Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell Aint No Mountain High Enough1967

The Story Of Tammi Terrell (Motown Legends S1:EP1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojt1ovngl1Y

Images:
1. Tammi [Terrell] Montgomery and James Brown
2. David Ruffin & Tammi Terrell
3. Tammi Terrell, 1966. An Interesting moment with pianist-arranger Johnny Allen and performance coach Maurice King

Background from {[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/tammi-terrell]}
Terrell, Tammi 1945–1970
Singer
Though her promising singing career was cut short by a fatal brain tumor, Tammi Terrell scored some of the biggest hits released by the Motown record label in the 1960s. As one-half of Motown’s most successful male-female recording duo with her recording partner, Marvin Gaye, Terrell became one of the unforgettable voices of 1960s pop. Terrell may not have boasted one of the strong soul voices of the era, but it conveyed a heartache that lent itself to some of the era’s most memorable love songs, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Your Precious Love,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” and “You’re All I Need to Get By.”
Terrell was born Thomasina Montgomery, the first daughter of Jennie, a former actress, and Thomas, a barbershop owner, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 29, 1945. She began singing and winning talent contests at Philadelphia’s Earle Theater at age 11, and was opening club shows for such headliners as Gary “U.S.” Bonds and Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles by the time she was 13 years old. Discovered at age 15 by producer Luther Dixon, Terrell was signed to New York’s Scepter/Wand record label. Under the moniker Tammy Montgomery, she made her debut on Scepter with the single “If You See Bill,” in 1961, which was followed in 1962 by “The Voice of Experience.”
After the “Godfather of Soul” saw her perform live, Terrell recorded on James Brown’s Try Me label in 1963. She released the single “I Cried” on Try Me in 1963 and toured with the James Brown Revue. It has been suggested that Brown claimed the two were romantically involved and that she left the tour because of her parents’ objections. She released “If I Would Marry You” on the Checker record label a year later. She also took pre-medical school courses at the University of Pennsylvania for two years during this time.
1965 was a banner year for the young artist. She briefly married and assumed the surname of heavyweight boxer Ernie Terrell, the brother of Jean Terrell, a future member of Motown supergroup, the Supremes. Some reports claim that she did not marry Ernie Terrell and only took his name as a convenient stage name. Later that year, Berry Gordy Jr., head of Motown records, caught Terrell performing live in Detroit with Jerry Butler. Gordy signed Terrell to Motown and she made her label debut with the single “I Can’t Believe You Love Me.” She followed up with a

At A Glance…
Born Thomasina Montgomery on April 29, 1945, in Philadelphia, PA; died on March 16, 1970, in Philadelphia, PA; daughter of Thomas (a barbershop owner) and Jennie Montgomery (a former actress); may have been briefly married to Ernie Terrell (a heavyweight boxer), 1965. Education: University of Pennsylvania, attended, c. 1964.
Career: Started winning local talent contests as a girl, and was regularly opening club dates for acts including Gary “U.S.” Bonds and Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles by age 13; recorded debut single, “If You See Bill, ’ for Scepter/Wand Records as Tammy Montgomery, 1961; released follow-up single, “The Voice of Experience,” 1962; signed to James Brown’s Try Me label; released “I Cried,” and toured with Brown’s live revue, 1963; “If I Would Marry You” released on Checker, 1964; released “I Can’t Believe You Love Me” on Motown, 1965; paired with Marvin Gaye; Gaye and Terrell entered the pop Top 20 chart with the “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and scored a Top Five hit with “Your Precious Love,” 1967; topped R&B charts with “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need to Get By,” 1968; health issues forced her to cease performing live, though she continued to record with Gaye.
series of “nothing-special” singles, according to author Don Waller in The Motown Story, including “Come On and See Me,” “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You),” and “Hold Me Oh My Darling,” but was not able to score a breakout hit for the legendary Detroit record label.
Terrell’s hit-making luck changed in 1967, when she was chosen to replace Kim Weston as Marvin Gaye’s recording partner. Though Gaye had previously recorded with Mary Wells as well as Weston, he and Terrell found a chemistry that neither of them had experienced before. “If you watch the videos of Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye, you can see how spirited she was,” Susan Whithall, author of Women of Motown, told Hour Detroit magazine. “She was a real ball of fire, while Marvin was this laid-back, beautiful man.” The duo broke into the Top 20 pop chart in 1967 with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” The twosome’s string of hits continued with “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You,” “Your Precious Love,” which landed in the Top Five in 1967, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” and “You’re All I Need to Get By,” which topped the R&B charts in 1968.
The Terrell-Gaye chemistry produced some of the most memorable love songs of the Motown era, and the aura of romance that the two created in their songs “led to persistent rumors that they were lovers,” according to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Though the partnership was creatively and professionally successful, Terrell and Gaye were doomed as a team from the start. After suffering from severe migraine headaches for some time, Terrell collapsed in Gaye’s arms during a 1967 concert. Doctors first diagnosed exhaustion, but later discovered a brain tumor. Terrell underwent as many as eight operations over the next few years, but her condition continued to worsen.
Although her health prevented her from performing live with Gaye, Terrell continued to record with him. Writer and producer Valerie Simpson has stirred up a controversy by claiming that she sung in Terrell’s place on several of the duo’s final recordings, including “Good Lovin’ Ain’t Easy to Come By” and “What You Gave Me,” both released in 1969, and “The Onion Song,” which was released posthumously and became one of their biggest U.K. hits. To create several other tracks, Gaye recorded vocals over previously recorded Terrell singles.
Terrell died at age 24 in Philadelphia, on March 16, 1970. Her burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia International Airport, drew thousands of mourners, and many of her Motown colleagues were in attendance. Speculation and rumors abounded following her death. Accusations were brought to light by former Gaye assistant Elaine Jesmer, whose novel, Number One With a Bullet, featured a character obviously based on Terrell and suggested that the singer’s brain disorders were a result of beatings at the hand of a Motown executive or from ex-Temptation David Ruffin. Terrell’s passing profoundly affected Gaye, and he ceased touring and working for three years after her death. In his biography, Divided Soul, Gaye wrote, “Tammi was the victim of the violent side of love—at least that’s how it felt. I have no … knowledge of what really killed her, but it was a deep vibe, as though she was dying for everyone who couldn’t find love.”

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Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - The Complete Duets (Disc 2) [Full Album]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ4ujpfdVn8

Image:
1. Thomasina Winifred Montgomery collage
2. Tammi Terrell & the Temptations
3. Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye
4. Tammi Terrell as a child in Philadelphia

Background from {[ https://strathdee.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/tammi-terrell/]}
Tammi Terrell
Posted on December 17, 2015 | 5 Comments
By Russ:
This girl’s singing conveyed a heartache that lent itself to some of the most memorable love songs of the 1960s. As one-half of Motown’s most successful male-female recording duo with recording partner Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell became an unforgettable voice of that era. Sadly, their classic duets came to an abrupt and tragic halt with her premature death.
Thomasina Winifred Montgomery
Tammi Terrell
(April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970)
Here is an interesting Youtube comment on this video about inappropriate musicians backing a slick Motown R&B act on the Tonight Show from Jim Stark:
This hip Motown music is way out of the lane of Carson’s Tonight Show Big Band and ideally, the Motown session musicians should have been allowed to accompany these singers on this performance to give the music a sound more similar to the recording that was being promoted in this appearance. Unfortunately, this is around 1967, and few young Black Artists got the benefit of appearing on Carson’s popular Tonight show during that time, so the idea that they would want to also bring along a handful of black Motown musicians to play the music was a non-starter with the Tonight Show people. In 1967 Tonight undoubtedly felt they were already venturing out of their primary lane bringing the singers on; they were not about to add a dozen musicians in tow as well. Also, most likely Gaye and Terrell were not invited to sit and chat with Carson after their performance like the main guests. These artists would not have had that stature with Carson at the time of this appearance. Today, bringing your musicians with you to a TV show performance would not be a problem, but in 1967 even Motown had to compromise and have its singer’s perform with this incongruous Tonight Show big band. Sure, the band gets an “E” for effort, but clearly, this performance would have been exponentially better with the right musicians behind the singers.
Tammi Terrell LIVE AUDIO at the Roostertail, most likely in 1967 (she tells MC Scott Regan that she’s 21, and she died when she was 24 in 1970.)
CHILDHOOD
Tammi was born as Thomasina Montgomery in Philadelphia to Jennie (née Graham) and Thomas Montgomery. She was the elder of two siblings.
According to the Unsung documentary, her younger sister Ludie said that the parents had presumed the new baby would be a boy, so they chose a name after the father. However, when it was discovered they had a girl, the parents settled on a female name Thomasina, nicknaming her “Tommie”.
In Ludie Montgomery’s memoirs about her famous sister, she writes that Tammi was a young victim of sexual molestation by three boys after leaving a neighborhood party at the age of eleven. The boys were arrested and convicted on a rape charge but the traumatic incident led to a change in Terrell’s behavior.
At the age of 12, she changed “Tommie” to “Tammy” after seeing the film, Tammy and the Bachelor, and hearing its theme song.
Starting around this time, Terrell began to have migraine headaches. While it was not thought to be of significance at the time, family members would later state that these headaches might have been related to her later diagnosis of brain cancer.
Tammi won a number of local talent contests, and by the age of 13 she was regularly opening club dates for acts including Gary “U.S.” Bonds and Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles.
During her early career, Terrell dated many men both in and out of the music business. She had been romantically interested in singer Sam Cooke, though they never dated.

EARLY RECORDINGS
Before turning 16, Terrell signed under the Wand subsidiary of Scepter Records after being discovered by Luther Dixon. Under the name, Tammy Montgomery, she recorded the ballad, “If You See Bill“.
During that time Tammy also recorded demos for The Shirelles. After another single, Terrell left the Wand label.
~ 1961 Tammi Montgomery demo / Sinner’s Devotion / Written by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard, for the 1967 album The Early Show (also featuring Chuck Jackson) This track was cut five or six years earlier when she was in her mid teens and known as Tammi Montgomery, with the unmistakable Shirelles on backing vocals
In 1962 at age 17, Tammi was introduced to James Brown. She signed a contract with him and began singing backup for his Revue concert tours. The two engaged in a sexual relationship.
In 1963, she recorded her first charting single on Brown’s Try Me label and it reached #99 on the Billboard Hot 100: “I Cried“.
Unfortunately, the relationship with Brown became very abusive, and a horrific incident with him backstage after a show ended Terrell’s two-year affair with him.
After the Brown tenure ended, Terrell signed with Checker Records and, with producer Bert Berns, released a duet with Jimmy Radcliffe which Terrell co-wrote, “If I Would Marry You”
Following this, Terrell announced semi-retirement from the music business and she enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in pre-med, staying at the school for two years.
In the middle of this education, Terrell was asked by Jerry Butler to sing with him in a series of nightclub shows. After an arrangement was made by Butler to assure Terrell that she could continue her schooling, she began touring with him.
In April 1965, during a performance at Detroit’s Twenty Grand Club, Tammi was spotted by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, who promised to sign her to Motown. Terrell agreed and signed with the label on April 29, her 20th birthday.
Before releasing her first single with Motown’s Tamla subsidiary, Gordy suggested a name change. Figuring “Tammy Montgomery” was too long of a name to put on a single, Gordy changed it to “Tammi Terrell”. He felt this name screamed “sex appeal”.
“I Can’t Believe You Love Me” became Terrell’s first R&B top forty single, followed almost immediately by “Come On and See Me“.
In 1965, during a tour in which she opened for The Temptations, Terrell met the band’s lead singer David Ruffin and embarked on a torrid romance.
The following year, Ruffin surprised Terrell with a marriage proposal. However, Terrell was devastated once she learned that Ruffin had a wife and three children and another girlfriend, also living in Detroit. This led to the couple having public fights.
After the release of her first Tamla single Terrell joined the Motortown Revue .
SUCCESS WITH MARVIN GAYE
In early 1967, Motown assigned Terrell to sing with Marvin Gaye, who had previously achieved duet success with other artists such as Mary Wells and Kim Weston. Gaye would become a close friend of Tammi’s, but it was a platonic relationship. Though it was often alleged their relationship grew into a romance, those close to the singers denied this claim.
1967 / Tammi Gaye & Marvin Gaye / If This World Were Mine /
During recording sessions, Gaye would recall later that he didn’t know how gifted Terrell was until they began singing together.
For their first recording sessions, Gaye and Terrell recorded separate versions of the Ashford & Simpson composition, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough“Audio Player
Motown remixed the vocals and edited out the background vocals, giving just Gaye and Terrell vocal dominance. The song became a crossover pop hit in the spring of 1967, reaching #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the R&B charts and making Terrell a star.
Their follow-up became an even bigger hit, reaching #5 on the pop chart and #2 on the R&B chart; a song whose ascent from verse to chorus is one of the most spine-tingling passages in all of recorded music: “Your Precious Love“

At the end of that year, the duo scored another top ten single which peaked at #10 on the pop chart and #2 on the R&B chart: “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You“
The song’s B-side, the Marvin Gaye composition “If This World Were Mine“, became a modest hit on both charts (#68 pop, #27 R&B). Gaye would later cite the song as “one of Tammi’s favorites”.
In the summer of 1967 Gaye and Terrell released their first duet album, United, with all four of the above songs included.
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.
During a promotional campaign for their United album, Terrell’s migraines became worse, and during one show, she collapsed into Gaye’s arms onstage.
It was discovered she had a malignant brain tumor. Surgery was performed, and Terrell returned to the studio to record her second duet album with Gaye: You’re All I Need.
The album You’re All I Need is perhaps the pinnacle of Gaye and Terrell’s recorded works. Popular singles Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing and You’re All I Need To Get By are still much-loved today, but there’s far more to the record than just those two tracks.
Keep On Lovin’ Me Honey features a fantastic vocal performance from Terrell, and her down-home girl delivery of the line, “Sugar, I can’t bear the thought of ever leaving you behind” is almost self-mocking, yet clearly full of fondness for her vocal partner.Audio Player
Both You Ain’t Livin’ ‘Til You’re Lovin’ and When Love Comes Knocking At Your Heart are bursting at the seams with joyful optimism, and Come And See Me – also the title of a posthumous Tammi Terrell
Despite professional success, Terrell’s tumor grew and her health deteriorated. Then in 1969 doctors advised her to quit live performance. Terrell and Gaye would only release one more album as a duo, 1970’s Easy, but there’s controversy and mystery surrounding the recording of Tammi’s vocal tracks.
Valerie Simpson, half of the Ashford and Simpson duo that had written so much of Gaye and Terrell’s material, was an accomplished vocalist in her own right, and there have been rumours ever since Easy’s release that it’s actually Simpson singing on the record, rather than Terrell.
These claims, endorsed by none other than Berry Gordy, were quickly rubbished by Marvin Gaye, and Valerie Simpson said that she recorded only ghost vocal tracks for guidance, and Terrell would sing over these parts on the days she felt well enough.
Whatever the real story, Easy is another fantastic album, and one which strays away from the love duet template somewhat and into social commentary, a direction which Gaye fully threw himself into with his mega-hit record, What’s Going On.
It was one of these state-of-the-world tracks, The Onion Song, that gave Gaye and Terrell their biggest UK hit, peaking at #9 in December 1969.
However, given subsequent events, it’s the consecutive tracks, Love Woke Me Up This Morning and This Poor Heart Of Mine, that have the biggest emotional impact.
Love Woke Me Up This Morning acts as both a summary and farewell to Gaye and Terrell’s relationship, sung looking back on past events, the pair sound in deep reflection as they sing, “Because of you happiness is mine / All my cloudy days are far behind.”
em>This Poor Heart Of Mine is a punch to the gut; Terrell sounded both scared and defiant as she roared, “I don’t think how long I’m gonna last / So come back, baby – I’m sinking fast”. Gaye and Terrell’s repeated cries of “Situation desperate!” don’t even tell half the story of what was really going on.
—
In later years, songwriters Ashford & Simpson and Marvin Gaye said that Tammi’s relationship with Marvin was almost sibling-like. Nevertheless they were reported as having opposite personalities; Gaye being shy and introvert, Terrell being streetwise and extrovert.
What they shared was their charisma as two artists performing together and their sense of humour. Gaye would later call Terrell “sweet” and “misunderstood” and stated that Terrell was his “perfect [musical] partner”.
While Terrell was finally being established as a star, the migraines and headaches that she suffered with as a child were becoming more constant. While she complained of pains, she insisted to people close to her that she was well enough to perform.
However, on October 14, 1967, while performing with Gaye at Hampden-Sydney College, just outside the town of Farmville, Virginia, Terrell fell and buckled onstage; Gaye quickly responded by grabbing her by the arms and helping her offstage.
Cancer diagnosis
Shortly after returning from Virginia, doctors diagnosed a malignant tumor on the right side of her brain.
After recovering from her first operation, Terrell returned to Hitsville studios in Detroit and recorded “You’re All I Need to Get By“.
Both that song and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” reached #1 on the R&B charts.
Motown issued Terrell’s first and only solo album, Irresistible, in early 1969.
Terrell was too ill to promote the recordings. There was no new repertoire on the album: all tracks had been recorded earlier and had subsequently been shelved for some time.
Late in 1969, Terrell made her final public appearance at the Apollo Theater where Marvin Gaye was headlining the bill. As soon as Terrell was spotted by Gaye, he rushed to her side and the duo began singing “You’re All I Need to Get By” together. They were given a huge standing ovation by the public.
At the time of her death she was engaged to be married to Ernest Garrett, a doctor at Terrell’s hospital but not her personal doctor.
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Terrell’s mother criticized Motown for not helping with Terrell’s illness and accused the label of covering up the singer’s condition and releasing albums of Terrell’s work without her consent.
Gaye had also contended that he felt Motown was taking advantage of Terrell’s illness and refused to promote the Easy album despite Motown telling him it would cover Terrell’s health expenses.
Gaye never fully got over Terrell’s death, according to several biographers who have stated that Terrell’s death led Gaye to depression and drug abuse. In addition, Gaye’s classic album What’s Going On, an introspective, low-key work which dealt with mature themes released in 1971, was in part a reaction to Terrell’s death
Despite having enjoyed commercial and critical success, Tammi Terrell’s involvement in the success of Motown Records often seems downplayed or even forgotten. However, her work, in particular those three duet albums with Marvin Gaye, are more than enough evidence that her legacy deserves to endure.

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