The Royal Couple of R&B
In 1964, Motown paired Marvin Gaye with Mary Wells, then the queen of Motown. Motown next paired Gaye with Kim Weston; “It Takes Two” was a massive hit but Weston departed the label. Motown then put Gaye with a third singer, Oma Page: they recorded a few sides that went nowhere.
The fourth time was the charm. In 1966, Motown paired Gaye with Tammi Terrell, who had been a teenage singer for James Brown. The label even had a song in mind: “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” written by Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. The result—pushed along by Terrell’s crystal-clear vocals and Gaye’s inimitable combination of softness and urgency—went top twenty, and they followed it up with songs like “Your Precious Love,” If This World Were Mine,” and “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You.”
All four songs were included on Gaye and Terrell’s first duet album, United, released in the late summer of 1967. Throughout that year, Gaye and Terrell began performing together and Terrell became a vocal and performance inspiration for the shy and laid-back Gaye, who hated live performing.
Though it’s often alleged their relationship grew into a brief romance, those close to the singers denied this claim. Ashford & Simpson, and Gaye in later years, stated the relationship was almost sibling-like.
While Terrell was finally being established as a star, the migraines and headaches that she suffered with as a child were becoming more constant. On October 14, 1967, Terrell fell and buckled onstage; Gaye quickly responded by grabbing her by the arms and helping her offstage. Shortly thereafter, doctors diagnosed a malignant tumor on the right side of her brain.
After recovering from her first operation, Terrell returned to Motown and recorded “You’re All I Need to Get By.” Both that song and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”, reached number-one on the R&B charts. Despite Terrell’s optimism, her tumor got worse requiring more operations. By 1969, Terrell had retired from live performances as she had been ordered by doctors not to perform due to her tumor.
Tragically, Tammi Terrell died in 1970, six weeks shy of her 25th birthday. Gaye remarked, “I felt that I had somehow died with her.” Gaye, who considered himself more of a recording than a performing artist in any case, didn’t take to the stage again for several years after her death.