MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL - HOLD ME OH MY DARLING

HOLD ME OH MY DARLING

MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL

SONGWRITER: HARVEY FUQUA

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: UNITED

GENRE: SOUL

YEAR: 1967

 

        Marvin Gaye(born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".

       Gaye's Motown songs include "Ain't That Peculiar", "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". Gaye also recorded duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross. During the 1970s, Gaye recorded the albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On and became one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of a production company. His later recordings influenced several contemporary R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo soul. He was a tax exile in Europe in the early 1980s; he released "Sexual Healing" in 1982, which won him his first two Grammy Awards on the album Midnight Love. Gaye's last televised appearances were at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, where he sang "The Star-Spangled Banner"; Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever; and Soul Train.

  Tammi Terrell(born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery; April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably for a series of duets with singer Marvin Gaye.

     Terrell's career began as a teenager, first recording for Scepter/Wand Records, before spending nearly 9 months as a member of James Brown's Revue, recording for Brown's Try Me label. After a period attending college, Terrell recorded briefly for Checker Records, before signing with Motown in 1965. With Gaye, Terrell scored seven Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By". Terrell's career was interrupted when she collapsed into Gaye's arms as the two performed at a concert at Hampden–Sydney College on October 14, 1967, with Terrell later being diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had eight unsuccessful surgeries before dying of the illness on March 16, 1970, at the age of 24.

        United is a studio album by soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. 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). Fuqua and Bristol produced "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "Two Can Have a Party" as Tammi Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966, and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them in order to create duet versions of the songs.

         United 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 #69 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and #7 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart upon its release. The album was the first of three collaborative albums by Gaye and Terrell.

I want you to hold me, oh my darling

& never, never let me go

Oh kiss me & tell me you love me

Yeah yeah because I, I I I I I, I I love you so

(I I love you, I love you so)

 

When I'm alone, alone & troubled

& my life seems dark as night

All I ask, I'll ask you please

Yeah yeah, baby won't you be, won't you be be be, be my guiding light

(Won't you be be my guiding light)

 

You know I get such a strange sensation

Every time I hear your name

Now all of my friends & my relations

They say I'm loving you (loving you) loving you in vain

Yeah yeah

 

Snuggle, snuggle on my shoulder

Come on & tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me that you care

& as my love, my love, my love, my love grows older

Yeah yeah, tell me that the flame, that the flame flame flame

Flame will still be there

(That the flame flame will still be)

 

Yeah yeah (darlin', wo oh)

Hold me baby (darlin', wo oh) hold me.