Comments on: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” http://joelfrancis.com/2009/10/12/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cain%e2%80%99t-nothing-like-the-real-thing%e2%80%9d/ Music features, concert and album reviews by Joel Francis Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:50:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: thedailyrecord http://joelfrancis.com/2009/10/12/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cain%e2%80%99t-nothing-like-the-real-thing%e2%80%9d/#comment-946 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:02:15 +0000 http://joelfrancis.com/?p=1232#comment-946 Thanks for taking time to respond again, Nixonradio. I was extremely interested in the Motown Singles sets, but they were beyond my budget. The limited press run caused them to quickly go out of print and eclipse their original price. I’m envious that you have at least one of these. Simpson’s quote seals the deal for me, and honestly it makes me feel a lot better about those projects, too. It always got a bit queasy thinking Berry Gordy kept Terrell’s name on the albums to keep the commercial franchise alive while having someone else perform. I also feel better knowing Terrell was still able to sing and record after her collapse. Her story was always a tragedy. Thanks to your insight, it is considerably less sad.

]]> By: nixonradio http://joelfrancis.com/2009/10/12/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cain%e2%80%99t-nothing-like-the-real-thing%e2%80%9d/#comment-944 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:00:09 +0000 http://joelfrancis.com/?p=1232#comment-944 Well, I can clear up one thing: Tammi definitely did both perform and return to the studio a number of times since her collapse; her last visit to Motown was in March 1969, when supposedly her final few vocals for a couple of tracks on Easy were finished off.

Valerie Simpson’s own story is that she filled in for Tammi as a guide vocal for Marvin to sing to when there wasn’t a Tammi track to serve that purpose, presumably because Marvin had other commitments and it took so long to record Tammi by that stage. In the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 9, page 108, Simpson says:

“I’ve heard that so many times, but it’s not really true. To the extent that yes, when she was sick, I would stand in for her initially. But after we got Marvin’s part down, we would painstakingly bring her in and do her in a different kind of way because, at that juncture, she really wasn’t well. I’ve heard this all along, but I’m just not that good. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

According to Tammi’s sister Ludie Montgomery, Tammi felt well enough to perform live with James Brown at Seton Hall in March 1969, so she was far from hospital-bound and bedridden at the time – I believe it was more a case of having good days and bad days until her last series of operations and her final decline. (Ludie also claims to be able to recognise her sister’s voice rather than Simpson’s).

Simpson’s suggestion is that Marvin simply remembered singing with her in the studio, and the passing of time and his Seventies, um, “recreational habits” caused him to first misremember, and then swear by, a new version of events. It’s a bit of a confusing picture, because Nick Ashford didn’t exactly deny it when confronted with the suggestion after Divided Soul came out, but Marvin said a lot of rather bizarre things in that book that have since proved somewhat questionable, and obviously he wasn’t around to ask to clear things up, so I don’t know if we’ll ever really know the truth.

It doesn’t really matter, I suppose; Simpson had a good voice on her (check out her Exposed LP) and Marvin had a lot of duet partners in his time, so it doesn’t really devalue these records; like I said, I just really like to believe that it’s Tammi singing on them.

]]> By: thedailyrecord http://joelfrancis.com/2009/10/12/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cain%e2%80%99t-nothing-like-the-real-thing%e2%80%9d/#comment-943 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:15:41 +0000 http://joelfrancis.com/?p=1232#comment-943 Thanks for reading, Nixon. That’s some great perspective. It implies, however, that Tammi was coming back in the studio to cut tracks. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always understood that she never sang or performed again after her onstage collapse. If she didn’t return to the studio, then why would Gaye needed to sing with Simpson’s guide tracks? He could have just used Tami’s unused “solo” recordings.
Can anyone else shed light on this?

]]> By: nixonradio http://joelfrancis.com/2009/10/12/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cain%e2%80%99t-nothing-like-the-real-thing%e2%80%9d/#comment-942 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:53:27 +0000 http://joelfrancis.com/?p=1232#comment-942 In the interests of balance, it’s only Marvin who ever claimed (in the interviews for David Ritz’ biography, IIRC) that Tammi wasn’t on Easy; both Valerie Simpson and Tammi’s own sister have always consistently denied it, Valerie even going into extreme detail about them bringing Tammi into the studio and painstakingly recording one or two lines at a time before she had to go away and rest.

Simpson does admit standing in for Tammi for Marvin to do his vocals when there wasn’t a pre-recorded Tammi track for him to sing and react to, and suggests that maybe this is what Marvin got confused, but remains adamant that her guide vocals were replaced and that she isn’t featured on the finished record. If you listen to Simpson’s own solo records and compare them to the vocal that’s supposedly her on e.g. The Onion Song, they really don’t sound that much alike.

I like to think it’s Tammi.

]]> By: thedailyrecord http://joelfrancis.com/2009/10/12/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cain%e2%80%99t-nothing-like-the-real-thing%e2%80%9d/#comment-935 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:28:05 +0000 http://joelfrancis.com/?p=1232#comment-935 Absolutely. I hope Terrell’s family were able to take care of her medical bills with the royalties from those last two albums. There’s no reason that last duet album to exist otherwise. Thanks for reading, Scott.

]]> By: S. Lowe http://joelfrancis.com/2009/10/12/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cain%e2%80%99t-nothing-like-the-real-thing%e2%80%9d/#comment-931 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:23:36 +0000 http://joelfrancis.com/?p=1232#comment-931 tragic that the duo came to such a sad end…they were very very good together…

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