One other nice Motown duet rolled off the manufacturing line within the early months of 1967. It was the dream pairing of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, who had been nonetheless two months from their first chart outing along with the good “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” However on March 23, work was accomplished on what can be one other of their many memorable collaborations, “Your Precious Love.”
The music was written, simply as “Ain’t No Mountain” had been, by the rising staff of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson and produced by one other nice Motown pairing, Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol. The monitor itself had been recorded on February 13 and the strings recorded 4 days later, however extra manufacturing was added on March 23. “First side is in the bag of their hit,” wrote Billboard on listening to it, ”whereas the flip is a soulful blues ballad with equal potential.”
The producers joined Marvin and Tammi in offering the backing vocals, calling themselves “the Riff Brothers Plus One,” as Bristol remembered in Quantity 7 of The Full Motown Singles. In that very same quantity, Ashford remembered how straightforward the catchy, mid-paced music had been to put in writing.
‘Tammi was the icing on the cake’
“Another one that just popped out,” he mentioned. “Marvin had a special way of creating romance and its real meaning in his voice. Tammi was the icing on the cake. I thought their vocal blend was really good. I think that’s why people tuned into them, because you could feel the both of them on the wax.”
Take heed to the Motown Love Songs playlist.
“Your Precious Love” was launched that August, rising to No.5 on the US pop chart and spending no fewer than 5 weeks at No.2 on the R&B itemizing. The music was later delivered to a brand new technology by D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, who remade it for the 1996 soundtrack of Excessive College Excessive. By then, different duos who had paired as much as cowl the music included Stephen Bishop and Yvonne Elliman, and Al Jarreau and Randy Crawford. German singer Sarah Connor even did an digital duet with Marvin himself in a 2007 model.
Purchase or stream “Your Precious Love” on the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell album United.
