United (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell album)

1967 studio album by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

United

Studio album by

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

Released| August 29, 1967
Recorded| December 1966 - June 15, 1967
Studio| Hitsville USA, Detroit
Genre| Soul
Length| 33:36
Label| Tamla
Producer|

* Harvey Fuqua
* Johnny Bristol
* Hal Davis
* Berry Gordy, Jr.

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell chronology
|  | United
(1967)  | You're All I Need
(1968)

|
|

Marvin Gaye chronology
| Take Two (with Kim Weston)
(1966)  | United
(1967)  | Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
(1967)

|
|

Tammi Terrell chronology
|  | United
(1967)  | You're All I Need (with Marvin Gaye)
(1968)

|
|

Singles from  United

1. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
Released: April 20, 1967
2. "Your Precious Love"
Released: August 22, 1967
3. "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" / "If This World Were Mine"
Released: November 14, 1967

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
Allmusic| [1]

United is a studio album by the soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records.[2] Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced all of the tracks on the album, with the exception of "You Got What It Takes" (produced by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr.) and "Oh How I'd Miss You" (produced by Hal Davis).[3] Fuqua and Bristol produced "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "Two Can Have a Party" as Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966, and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them in order to create duet versions of the songs.[3]

United was the duo's as well as Gaye's most successful album of the 1960s with sales almost reaching one million copies, it yielded four Top 100 Billboard chart hits, including the two Top 10 singles "Your Precious Love," "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You," the Top 20 single, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "If This World Were Mine". United peaked at number 69 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and number 7 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart upon its release.[2] The album was the first of three collaborative albums by Gaye and Terrell.

Gaye and Terrell's first session together was in December 1966, when they recorded "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".[4] They recorded numerous tracks together at Motown's Hitsville USA Studio A in Detroit; work on United concluded on June 15, 1967.[5]

## Track listing

[edit]

Side one

1. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) – 2:32
2. "You Got What It Takes" (Berry Gordy, Jr., Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo) – 2:59
3. "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" (Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Vernon Bullock) – 2:26
4. "Somethin' Stupid" (C. Carson Parks) – 2:46
5. "Your Precious Love" (Ashford, Simpson) – 3:07
6. "Hold Me Oh My Darling" (Harvey Fuqua) – 2:50

Side two

1. "Two Can Have a Party" (Johnny Bristol, Fuqua, Thomas Kemp) – 2:19
2. "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl" (Fuqua, Etta James, Brook Benton) – 2:46
3. "If This World Were Mine" (Marvin Gaye) – 2:46
4. "Sad Wedding" (Bristol, Jackey Beavers) – 3:27
5. "Give a Little Love" (Bristol, Fuqua, Clyde Wilson) – 3:01
6. "Oh How I'd Miss You" (Hal Davis, Frank Wilson, Vance Wilson) – 2:37

## Chart history

[edit]

Billboard (North America) – United

Year  | Chart  | Position

|
|

1967  | Pop Albums | 69
Black Albums | 7

## Certifications

[edit]

Region  | Certification | Certified units/sales

|
|

United States (RIAA)[6] | Gold  | 500,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

## Personnel

[edit]

* Lead vocals: Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell
* Background vocals: Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, The Originals, The Andantes, The Spinners
* Production: Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Hal Davis, Berry Gordy, Jr.
* Instrumentation: The Funk Brothers (uncredited)

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Allmusic review
2. ^ a b allmusic – United overview
3. ^ a b Chin, Brian (2001). Liner notes for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: The Complete Duets. New York: Motown Records/UMG Recordings.
4. ^ Gaye 2003, pp. 63, 198.
5. ^ Hughes, Keith (2018). "You've Got What It Takes". Don't Forget the Motor City. Ritchie Hardin. Archived from the original on September 16, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
6. ^ "American album certifications – Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell – United". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved April 25, 2025.

### Sources

[edit]

* Gaye, Frankie (2003). Marvin Gaye, My Brother. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 978-1-61774-498-3 - via the Internet Archive.

* v
* t
* e

Marvin Gaye

Studio albums|

* The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye (1961)
* That Stubborn Kinda Fellow (1962)
* When I'm Alone I Cry (1964)
* Hello Broadway (1964)
* How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You (1965)
* A Tribute to the Great Nat King Cole (1965)
* Moods of Marvin Gaye (1966)
* In the Groove (1968)
* M.P.G. (1969)
* That's the Way Love Is (1970)
* What's Going On (1971)
* Trouble Man (1972)
* Let's Get It On (1973)
* I Want You (1976)
* Here, My Dear (1978)
* In Our Lifetime (1981)
* Midnight Love (1982)
* Dream of a Lifetime (1985)
* Romantically Yours (1985)
* Vulnerable (1997)
* You're the Man (2019)

Duet albums|

* Together (with Mary Wells, 1964)
* Take Two (with Kim Weston, 1966)
* United (with Tammi Terrell, 1967)
* You're All I Need (with Tammi Terrell, 1968)
* Easy (with Tammi Terrell, 1969)
* Diana & Marvin (with Diana Ross, 1973)

Live albums|

* Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage (1963)
* Marvin Gaye Live! (1974)
* Live at the London Palladium (1977)
* Marvin Gaye at the Copa (2005)
* What's Going On Live (2019)

Compilation albums|

* Greatest Hits (1964)
* Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1967)
* Marvin Gaye and His Girls (1969)
* Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's Greatest Hits (1970)
* Super Hits (1970)
* Anthology (1974)
* Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits (1976)
* Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye: Never Before Released Masters (1986)
* The Marvin Gaye Collection (1990)
* The Norman Whitfield Sessions (1994)
* Love Starved Heart: Rare and Unreleased (1994)
* The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (1994)
* The Master (1961–1984) (1995)
* Marvin Gaye: The Love Songs (2000)
* The Complete Duets (2001)
* The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (2001)

Video releases|

* The Real Thing: In Performance (1964–1981) (2006)

US/UK top-ten singles|

* "Pride and Joy"
* "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)"
* "I'll Be Doggone"
* "Ain't That Peculiar"
* "Your Precious Love"
* "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You"
* "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"
* "You're All I Need to Get By"
* "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
* "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"
* "That's the Way Love Is"
* "Abraham, Martin and John"
* "The Onion Song"
* "What's Going On"
* "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
* "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
* "Trouble Man"
* "Let's Get It On"
* "You Are Everything"
* "Got to Give It Up"
* "Sexual Healing"

Family|

* Marvin Gay Sr. (father)
* Alberta Gay (mother)
* Anna Gordy Gaye (first wife)
* Denise Gordy (son's birth mother)
* Nona Gaye (daughter)
* Frankie Gaye (brother)
* Gordon Banks (brother-in-law)

Related articles|

* Discography
* Awards and nominations
* Personal life
* Death
* Tributes
* The Marquees
* Harvey Fuqua
* Tammi Terrell
* Leon Ware
* Marvin's Room
* Marvin Is 60: A Tribute Album
* Divided Soul
* Sexual Healing Tour

* Category

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

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