Welcome to the Ministry’s 400th post (apparently).
I have little to say for myself, apart from to confess that this week I have been mostly falling in love with Tammi Terrell.
Again.
This happens about once every 2.3 years.
It is hard to think of a sadder story in pop music than that of Thomasina Winifred Montgomery.
The 22-year-old Terrell hit the big time in early 1967 when Motown chose her as the new duet partner of Marvin Gaye, following in the footsteps of Kim Weston and Mary Wells.
It was Gaye and Terrell who recorded the exuberant original version of the Ashford & Simpson composition Ain’t No Mountain High Enough that would later be butchered into a dirge by Diane Ross.
In a few short months they also recorded classics like Your Precious Love, You’re All I Need To Get By and Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing. While their records were old-school Motown and increasingly unfashionable (compared with the earthier soul sounds emerging from the Stax/Volt stable), theirs was a dynamite combination.
But in October 1967, on stage in Virginia, Terrell collapsed into Gaye’s arms, to be diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. After a series of eight operations – which would leave her with amnesia and partial paralysis – Tammi Terrell died in Philadelphia in March 1970 at the age of 24.
Terrell’s slow decline shattered Gaye; at the height of his powers, he did not perform for three years. Re-entering the studio after Terrell’s passing, the spirtual turmoil induced by her death, the breakdown of Gaye’s marriage and the civil rights movement of the late 60s resulted in the 1971 masterpiece What’s Going On album and, arguably, the course of popular music.
My current trip into Tammi’s world came about after I chanced upon this innovative mash-up on YouTube of the Gaye/Terrell duet If I Could Build My Whole World Around You and U2′s One:
But forget everything you remember about that God-forsaken travesty by Ross and treat yourself to everything Ain’t No Mountain High Enough should be:
It’s Wednesday: the Minister bids you peace.
Terribly sad. What strikes you is how much cheeky fun they seem to be having recording that video – it must have been freezing and they’re half taking the piss. Was there any serious suggestion of romantic entanglement or were we talking friendship/artistic respect?
All concerned swore that the relationship was strictly professional – though that might have been because Gaye was at the time married to Anna Gordy (the sister of Motown’s owner). As with many aspects of Marvin Gaye’s life story, nobody seems to know the definitive truth.