Tammi Terrell Legendary Motown Soul Singer
Over a span of just 12 months beginning in April 1967, the duo of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell enjoyed a string of four straight hits with some of the greatest love songs ever recorded at Motown Records.
Terrell was a Philly girl who became a star performing on local television before being discovered by Scepter Records in 1960. Born Thomasina Montgomery, she recorded as Tammy Montgomery—barely 15 when Scepter put her to work covering Shirelles songs, hoping she might turn into a potential girl-group vocalist.
By 1967, Terrell was a star, thanks to her duets with Marvin Gaye, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Your Precious Love" and "You're All I Need to Get By." But Terrell also had a promising solo career before and during her collaboration with Gaye. For the first time, all of her solo recordings have been collected into a new anthology, called Come On and See Me.
Even on Irresistible, her lone Motown LP, the label cannibalized some of the solo songs and remixed them into duets. Remarkably, Motown also mothballed some of her best tracks, including a Stevie Wonder-penned gem Terrell recorded in 1966, but which went unreleased for decades.
When a brain tumor claimed the life of Motown artist Tammi Terrell in 1970, she was only 24.