‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’: Everything wrong with Motown’s worst number one
Let’s get something straight, nice and quick, as I can already feel your anger radiating through the screen. ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ isn’t a bad Motown song.
On the contrary, it might be one of the greatest songs ever written. However, the circumstances surrounding its release represent a problem which persisted with Motown that highlights everything the label did wrong.
Berry Gordy will have had no idea when he set up Hitsville USA what sort of cultural phenomenon he was about to create. His record label was set up using money accumulated from past endeavours and the hope that maybe he’d be able to make it in the music business. Well, there were a lot of people trying to crack the music business at the time, and not many of them had much luck. What made Gordy any different? There were two key factors: Vision and adaptability.
When Gordy dipped his hands to till the sonic landscape, he did so with a very clear intention, which was to make people dance and enjoy themselves. The music was supposed to be upbeat, fun and something to nod heads and tap feet to. He was also willing to adapt within his own record label, pairing different writers and singers together in a bid to achieve the perfect sound. Both of these aspects culminated and established the Motown sound that we all now recognise as so iconic.
The clear vision of Gordy helped the label originally get off the ground, but it started to become a hindrance later on in the label’s lifespan, as his sheer reluctance to even toe the waters of different temperatures meant that some artists began to feel stagnated by Motown. A clear example of one of these artists was Marvin Gaye, who was persistently trying to break through as a solo artist, but had his ideas, which were more thought-provoking, political and emotionally complex, pushed back because they didn’t fit the mould that Gordy had shaped for Motown.
The song ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ was almost never released because of the headman’s stubborn approach towards the music he made. Gaye had written the song about a jaded lover, hearing from those close to him that their partner was leaving. This wasn’t your standard Motown love song; this was a track laced with pain and desperation, something that allowed the singer to tap into the range of octaves he danced along so effortlessly and really create a heart-wrenching tune in the process. Gordy wasn’t having it.
Instead, the song was given to Gladys Knight and the Pips, who made it something almost unrecognisable from the original. It fell back into the standard upbeat and dance-y songs that were becoming Motown’s bread and butter. Just when it was looking like Gaye’s version would never see the light of day, he managed to put it on his eighth solo album, In The Groove. And he was fucking right to do so, because the track became a hit and Gordy’s hands were tied when it came to re-releasing it as a single, which shot to number one and became the biggest piece the label had ever put out up to that point.
This song is great, but it represents some of the worst aspects of Motown, as we are left to sit and wonder what other great songs might have been shelved because they didn’t fit the Motown uniform. Marvin Gaye’s concept album, What’s Going On, which is arguably one of the greatest albums ever made, received countless pushback as Gordy wasn’t about the political. We can appreciate the beauty of ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ while still nurturing frustration that it might never have seen the light of day.
Gordy’s strict vision was what set Motown apart and helped the label become the success that it was. However, he also got too set in his ways and opposed great music being released. While ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ is a great song, it is also the Motown number one, which reflects the worst aspects of the label, and leaves us questioning how many classics we missed out on because of Gordy’s stubborn vision.
