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Full of artistry and soul, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ is a pinnacle of pop music that cannot be surpassed.It was one of the most glorious achievements in 60s music, rising from a delicate opening to a shattering climax. If the 60s gave us the love generation, here was an anthem full of love. If soul was about physical passion in a gospel context, this song is its apex. Full of artistry, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is, fittingly, a pop pinnacle. Though its roots lie in gospel, the song...

Remembering when Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell made beautiful music and topped the R&B chart for August 31, 1968 with ‘You’re All I Need To Get By.’Marvin Gaye was on fire in 1968. The Motown star had been having hits for six years, and had topped the US R&B charts twice already, both times in 1965. But in the year that he turned 29, there was no stopping him. Gaye had three Billboard Soul No.1s in the space of six months in 1968, two of them with one of his great duet partners, Tammi Terrell, who would tragically die of...

Full of artistry and soul, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ is a pinnacle of pop music that cannot be surpassed.It was one of the most glorious achievements in 60s music, rising from a delicate opening to a shattering climax. If the 60s gave us the love generation, here was an anthem full of love. If soul was about physical passion in a gospel context, this song is its apex. Full of artistry, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is, fittingly, a pop pinnacle. Though its roots lie in gospel, the song...

Strong -- who passed away Sunday, Jan. 29, at the age of 81 in Detroit -- co-wrote some of Motown's most enduring hits.More than 73 years ago, Barrett Strong, as a singer, declared “Money (That’s What I Want)” — for the first hit single from the Motown empire. What he actually wound up getting was musical immortality. As a songwriter. Strong — who passed away Sunday, Jan. 29, at the age of 81 in Detroit — co-wrote some of Motown’s most enduring hits, with a variety of collaborators but primarily the late Norman Whitfield. Those included “I Heard It Through...

"You're All I Need to Get By" is a song recorded by the American R&B/soul duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and released on Motown Records' Tamla label in 1968. Written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, it became one of the few Motown recordings of the 1960s that was not recorded with the familiar "Motown sound". Instead, "You're All I Need to Get By" had a more soulful and gospel-oriented theme surrounding it, that was influenced by the writers, who also sing background vocals on the recording. During moments in the recording, Gaye can be heard encouraging Terrell...

Welcome to the Weekend. Your currently sober drunk host coming off 15 hours in bed sleeping but with a busy schedule ahead which will include posting when I can. I am not feeling well but I have worked myself in part to this exhausted state I find myself in. Vaxxers Or Anti-Vaxxers We Are All God's Children The media making much of Joe Rogan saying he is not an "anti-vaxxer" an indication that the Establishment's march in lockstep media wants to demonize and marginalize opponents of vaccination. This world filled with many accusations about people who don't support the Insider...

The funk-driven LP was recorded in 1971Recorded during the summer of 1971, ‘Funky Nation: The Detroit Instrumentals’ is the result of some downtime Gaye had after refusing to tour in support of his game-changing classic album, ‘What’s Going On’. Released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the title track from ‘What’s Going On’, the 14-track, funk-driven collection of instrumentals hears Gaye joined by the late Hamilton Bohannon on drums, Ray Parker Jr. (17-years-old at the time,) Wah Wah Watson, and Leroy Emmanuel on guitars, as well as a 20-year-old Michael Henderson on bass. While some of the tracks have been...

Will Madonna sue Lady Gaga? Will George Clinton sue OutKast? These idiotic questions became frighteningly legitimate after a jury ruled that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams committed copyright infringement. The jurors decided that yes, Thicke’s 2013 chart-topping single “Blurred Lines” had copied elements of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up,” and awarded Gaye’s family a walloping $7.4 million. The titles of the two songs in question could not have been more fitting. But it was the lack of detail on exactly which elements were copied that prompted a hard-swallow... The jury was instructed to make its ruling...

The similarities weren’t that blurry after all. A Los Angeles federal jury found Tuesday that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up” when they wrote and recorded their hit song “Blurred Lines.” The eight-person panel awarded Gaye’s heirs more than $7.3 million. Williams and Thicke quickly issued an ominous warning through their reps, saying the verdict could have a chilling effect on future creativity. "While we respect the judicial process, we are extremely disappointed in the ruling made today, which sets a horrible precedent for music and creativity going forward," the statement...

For the last year and a half, the music industry has been gripped by a lawsuit over whether Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” was merely reminiscent of a song by Marvin Gaye, or had crossed the line into plagiarism.

In honor of Black Music Month, Dean Meminger honors legendary musicians in the ongoing NY1 series "Soul's Survivors," starting with Motown hit-maker Martha Reeves. That Motown sound has been pulling fans closer to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas from the time they hit the music charts more than 50 years ago. And one of their first hits was a scorcher. Martha Reeves is still working up a sweat performing that song and many of her other hits on stages around the world. "We've been singing these songs since 19... oh who cares. And they still sound good to me," Reeves...

*Marvin Gaye‘s son and Lenny Kravitz may be childhood friends, but it doesn’t mean the heir wants the rocker playing his father on the big screen. In fact, Marvin Gaye III and his family members are against the project altogether, according to TMZ.com. Kravitz will play Gaye in the biopic “Sexual Healing” (working title), which is said to follow the legend’s life in the 80s when he battled drug abuse and depression – up until his father shot and killed him in 1984. Gaye III tells TMZ “The producers and directors of this film are very wrong and shameful …...

Marvin Gaye No Military Hit Superiors: Singer's Air Force stay a lackadaisical waste of time SEPTEMBER 13--In our latest installment of "When They Were Soldiers," TSG looks at the brief and stormy military career of Airman Marvin Gaye (vets Jimi Hendrix and Jack Kerouac have recently been profiled). The late soul singer was drummed out of the Air Force in 1957 after only eight months of duty, according to the below documents from Gaye's official armed forces file (which we obtained via a Freedom of Information request from the National Personnel Records Center). According to his superiors, Gaye was uncooperative...

Psychedelic-guitar man Jimi Hendrix, soul singer Marvin Gaye, Desi "Ricky Ricardo" Arnaz and actor Steve McQueen, newsman Edward R. Murrow, "Dragnet" detective Jack Webb -- military veterans all. Who knew? The nation now will be afforded some unique insight into these former servicemen and 144 other "persons of exceptional prominence" who served in the military. For the first time, their official service records will be opened to the public, the National Archives & Records Administration announced yesterday. The records of 1.2 million enlisted men and women who served in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from 1885 to 1935 also...