Book Excerpt: “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
By Reel Urban News Staff
200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs by music journalist Frank Mastropolo is a new eBook that tells the backstories of the tunes that made up what many say was the greatest era of soul music.
They’re all here: James Brown, Ray Charles, the Four Tops, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Gladys Knight, Curtis Mayfield, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sly & the Family Stone, the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder and so many more.
This book will take you back to a time when dudes were draped down and cruisin’ and music was outta sight. The photos, interviews and stories told by the musicians who produced these great hits will blow your mind!
You can download 200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs on Amazon.
Enjoy this excerpt from the book on “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Gladys Knight & the Pips and Marvin Gaye.
“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” was a two-time smash for Motown. Gladys Knight & the Pips’ funky version was first to be released in 1967, a No. 2 pop hit that was No. 1 on the R&B chart. Marvin Gaye’s more soulful take also topped the charts in 1968. Barrett Strong, who recorded “Money (That’s What I Want),” came up with the title and basic tune; Norman Whitfield added lyrics.
“The song had been sitting on the shelf and demoed a couple of times just trying to see what could be done with it,” Knight told NPR. “Matter of fact, Barrett Strong, who was one of the writers on the song, did it himself. And it was just kind of sitting around.
“So when the producer came to us with this particular song, it was like, ‘Hey, I really believe in this song. Just take it and play with it.’ And we took the song with us on the road and we were in the hotels. We’d sit out in the hall and work on our little song.
“We kind of broke it up. It wasn’t quite put together verse, chorus, verse, chorus, like we ended up with it. We just tore it apart, put it back together. We would get up in the morning, fix our breakfast while we’re planning. We would tape what we had in mind.
“Eventually, we felt we had it right. We ran down to the studio, and we played it for Norman, and he was so excited. He just flipped. And Smokey Robinson happened to be in the studio that afternoon in Studio A. And we needed a studio because he wanted us to record it right then.
“And we went upstairs, and he asked Smokey if we could borrow the studio. And Smokey said yeah. So we went on in the studio, and we recorded it right then. And it became the biggest-selling record Motown had that year.”
Marvin Gaye recorded “Grapevine” in 1967 for inclusion in his 1968 In the Groove album. Motown had no plans to release it as a single until Chicago radio station WVON began playing the track. By December 1968 the song reached No. 1, Motown’s biggest-selling single to that point.
In the book Marvin Gaye, My Brother, Frankie Gaye wrote that Marvin was unsatisfied despite the record’s success.
“He loved the production—everything, that is, except his performance. He felt he wasn’t into the song during the session, and that he really hadn’t come into himself yet as an artist. ‘I could have done so much better,’ he admitted.”
200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs is available on Amazon.
