Tammi terrell and marvin gaye

When Marvin Gaye first signed with Motown in the early 1960s, he wasn’t particularly interested in recording R&B music.

Even though she complained of pains, she insisted to the people close to her that she was well enough to perform. She was sent directly to Graduate Hospital there, where she was to spend a good deal of the last two years of her short life. Shortly after Terrell discovered Ruffin was already married (although separated) and had two children. While still undergoing extensive physical therapy, she went back into the recording studio for the first time in two years.

Mary Wells turned 21 in the spring of 1964 and surprised everyone at Motown when she decided to leave. Gaye can be heard encouraging Terrell to sing her verses, ad-libbing “Come on Tammi” several times on the recording. The duo’s “You’re All I Need” album was released in August of 1968, and it became Gaye and Terrell’s highest charting LP when in peaked at #4 on the R&B albums chart.

By 1969, Terrell had retired from live performances due to her illness.

In 1966, he was paired with Kim Weston, wife of songwriter/producer Mickey Stevenson. There was undeniable chemistry between the two however their relationship was completely platonic. She had been dissatisfied with the contract she had signed when she was just 17 and sued the label, claiming that her contract was invalid because she was a minor when she signed.

We were fortunate to foster an amazing relationship with the singer and was given interviews, behind the scenes recording access and she took a personal likeing to our staff. She was photographed by SOUL Photographers Erik Whitaker, Earl Fowler Chuck Boyd and Roland Charles. He had joined the label as the head of its A&R department in 1959, and he was responsible for organizing and establishing the company’s in-house band, which later became known as the Funk Brothers.

The duo performed together on television several times, and were voted the # 1 R&B duo in Cash Box magazine’s Annual Year-End Survey.

While Terrell was finally being established as a star, the migraines and headaches she had suffered from childhood were becoming more constant. For a short while she was with a group called the Recaps.

The following day she was buried at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Penn. He wanted to get her a doctor immediately but she insisted on going on with the tour. On the R&B chart for the week of August 31, 1968, Gaye & Terrell’s new Ashford & Simpson creation “You’re All I Need To Get By” started a five-week run at No.

1, also hitting No. 7 on the pop chart. Someone suggested that she see a psychiatrist but Tammi was a fighter and she insisted on storming ahead, confident that she could consume enough aspirin to control the pain.

Then Tammi collapsed one night on stage at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. It was widely know that Ruffin had been abusive towards Terrell even once hitting her in the head with a motorcycle helmet.

Thinking that Tammy Montgomery might be too long of a name to put on a 45, Gordy changed her name to Tammi Terrell because he felt that it “screamed sex appeal.” Terrell joined the Motortown Revue after releasing her first single, but she didn’t have any big hits until pairing with Marvin Gaye.

The duo’s first major success was “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” written by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson.

At the report of her death Marvin went into seclusion. At the time of her death, she was only 24-years-old. Producers Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol recorded Terrell and Gaye separately and then remixed their vocals.