968 Gaye/Terrell album You're All I Need. "This Old Heart of Mine " is a remake of the 1966 Isley Brothers' hit by the same name.
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's Greatest Hits is a 1970 compilation album released by Motown stars Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell on the Tamla label. It is a collection of the duo's recording material, penned and produced by the songwriting-producing team of Ashford & Simpson except for two tracks. The album was released shortly after the death of Terrell, who died of a brain tumor at the age of 24.
The Complete Duets is a two-disc compilation album of duet recordings by Motown Records artists Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, recorded between 1965 and 1969. The set compiles all of the tracks from the duo's three albums - United,You're All I Need and Easy - as well as several of Tammi Terrell's solo recordings and other previously unissued material.
The Essential Collection is a compilation album for Motown soul singer Tammi Terrell, released by Universal Music Group's Spectrum Music in the United Kingdom in 2001. The compilation includes Terrell's only solo album, Irresistible in its entirety, several B-sides and unreleased tracks, and Terrell's most famous duet recording with singing partner Marvin Gaye, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
"Keep On Lovin' Me Honey" is a 1968 hit written and produced by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, and issued as a single on Motown Records' Tamla label by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. It was the third release from the duo's You're All I Need album. Billboard described the single as a "potent, driving rocker" that "will put [Gaye and Terrell] rapidly at the top." Cash Box said that it "blazes its way with terrific rhythmic impact and super-powered vocal splendor."
"Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By" is a duet released in 1969 on the Tamla label by singers Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.
"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.
What's Going On Live is a live album recorded in 1972 by American soul singer Marvin Gaye and released posthumously in 2019 by Motown. The album documents a live performance of his album What's Going On and has received mixed feedback from critics.
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