The saddest tale of Motown!
Tammi’s first success came as being part of James Brown’s backing band when she was only a teenager.
At the age of 20, she signed with Berry Gordy’s Motown and embarked on a collaboration with Marvin Gaye.
Unusually, the duo had songs written for them by a songwriting team outside the hit factory, Ashford & Simpson.
Three notable songs came out of this collaboration between Terrell, Gordy, Gaye, Ashford, and Simpson: Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and You’re All I Need To Get By.
Her career took an unexpected turn when she collapsed onstage into Marvin Gaye’s arms. Doctors discovered a brain tumor and Tammi entered treatment.
A year later, Tammi attended a Marvin Gaye concert at the Apollo Theatre. Marvin was now singing with Carla Thompson instead but entered the audience for Tammi, who by now was in a wheelchair to sing You’re All I Need To Get By.
This would become her final performance as she died soon after, only 24 years old. Marvin sang the same tune at the funeral.
Tammi Terrell Tunes | Related Pages
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
You can learn to play Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye using chords, chord analysis, lyrics, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Bm7/A | G#m7b5 | Gmaj7 | Em9 |
Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide enough, baby…
You’re All I Need To Get By
You can learn to play You’re All I Need To Get By by Tammi Terrell (and Marvin Gaye) using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| A | B/A |
(You’re all I need to get by) Like sweet morning dew, I took one look at you…
Tammi Terrell on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about Tammi Terrell tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.
