United (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell album)

United
Studio album by
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
ReleasedAugust 29, 1967
RecordedDecember 1966 – June 15, 1967
StudioHitsville USA, Detroit
GenreSoul
Length33:36
LabelTamla
Producer
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell chronology
United
(1967) 		You're All I Need
(1968)
Marvin Gaye chronology
Take Two (with Kim Weston)
(1966) 		United
(1967) 		Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
(1967)
Tammi Terrell chronology
United
(1967) 		You're All I Need (with Marvin Gaye)
(1968)
Singles from United
  1. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
    Released: April 20, 1967
  2. "Your Precious Love"
    Released: August 22, 1967
  3. "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" / "If This World Were Mine"
    Released: November 14, 1967
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

United is a studio album by the soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records.[2] Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced all of the tracks on the album, with the exception of "You Got What It Takes" (produced by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr.) and "Oh How I'd Miss You" (produced by Hal Davis).[3] Fuqua and Bristol produced "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "Two Can Have a Party" as Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966, and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them in order to create duet versions of the songs.[3]

United was the duo's as well as Gaye's most successful album of the 1960s with sales almost reaching one million copies, it yielded four Top 100 Billboard chart hits, including the two Top 10 singles "Your Precious Love," "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You," the Top 20 single, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "If This World Were Mine". United peaked at number 69 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and number 7 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart upon its release.[2] The album was the first of three collaborative albums by Gaye and Terrell.

Gaye and Terrell's first session together was in December 1966, when they recorded "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".[4] They recorded numerous tracks together at Motown's Hitsville USA Studio A in Detroit; work on United concluded on June 15, 1967.[5]

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) – 2:32
  2. "You Got What It Takes" (Berry Gordy, Jr., Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo) – 2:59
  3. "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" (Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Vernon Bullock) – 2:26
  4. "Somethin' Stupid" (C. Carson Parks) – 2:46
  5. "Your Precious Love" (Ashford, Simpson) – 3:07
  6. "Hold Me Oh My Darling" (Harvey Fuqua) – 2:50

Side two

  1. "Two Can Have a Party" (Johnny Bristol, Fuqua, Thomas Kemp) – 2:19
  2. "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl" (Fuqua, Etta James, Brook Benton) – 2:46
  3. "If This World Were Mine" (Marvin Gaye) – 2:46
  4. "Sad Wedding" (Bristol, Jackey Beavers) – 3:27
  5. "Give a Little Love" (Bristol, Fuqua, Clyde Wilson) – 3:01
  6. "Oh How I'd Miss You" (Hal Davis, Frank Wilson, Vance Wilson) – 2:37

Chart history

Billboard (North America) – United

Year Chart Position
1967 Pop Albums 69
Black Albums 7

Personnel

Notes

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ a b allmusic – United overview
  3. ^ a b Chin, Brian (2001). Liner notes for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: The Complete Duets. New York: Motown Records/UMG Recordings.
  4. ^ Gaye 2003, pp. 63, 198.
  5. ^ Hughes, Keith (2018). "You've Got What It Takes". Don't Forget the Motor City. Ritchie Hardin. Archived from the original on September 16, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.

Sources