I Heard It Through the Grapevine (album)
| In the Groove/I Heard It Through the Grapevine! | ||||
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| Studio album by Marvin Gaye | ||||
| Released | August 26, 1968 | |||
| Recorded | 1967–68 | |||
| Genre | Soul | |||
| Length | 27:08 | |||
| Label |
Tamla TS-285 |
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| Producer | Norman Whitfield, Ivy Jo Hunter, Frank Wilson | |||
| Marvin Gaye chronology | ||||
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| Singles from In the Groove/I Heard It Through the Grapevine | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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I Heard It Through the Grapevine! is the eighth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on August 26, 1968 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Originally released as In the Groove, it was the first solo studio album Gaye released in two years, in which during that interim, the singer had emerged as a successful duet partner with female R&B singers such as Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. The album and its title track are considered both as Gaye's commercial breakthrough.
By 1968, Marvin Gaye had released only a few solo singles in three years. Between his Kim Weston duet, "It Takes Two" and his Tammi Terrell duets, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Your Precious Love" among others, Gaye released only one single, "Your Unchanging Love", which peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Motown brought Gaye back to the studio to record a solo album. Recording difficulties aside, Gaye's vocals went through a transition through this period. Perhaps done on purpose, Gaye's earlier collaborator Norman Whitfield and his pupil, Frank Wilson, began to write songs they felt fit the singer's chaotic personal life: Gaye's marriage to Anna Gordy was turbulent as was life on the road in which Gaye grew a constant dislike to live performances and his personal disagreements with Motown CEO Berry Gordy had started to create strain in his relationship with the Motown label.
On top of that, during an October 1967 engagement at Hampden-Sydney College with Terrell, the younger Terrell collapsed from exhaustion into Gaye's waiting arms. Terrell was later diagnosed at the end of the year with having a brain tumor, which depressed Gaye. Some speculate Terrell's illness and subsequent death two and a half years later affected Gaye's performances in which he went from being a soul stylist in the same way his idol Sam Cooke had been into a more gospel-influenced soul vocalist who sounded more in par with Otis Redding, James Brown, and Temptations lead singer David Ruffin. However, during the recording of what would become Gaye's biggest-selling and signature single of his career, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", Whitfield decided to force Gaye to raise his vocal register higher than what he was used to, which Whitfield already tried successfully on Ruffin during the recording of the Temptations hit, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". Though Gaye and Whitfield reportedly argued over the sessions of "Grapevine", Whitfield was able to get what he wanted from Gaye, and the duo started a collaboration that lasted into the beginning of 1970.
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