In early years the group opened on tour for The Supremes until Berry Gordy removed them from the tour. The group joined the Motown Records stable in 1966. The Pips changed membership a few times before settling on the most famous version, with the Pips as a trio consisting of her brother Merald and cousins Edward Patten and William Guest. One year later she formed a musical group, The Pips, together with her siblings and cousins. Gladys Knight was born in Oglethorpe, Georgia and got an early start in the music business when she won a contest on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour at age 7. Gladys Knight and the Pips and Heard It Through the Grapevine: The song was then recorded a third time by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and their version was released in fall 1967. In any case, Marvin Gaye’s recording of Grapevine was approved by the quality control board members, but once again vetoed by Berry Gordy. Gordy and Gaye seemed to be constantly at loggerheads over one issue or another. At the board meeting, Berry Gordy vetoed the Miracles’ version and returned it to be re-worked by Strong and Whitfield, who subsequently recorded it with Marvin Gaye in 1967.Īs sung by Marvin Gaye, the song outlines the heartbreak the singer experiences after learning from talk on the street that his lover might be untrue.īetween the two of us guys you know I love you moreĪlthough Berry Gordy is famous for his brilliant decisions as Motown CEO, he seems to have had a blind spot where Marvin Gaye was concerned. All Motown songs had to pass a “quality control board” before being released. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles initially recorded it in 1966. The song I Heard it Through the Grapevine subsequently bounced around Motown for quite a while. Producer Norman Whitfield worked with Strong on the song, adding lyrics to Strong’s basic Ray Charles influenced gospel tune and the single chorus line of “I heard it through the grapevine”. The phrase is associated with black slaves during the Civil War, who had their form of telegraph: the human grapevine. Wikipedia describes how the song was written.īy 1966, Barrett Strong … had the basics of a song he had started to write in Chicago, where the idea had come to him while walking down Michigan Avenue that people were always saying “I heard it through the grapevine”. The two eventually were named the lead songwriters for The Temptations. At Motown Strong became a songwriter and Whitfield was primarily a producer. Strong was the vocalist on the very first Motown hit Money (That’s What I Want), written by none other than Berry Gordy. The song was written by the Motown songwriting-producing duo of Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield.
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