CoronaVinyl Day 173 (G): United by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "G." I have already featured a Marvin Gaye solo album -- What's Going On, 120 editions of CoronaVinyl ago -- but I don't consider it repeating an artist if I feature an album that's a collaboration that happens to include an artist I've already featured.  So that's why today's selection, Gaye and Tammi Terrell's 1967 album United, is a-okay.

United was the first of three albums on which Gaye and Terrell collaborated, and they struck gold immediately.  Gaye was already an established star by 1967, with a bunch of Top 40 hits.  Terrell was a relative unknown, having only had a couple very minor hits, the highest of which reached #72 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Together, Gaye and Terrell were one of the best male-female duos in pop history.  Their three albums, released in 1967, 1968, and 1969, produced 7 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, four of which reached the Top 10, as well as 6 songs that reached the Top 10 of the Billboard R&B singles chart.

United only reached #69 on the Billboard album chart, but it went to #7 on the Billboard R&B albums chart and featured three Top 20 songs:  "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (#19), "Your Precious Love" (#5), and "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" (#10).  The album is a showcase of everything great about Motown -- fantastic singing, songwriting, and pop sensibility.

Sadly, Terrell's life was cut short as a result of brain cancer.  In 1967, she collapsed on stage into Gaye's arms while they were singing "Your Precious Love" at a concert in Virginia, after which she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.  Nonetheless, after having brain surgery in early 1968, she made another two albums with Gaye and a solo album, before she died in 1970 at the age of 24.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You"

This is just a wonderful pop soul song.  It has a Miracles feel to it, but I suppose that makes sense, since they were also a Motown act (though Smokey Robinson didn't have anything to do with this song).

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl"
Terrell is a little sultrier than usual on this song, but it's Motown, so you know it still has to be somewhat PG.  That said, this song has more soul and less pop than the typical Motown song of that era.