"I Heard it Through the Grapevine"

Marvin Gaye (and others)

album cover

A Mega Single in Many Forms

At Motown's weekly "Quality Control" meetings, held every Friday in the early years, a small committee of staff producers, executives, and songwriters would vote on the recordings under consideration as singles. According to legend, the first time Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong brought in this song, which they wrote for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, it was rejected. Same thing happened to the version they worked up featuring the Isley Brothers. The third attempt was for Marvin Gaye (1939–1984); the duo pitched it slightly higher than Gaye's range, which gave his vocals a pleading, almost desperate quality. That didn't click either. A fourth version of the song, set in a brisk gospel rhythm and sung by Gladys Knight and the Pips, met with Quality Control approval and became a hit in 1967.

Strong and Whitfield still weren't satisfied. Something about the slower, more tribal pulse of Gaye's unreleased version haunted them, and the duo persuaded label honcho Berry Gordy to include it, at the last minute, on a 1968 Gaye album called In the Groove. It wasn't designated as the single, but within weeks Gaye's "Grapevine" became the most requested song from the album at radio stations. Motown was eventually forced to release it, and Gaye's version hit the top of the Billboard singles chart in December 1968 and stayed there for seven weeks. In the Groove was eventually renamed—in Gaye's official discography, it's called I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

As pervasive as that single was, it's hardly the last word on "Grapevine," which unlike many big hits thrives in all kinds of surroundings. The account of the rumor mill that swirls around a cheating lover has been reimagined as a swaggering soul revue romp (Ike and Tina Turner), a bomping-and-honking instrumental (King Curtis), a glinting rhythm-guitar-fueled punk frenzy (the Slits), a campy commercial (the California Raisins), and a spooky eleven-minute epic of swamp psychedelia (Creedence Clearwater Revival), to name just a few versions. All of them tell the same story. And all of them tell different stories. And that, right there, is the glory of pop music.

Genre: R&B
Released: 1968, Motown
Appears On: I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Another Interpretation: Check out the Creedence Clearwater version on Cosmo's Factory
Next Stop: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: The Ultimate Collection
After That: Martha and the Vandellas: Dance Party!

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