On the current thread of Marvin Gaye it reminded me of the story that when Tammi Terrell was too ill to finsh the MG & TT "Easy" album Valerie Simpson apparantley finished off the vocals.

I have tried to see if I can spot which tracks she might be singing on but can't. Is it a myth or can someone identify which tracks they think Valerie is singing on.

  STATESIDE said:

On the current thread of Marvin Gaye it reminded me of the story that when Tammi Terrell was too ill to finsh the MG & TT "Easy" album Valerie Simpson apparantley finished off the vocals.

I have tried to see if I can spot which tracks she might be singing on but can't. Is it a myth or can someone identify which tracks they think Valerie is singing on.

Valerie sings on all of them except "I Can't Believe You Love Me", which features Tammi's original vocal and backing track overdubbed by Marvin.

TONE

  TONY ROUNCE said:

Valerie sings on all of them except "I Can't Believe You Love Me", which features Tammi's original vocal and backing track overdubbed by Marvin.

TONE

Thanks Tone,

You put that with such authority - is it documented somewhere?

Kev

  STATESIDE said:

Thanks Tone,

You put that with such authority - is it documented somewhere?

Kev

I asked Ms. Simpson herself about it, many many years ago. i'm sure that she reaffirmed it in, maybe, "In The Basement" sometime more recently...

TONE

  TONY ROUNCE said:

I asked Ms. Simpson herself about it, many many years ago. i'm sure that she reaffirmed it in, maybe, "In The Basement" sometime more recently...

TONE

Thanks again,

She does a brilliant job of it and I'm sure if it had been kept a secret we would have been none the wiser.

Kev

Read an article about this a while back, might have been online somewhere, I'll see if I can find it - seem to remember the author pointing out that while she got Tammi's voice down perfectly, they were missing the natural "oh Marvin, oh Tammi" improvisation/rapport that was there in the 'real' Tammi tracks.

can't add anything sensible 'cept i love tammi terrell:)

Ritz confirms it in his Gaye biography....

  Rbman said:

Ritz confirms it in his Gaye biography....

But then Tammi's sister denies it in her book...

  rachel said:

But then Tammi's sister denies it in her book...

How would she know

  Rbman said:

How would she know

I dunno, I haven't read it

If anyone wants to hear Val's original demo of Rita Wright's "I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You" (sung in her real voice, and accompanying herself on piano) John Manship's auctioning a Jobete publishing acetate of it at the moment....

TONE

Found it - In Bill Dahl's book "Motown the golden years" he says that Simpson anonymously filled in for Tammi so skilfully that no one was the wiser on hits "What you gave me" and posthumously on "The Onion Song"

Happy now !

  Rbman said:

Ritz confirms it in his Gaye biography....

This is correct - she was the only other singer considered 'nasal' enough to pull it off , as for 'My sister Tommi' having just read this dont remember this having been said and nor does it mention this in Frank Gayes book . Each person have written these books from a different perspective and the comments on the making of 'lets get it in on' in both books are worth the read alone. Went straight and listened to this track again with enlightened ears

Doris

Go to https://www.soulfuldetroit.com/forum/

Go To SoulfulDetroit Archives (above right)

Go to Browse Archives after 2004-Present

Go to ::: Motown Topics ::: Archives

Go to ::: Motown Topics ::: Archives - 2

Go to Valerie Simpson says she did NOT sing in place of Tammi (12th thread down the list)

Thanks o Grapevine for drawing this map.