How Marvin Gaye made ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ his anthem
Motown Records produced a vast sea of classic hits throughout its 1960s golden age, but they don’t come any more iconic and beloved than ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’.
Originally penned by the infallible songwriting team of Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield, the song has gone through countless different hands over the decades, but it was Motown’s favourite son, Marvin Gaye, who recorded the defining version of the soul masterpiece back in 1967, cementing the song among the greatest Motown anthems of all time.
Gaye was not the first artist to take on the Strong-Whitfield composition. In typical Motown fashion, the song was recorded by a plethora of different artists, and only a select few were chosen by Berry Gordy for widespread release. The very first artist to record ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, for instance, was the flagship Motown group The Miracles in 1966, but their version didn’t go down too well with the label boss. Seemingly, Gordy was uninspired by the recording and the song itself, instructing Whitfield and Strong to come up with something a little more powerful.
As it turned out, the original song just needed pepping up a little, and Gladys Knight was the perfect artist to do just that. Taking inspiration from Aretha Franklin, who had found her defining sound with a funk-fueled version of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’ around that same time, Knight and Whitfield worked on imbuing the initially slow track with a rousing sense of funk and soul. Despite Gordy’s reluctance to issue the song as a single, it managed to reach number two in the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release.
Prior to that Gladys Knight recording, however, Motown master Marvin Gaye had taken a crack at recording the song, too. Also opting for a more upbeat, soulful rendition than the original Miracles incarnation, the recording encapsulated the infectious power at the heart of the vocalist’s talents.
It was an utterly masterful recording which could only have been completed by an artist as dedicated and ambitious as Gaye, but, once again, Berry Gordy was not convinced. So, despite being recorded before Gladys Knight and the Pips, Gaye’s version was initially blocked from release.
Whitfield himself practically begged Gordy to release Gaye’s version, particularly after the success of Knight’s single, but the label boss was unrelenting in his refusal. It was only when the producer slipped the recording onto the album release of Gaye’s In the Groove that the world outside of Hitsville USA was exposed to its incredible tones. Immediately, the song became a hit on radio stations across America, capturing the spirit of the Motown sound and reflecting the unwavering quality of Gaye as a vocalist and performer.
After the universal success of the In the Groove recording, Gordy finally issued the song as a single, and it quickly topped the singles charts both in the UK and US. In fact, the success of Gaye’s version eclipsed every other Motown release up until that point, becoming the label’s most successful single release, at least until its crown was deposed by The Jackson Five a year or two later.
Countless different artists have recorded their own versions of ‘Grapevine’ over the years, from the swamp rock rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival to the pioneering post-punk of The Slits. Ultimately, though, the Marvin Gaye version is virtually impossible to beat. Not only does it capture that iconic Motown sound, but it is perhaps the greatest example of Gaye’s unique and all-encompassing power as a performer.
