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#12 Billboard Top 100, #16 R&B Singles Chart
In 1961 a group of Detroit high school students formed a singing group called the Domingos who naturally patterned their sound after Motown. When another local group suggested they audition for RicTic Records (home of the Flaming Ember(s) and the Reflections and eventually purchased by Motown) they hung around the studio and stated singing with Edwin Starr who had a partially written song and the result was “Oh How Happy” recorded for The Golden World Label.
An independent producer liked what he heard and gave the soulful singers a new name and took them to Impact Records where “OHH” was recorded and became a hit in 1966! The group soon broke up in 1970.
More historical detail on the blue-eyed soul group can be found here at this well done web site.
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#92 Billboard Hot 100
“Just We Two” , a 1969 Motown LP of duets by Edwin Starr and Blinky (Sandra Williams) contains their cover version of the classic.
Composed by Charles Hatcher, this feel-good classic is another tune I have always loved both when the original came out in 1966, when Edwin & Blinky’s cover came out, and then later when the J5 cover came out, with my then love Jermaine singing lead. Of course MJJ’s background harmonizing and Tito’s bass is awesome too. Just listen and I bet you will agree. Here it is as it appears on the J5’s 1971 “Third Album.”
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Please vote and share your favorite version of this song. I know I went off the Theme a bit by sharing covers of the original by the Blue Eyed Soul Artist being recognized — but I just love the song in all incarnations and wanted to share my joy. Hope you don’t mind.
Trivia: Even thought the group helped to create this classic, often covered hit song, they never got the writing credit they deserved. The record was credited solely to Charles Hatcher — the birth name of Edwin Starr!
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Another hit written and produced by Ashford and Simpson from the Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrell LP of the same name — “You’re All I need to get By” was one of the biggest hits of Marvin & Tammi’s career as a duo. It charted #1 on the R&B charts and remained there for 5 weeks! The song charted #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the summer of 1968 as well. This is one of my favorites by the singing duo!
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Aretha covered the Marvin & Tammi smash hit in 1971 for her “Aretha’s Greatest Hits” LP. This cover did not earn her the Grammy, as did her second cover from the same LP did (“Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” ) in 1974, but the single did chart #3 R&B and #19 Pop and remained at #19 on the British singles charts for an amazing 19 weeks!
Sometimes I wonder about the Grammy voters: personally this cover seems more Grammy worthy than “Real Thing” cover did — but that’s just my opinion.
Ashford & Simpson
One awesome song sung in two different styles! Although covered and sampled by many other artists -- these two renditions presented today are my favorites. I can’t really pick one over the other. Can you?
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Just about every song Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell performed together was a smash hit for Motown. There is not a single song they recorded that I don’t adore. I don’t think anyone could surpass what those two put on wax together!
“Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing,” composed by the extraordinary songwriting couple of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, was surely no exception. “Real Thing” was just one of many of Ashford and Simpson’s long string of hits on Gaye & Terrell that had started with 1967’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”.
“Real Thing” topped the R&B singles chart at #1 in 1968 and was #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song appeared on the duo’s 1968 LP (#4 R&B #60 Billboard Top 200 Albums) entitled “You’re All I Need ” -- pictured above.
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One of my personal favorite covers of this tune was by the Jackson 5 with Jermaine and MJJ sharing lead, but this month’s theme is Aretha covers and of course her cover version, recorded in 1973 and released as a single in 1974, charted a respectable #6 R&B and #47 Pop.
This time around Aretha didn’t best the original, but she sure made a great showing! Don’t you agree? Besides — this cover earned Aretha the 1974 Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal!
Aretha’s cover version appeared on her 1974 LP release “Let Me In Your Life” — pictured above.
Ok, now that you have voted for your fave please enjoy the bonus video below. This is my all time favorite version of “Real Thing.”
MJJ -- I miss you. Jermaine is that an afro wig or did you actually groom your hair into that perfect halo? Jackie and Marlon your moves are great: smooth temptation-like unison fellas!
The successful Sixties pop duo, Simon & Garfunkel, continued on into the Seventies with this number #1 Adult Contemporary and #1 Billboard Hot 100 song written by Paul Simon. It appeared on the duo’s last LP, of the same name, that also topped the charts at #1
Paul supposedly wrote this ballad, in the summer 1969, influenced by Reverend Claude Jeter and the Swan Silvertones gospel group (one of my favorites gospel groups BTW). More specifically, in the song “Oh, Mary Don’t You Weep for Me, “ Jeter improvises the line “I’ll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name.”
Please enjoy this live version of the original song from YouTube. The song won both the 1970 Grammy Record of the year and Album the year in 1970
Aretha Franklin’s cover of this reverent song went on to top the R&B charts at #1 and ranked #6 Pop. Isn’t it remarkable how Aretha makes every song she sings her own. I would consider her one of the greatest artists of my lifetime and this century for that matter!
Enjoy this awesome live performance video and marvel at Aretha’s piano playing. This woman has been blessed with remarkable talents.
Aretha won the 1972 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for this song, from her “Aretha Live at Filmore West” LP.
I love both the original and Aretha’s cover. But which is your top pick?
[audio http://boxstr.com/files/5165776_fq5dw/Diana%20Ross%20%26%20Marvin%20Gaye%20-%20My%20mistake%20%28was%20to%20love%20you%29.mp3] Marvin Gaye & Diana Ross – My Mistake (Was To Love You) In 1974 Charted #15 R&B & #19 Pop
I am not a big Diana Ross fan – but I must admit that this song, composed by Gloria Jones & Pam Sawyer, is a really catchy tune and that Gaye and Ross’ voices sound wonderful together. Truthfully I hadn’t listened to it in a while but as soon as I played it, before uploading it, I was reminded of what a classic tune it is.
This tune was the third single release from the 1973 “Diana & Marvin.” The hit LP charted #7 R&B and #26 Pop.
And once again, this is another great Motown song that I can’t recall hearing on the radio in the past thirty plus years. Have you heard it played? Me neither.
Marvin had made a promise after Tammi’s death – “NO MORE DUETS!”. He felt like he was a jinx of some sort. But Motown insisted on pairing its two superstars together for an album of DUETS! According to “Marvin Gaye, My Brother” by Frankie Gaye (pps 100-111), Marvin strolled into the studio late for the first session smoking a joint. Diana was pregnant at the time and sitting in a chair to sing and could not tolerate the smoke from the joint.
Of course Marvin refused to put it out and needless to say the rest of the LP was recorded separately just like much of the three Marvin and Tammi sets were due to Tammi’s illness. And that was the end of this duet pairing period. (LOL)
Well this month we have gone over Marvin Gaye’s five female duet partners and the unfortunate demise of each pairing. If you grew up on these duets then I hope hearing them again made you smile. If you were not familiar with some of Marvin’s duets pairings then stick around: I will be featuring more of these classic duets in the future here at OSML.
Now that you have had your music and trivia for the day I need you to please do your part and let me know which of Marvin’s musical partner’s is your favorite? You knew it was coming didn’t you?
All five pairings produced great music so it is a very hard question but life is hard so please vote.
[audio http://boxstr.com/files/5146507_6dvnw/Marvin%20Gaye%20%26%20Tammi%20Terrell%20-%2014%20-%20Keep%20On%20Lovin%5C%27%20Me%20Honey.mp3]Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – Keep On Loving Me Honey (1968)
This wonderful gem is from Marvin & Tammi’s second studio LP that is just as great as their first, even though it did not chart as well.
“You’re All I Need,” released in 1968, contained songs recorded by the duo in 1966 and 1967. It charted #4 R&B Albums but only #60 Pop?!. But it did spawn at least two classic hits that will live on forever — “You’re All I need to Get By” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.”
Of course I love them both, but they get plenty of airplay on oldies stations, so I wanted to share one of the many overlooked standouts on the LP (in fact I had a hard time picking just one) . “Keep On Loving Me Honey” is one of the four Ashford & Simpson penned tunes on the LP. These tunes, along with Fuqua’s, took the romantic crooning duo to a whole new level on this set!
Now if you aren’t familiar with “KOLMH” and are hearing it here for the first time — you like it don’t you? I knew you would. (LOL) These two voices blended like no others! No wonder Tammi’s boyfriend at this time, David Ruffin, remained constantly jealous of Marvin Gaye. The two sounded like the ultimate love birds on vinyl, even though in reality they remained true platonic friends until Tammi’s untimely death in 1970 from a brain tumor.
[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/2464695_uarjp/Terrell-06-HoldMeOhMyDarling.mp3] Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – Hold Me Oh My Darling (1968)
Wow! There is so much to say, about this song and this duet partnership and it’s origins, that I am not sure where to start! Here goes … I will try to make this brief but include the important highlights.
It all began with the late, great multi-talented Harvey Fuqua — founder of the doo-wop legends “The Moonglows” of which Marvin Gaye was once a member.
When Fuqua left his Moonglows he joined Anna Records in Detroit. While at Anna Records, Harvey introduced Marvin Gaye to Anna’s brother, Berry Gordy, and married Berry’s other sister Gwen Gordy.
Next, in 1961, Fuqua started his own lablels, Tri-Phi Records and Harvey Records, whose acts included the Spinners, Junior Walker and Shorty Long. But when offered positions at Motown, in Artist Development and as a Producer, Fuqua left the hard work of running two independent labels and joined the Motown label, bringing along his artists and also Tammi Terrell!
Fuqua suggested and produced Terrell’s duets with Marvin Gaye, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Your Precious Love”. These were two of the many songs that appeared on Marvin & Tammi’s first of three LPs entitled “United.”
Released in 1967 and co-produced by Fuqua and Johnny Bristol. “United” zoomed to #7 on the R&B LP Chart and #29 on the Pop LP ( the highest charting of the three LPs)
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 that appeared on this album.
Tammi’s solo version appeared on her only studio release, 1969’s “Irresistable”, made up of tracks recorded 1965 and 1968. Thought I let you hear Tammi’s solo version as a treat to see that studio magic was a way of the music industry long before computers (LOL)
[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/2464705_mgfy7/Terrell-14-HoldMeOhMyDarling.mp3] Tammi Terrell – Hold Me Oh My Darling (~1965)
“HMOMY” & “TCHAP” may not have been as successful as “ANMHE” or “PL” — but “Hold Me Oh My Darling,” composed by Fuqua, is one of my favorite faux-duets (LOL) by the Marvin & Tammi pairing. This is another great song that you never hear on the oldies radio but should! Don’t you agree?
Of course MJJ’s background harmonizing and Tito’s bass is awesome too. Just listen and I bet you will agree. Here it is as it appears on the J5’s 1971 “Third Album.”
Jackie and Marlon your moves are great: smooth temptation-like unison fellas!
