I Heard It Through the Grapevine

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"I Heard It through the Grapevine"
"I Heard It through the Grapevine" cover
Single by Gladys Knight & the Pips
from the album Everybody Needs Love
Released September 28, 1967
Format 7" single
Recorded Hitsville USA (Studio A); 1967
Genre Soul
Length 2:56
Label Soul
S 35039
Writer(s) Norman Whitfield
Barrett Strong
Producer(s) Norman Whitfield
Chart positions
Gladys Knight & the Pips singles chronology
"Everybody Needs Love"
1967		 "I Heard It through the Grapevine"
1967		 "The End of Our Road"
1968

"I Heard It through the Grapevine" is an R&B/soul song written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1967. Whitfield recorded several different versions of the song with several different Motown acts, and two of those versions became hits: one version by Gladys Knight & the Pips became a number-two hit in the United States in 1967, while a version by Marvin Gaye became a number-one hit in the U.S. in 1968.

Gaye's version, the most notable recording of the song, was his first number-one hit, and was the most successful single released by Motown in the 1960s. Since the releases of the original hit versions of the song, "I Heard It through the Grapevine" has been heavily covered, most notably an extended 1970 version by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Contents

[edit] Original Motown versions

[edit] Shelved versions by The Miracles and The Isley Brothers

Norman Whitfield first recorded "I Heard It through the Grapevine" in early 1967 with Smokey Robinson & the Miracles as the vocalists. During the 1960s, Motown held Quality Control meetings each Friday morning to determine which new recordings would be released as singles. The Quality Control staff voted as a democracy, with Motown chief Berry Gordy also holding veto power. During one of those meetings, Whitfield presented the Miracles' "Grapevine", which was not chosen for release. Undaunted, Whitfield had The Isley Brothers re-record the song; their version also failed to gain a release.

[edit] Recording the Marvin Gaye version

Still determined that he and Barrett Strong had written a hit, Whitfield had "Grapevine" recorded a third time. Re-imagining the soul song as a slower, psychedelic-inspired record, Whitfield had Marvin Gaye record the lead vocal, with The Andantes on background vocals and Motown's studioband The Funk Brothers playing a voodoo-like instrumental track.

It took Marvin Gaye two months to complete his recording of the song, which he worked on during April and May of 1967. Whitfield had Gaye's lead vocal arranged just above his actual register, a trick he had used with David Ruffin on Temptations songs such as "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" in order to elicit a rawer vocal from the singer as he strained to hit the high notes. The trick worked, and Gaye's pained lead on "Grapevine", contrasted with the softer vocals of the Andantes, made Whitfield sure he had finally recorded a hit. Motown label chief Berry Gordy was not impressed, however, and vetoed "Grapevine" at a Friday morning Quality Control Meeting. In its stead, the label issued another Gaye recording, "Your Unchanging Love", as a single; "Your Unchanging Love" charted at number thirty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number-seven on the Billboard Black Singles (R&B) chart.

"I Heard It through the Grapevine"
"I Heard It through the Grapevine" cover
Single by Marvin Gaye
from the album In the Groove
Released October 30, 1968
Format 7" single
Recorded Hitsville USA (Studio A); February 1967 - April 1967
Genre Soul
Length 3:16
Label Tamla
T 54176
Writer(s) Norman Whitfield
Barrett Strong
Producer(s) Norman Whitfield
Chart positions
Marvin Gaye singles chronology
"His Eye is on the Sparrow"
1968		 "I Heard It through the Grapevine"
1968		 "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By" (with Tammi Terrell)
1969

[edit] Recording and releasing the Gladys Knight & the Pips version

Ignoring his temporary lack of success, Whitfield recorded a fourth version of the song. This version was recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips, in an uptempo gospel-based arrangement heavily influenced by Aretha Franklin's recent hit "Respect". The Atlanta, Georgia-based act had just joined the label the year before, and had to this point been relegated to the status of second-stringers. After Whitfield presented them with the demo tapes for "Grapevine", Gladys Knight, Bubba Knight, William Guest, and Edward Patten snuck a reel-to-reel tape recorder out of Motown's offices and worked for several weeks on their vocal arrangement. To make the song, originally written from the point-of-view of a male, suitable for Gladys Knight, the first line of the second verse ("I know a man ain't supposed to cry/But these tears I can't hold inside") was altered to make it gender-neutral ("Take a good look at these tears in my eyes/Baby, these tears I can't hold inside").

When Whitfield completed the Pips' version of "Grapevine", he sequestered Berry Gordy and had him listen to it. After some additional convincing from the Pips, Gordy allowed the Pips' version of "Grapevine" to be issued as a single. Motown put little promotional support behind the single, and the Pips had to rely on their connections with various dee jays across the United States to get their record played.

Gladys Knight & the Pips' "I Heard It through the Grapevine" reached the number-one position on the Billboard R&B chart on November 25, 1967, and stayed there for six weeks, making it the group's second R&B number one after 1961's "Every Beat of My Heart". It reached number-two on the Billboard Pop Singles singles chart the same month, with The Monkees' "Daydream Believer" holding on to the top spot. It was Motown's best-selling single up to that point.

[edit] Revisiting the Marvin Gaye version

Whitfield, however, wasn't entirely satisfied, because he had taken a liking to the Marvin Gaye version. He asked Berry Gordy for the permission to release Gaye's "Grapevine" as a single, but Gordy didn't think Gaye's version would be a hit, especially after Knight's version was a hit. In 1968, Whitfield managed to have Gaye's "Grapevine" included as a last-minute addition to Gaye's 1968 album In the Groove. The official single for In the Groove, "You", made it to number thirty-four on the pop charts, while "Grapevine" became the most-played and requested track from the album. The nation's dee jays, who had been playing Gaye's "Grapevine" directly from the album for several weeks, began requesting the song's release as a single, which was finally done in the autumn of 1968.

Gaye's version of "I Heard It through the Grapevine" outsold Gladys Knight and the Pips' version, and until the release of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" twenty months later, it was the biggest hit single ever released on Motown. It stayed at the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart for seven weeks, from December 14, 1968 to January 25, 1969, when it was removed from the top spot by Tommy James & The Shondells' "Crimson And Clover." Gaye's "Grapevine" also held the number-one position on the R&B chart during the same seven weeks, and stayed at number-one in the United Kingdom for three weeks starting on March 26, 1969. The entire label was pleased with the song's success, although Gaye himself, depressed because of other concurrent issues such as the illness of singing partner Tammi Terrell, was quoted as saying that his success "didn't seem real" and that he "didn't deserve it". [1]

The In the Groove album was re-issued as I Heard It through the Grapevine after the success of the hit single. Gaye's "Grapevine" was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. In the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, published in 2004, Gaye's version of the song was placed at number eighty.

Because of the success of both versions of the song, "I Heard It through the Grapevine" was both the first and last number-one song on the Billboard R&B chart in 1968: the Pips version was number-one the first week of January, while the Marvin Gaye version was number one the last week of December. Knight was not pleased that Gaye's version of the song usurped the success of her own. She later stated that Gaye's version of "I Heard It through the Grapevine" was recorded over an instrumental track Whitfield had prepared for a scrapped Pips song, an allegation Gaye denied.[2]

Meanwhile, a second version of the song by The Miracles, with a similar arrangement to their first version, later appeared as an album track on their 1968 Special Occasion LP. Their original recording was issued in 2004 on a Hip-O Select compilation album entitled Motown Sings Motown Treasures . The Isleys' version remains unreleased to this day.

[edit] Overview of themes

"I Heard It through the Grapevine" has been rendered in several different ways, although the song's theme, a relationship in the beginning stages of breakup, remains prominent in each version. The narrator in the song has no clue that his/her relationship is in a bad state, and only learns after hearing gossip "through the grapevine" that his/her lover is cheating. The narrator confronts the lover, and explains, through the lyrics, that, although the betrayal hurts the narrator deeply, it is the fact that the lover refused to inform the narrator of the infidelity that hurts the most.

Of the first four versions of the song produced by Norman Whitfield himself, only the Marvin Gaye version makes pain and confusion a clear part of the recording's musical texture: Whitfield surrounds Gaye with horror-film strings, voodoo-styled drums and percussion, and an ominous Wurlitzer electric piano line doubled by the guitar. The Miracles' version is a standard mid-tempo number, while Gladys Knight & the Pips' version is built around bravado and a quick-tempo gospel feel.

"I Heard It Through The Grapevine"
Album track by Creedence Clearwater Revival
From the album Cosmo's Factory
Recorded Fantasy Records; 1970
Genre Rock & Roll
Length 11:07
Label Fantasy Records

[edit] Covers

Already existing in four recorded versions by the time Gaye's version became a number-one hit, "I Heard It through the Grapevine" has been covered frequently since 1968. Among the earliest covers of the song were two more versions produced by Whitfield, one by The Temptations in 1969, and another by The Undisputed Truth in 1971. Rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded an eleven-minute cover version of "I Heard It through the Grapevine" for their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory. There is also a ten-minute live version on the Average White Band's 1976 album Person To Person.

The song has been quite popular in alternative music circles. In 1979, UK punk group The Slits did a heavily dub influenced version which was issued as the B-side of their first single. In this version, the female singer sings the song from the male point of view. Another underground group from the era, Tuxedomoon, recorded a version which features a typically dirge-like rhythm and a tuneless vocal that was recorded through the telephone. The Crust Brothers, a group consisting of Stephen Malkmus and members of Silkworm, covered it on their Marquee Mark album, in a style reflective of CCR's version.

Funk musician Roger Troutman did a version for his debut solo album, The Many Facets of Roger, in 1981. Yet another later-period cover of the song is a version recorded in 1988 by studio singers for the fictitious clay-animated singing group The California Raisins. Their version of "I Heard It through the Grapevine" became the California Raisins' signature song, an obvious pun on the fact that they, as raisins, originated from "the grapevine" themselves. Kaiser Chiefs also recorded a version of the song for the charity album Help! A Day In The Life in 2005 (see external links).

Former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald recorded the song as part of his "Motown" album in 2003.

Italian singer, Giorgia, recorded the song, in her Mtv Unplugged album in 2005. This version was included also in the soundtrack of the Italian Movie "Romanzo Criminale".

Marvin Gaye's version of the song has been featured prominently in several films, including The Big Chill (1983) and Remember the Titans (2001). Additionally, the Marvin Gaye version regained attention in Europe around 1986, when Jeans manufacturer Levi's used it for a retro-themed commercial called "Launderette", featuring then-unknown model/singer Nick Kamen (see external links).

The song has also been covered by the Soultans.


Another version was released in a cappella by the Flying Pickets, in their album, "Lost boys" from 1984.

[edit] Credits

[edit] Gladys Knight & the Pips version

[edit] Marvin Gaye version

  • Lead Vocals by Marvin Gaye
  • Background Vocals by The Andantes: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow and Louvain Demps
  • Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers

[edit] Samples

Preceded by
"Love Child" by Diana Ross & the Supremes		 Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Marvin Gaye version)
December 14, 1968		 Succeeded by
"Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James & the Shondells
Preceded by
"Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" by Peter Sarstedt		 UK number one single
March 26, 1969		 Succeeded by
"Israelites" by Desmond Dekker & The Aces

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Posner, Motown : Music, Money, Sex, and Power. Pg. 225.
  2. ^ Gaye, Marvin. Radio interview, BBC.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www0.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/ihearditthroughthegrapevine.shtml on March 29, 2006.

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[edit] References

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