I Heard It Through the Grapevine

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"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
Hitsville USA (Studio A), Detroit, Michigan
Genre
Length2:52
LabelSoul
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Norman Whitfield
Gladys Knight & the Pips singles chronology
"Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me"
(1967)
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
(1967)
"The End of Our Road"
(1968)
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
Hitsville USA (Studio A), Detroit, Michigan
GenrePsychedelic soul
Length2:59 (Single)
5:16 (Extended)
LabelTamla
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Norman Whitfield
Marvin Gaye singles chronology
"
His Eye is on the Sparrow
"
(1968)
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
(1968)
"Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By"
(1969)

"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by

Motown Records in 1966.[2] The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips
and released as a single in September 1967. It went to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and shortly became the biggest selling Motown single up to that time.

The Miracles were the first to record the song in 1966,[3] but their version was not released until August 1968, when it was included on their album Special Occasion.

The

In the Groove, a year and a half later, where it gained the attention of radio disc jockeys. Motown founder Berry Gordy finally agreed to its release as a single on the Tamla subsidiary in October 1968, when it went to the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart for seven weeks from December 1968 to January 1969, overtaking the Gladys Knight & the Pips version as the biggest hit single on the Motown family of labels up to that point.[citation needed
]

The Gaye recording has since become an acclaimed soul classic. In 1998 the song was inducted into the

The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,[4] then re-ranked at 81 in 2010.[5] In 2021, it was ranked 119. And on the commemorative fortieth anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 issue of Billboard magazine
in June 2008, Marvin Gaye's "Grapevine" was ranked sixty-fifth.

In 2018, the Gladys Knight & the Pips version was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[6]

In addition to being released several times by Motown artists, the song has been recorded by a range of musicians including Creedence Clearwater Revival,[2] who made an eleven-minute interpretation for their 1970 album, Cosmo's Factory.

Composition

The song is composed in E-flat minor.[7] The lyrics tell the story in the first person of the singer's feelings of betrayal and disbelief when he hears of his girlfriend's infidelity only indirectly "through the 'grapevine'".[8]

By 1966, Barrett Strong, the singer on Motown Records' breakthrough hit, "

telegraph: the human grapevine.[10][11] Producer Norman Whitfield worked with Strong on the song, adding lyrics to Strong's basic Ray Charles influenced gospel tune and the single chorus line of "I heard it through the grapevine".[12] This was to be the first of a number of successful collaborations between Strong and Whitfield.[13]

Motown recordings

Producer Norman Whitfield recorded "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" with various Motown artists.

Miracles

The first known recording is with

Special Occasion album, and a slightly different take, possibly from the same session but unreleased, appeared on the 1998 compilation album, Motown Sings Motown Treasures.[17]

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye's version, released on his 1968 album In the Groove, is the second known recording.[2] Whitfield recorded the song with Gaye over five sessions, the first on February 3, 1967, and the last on April 10, 1967.[11][18] Recordings of this version took more than a month due to Whitfield overdubbing Gaye's vocals with that of the Andantes' background vocals, mixing in several tracks featuring the Funk Brothers on the rhythm track, and adding the string section from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra with an arrangement by Paul Riser.[11]

The session featuring Gaye led to an argument between the producer and singer. Whitfield wanted Gaye to perform the song in a higher key than his normal range,[12] a move that had worked on David Ruffin during the recording of the Temptations' hit, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". The mixture of Gaye's raspy vocals and the Andantes' sweeter harmonies made Whitfield confident that he had a hit; however, despite approval from Motown's Quality Control Department, Gordy blocked the release.[19]

Gladys Knight & the Pips

Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded "Grapevine" on June 17, 1967, in Motown's Studio A, also with Norman Whitfield as producer.[2] After hearing Aretha Franklin's version of "Respect", Whitfield rearranged "Grapevine" to include some of the funk elements of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. According to David Ritz, Whitfield set to record a song that would "out-funk" Aretha. After Whitfield presented the demo tapes, Gladys Knight, Bubba Knight, William Guest, and Edward Patten worked for several weeks on their vocal arrangement. To make the song suitable for Gladys, the first line of the second verse ("I know a man ain't supposed to cry/But these tears I can't hold inside") was altered to ("Take a good look at these tears in my eyes/Baby, these tears I can't hold inside"). After much talk, Gordy reluctantly allowed the Pips' version to be a single on September 28, 1967, on Motown's Soul label.[2]

Other Motown artists

In 1968, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers recorded a version for their debut album based on Knight's recent hit. But after hearing the Marvin Gaye version, they felt they had made the wrong choice.[20] In 1969, Whitfield produced a version for the Temptations "psychedelic soul" album, Cloud Nine, in which he "brought compelling percussion to the fore, and relegated the piano well into the wings".[21] In 1971, the Undisputed Truth recorded the song in a Gaye-styled version.[22]

Releases

Since both the Miracles' and Marvin Gaye's renditions of the song were rejected by Gordy as a single, Gladys Knight & the Pips' version became the first to be released, on September 28, 1967, on Motown's Soul label, with "It's Time to Go Now" on the

Everybody Needs Love.[2]

After this success Whitfield again wanted Gordy to release Gaye's "Grapevine" as a single, but Gordy did not want to release another version after the Pips had already made a hit out of it.

Cash Box said of it that "tremendous percussion and a brilliant production job add even more luster to a terrific vocal."[27]

Due to the song's success, In the Groove was re-issued as I Heard It Through the Grapevine and peaked at number two on the R&B album chart and number sixty-three on the album chart, which was at the time Marvin's highest-charted solo studio effort to date. Because of the success of both versions, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was the first and last number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1968: the Pips version was the first week of January, the Gaye version the last week of December. Gladys Knight was not pleased that Gaye's version usurped her own, and claimed that Gaye's version was recorded over an instrumental track Whitfield had prepared for a Pips song, an allegation Gaye denied.

Levi's commercial (starring Nick Kamen).[29]

Legacy

The Gaye recording has become an acclaimed soul classic. In 2004, it was placed at number 80 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,[30] with the comment that Whitfield had produced the song with a number of artists using different arrangements, and that on the Marvin Gaye recording he had a "golden idea" when he set the song "in a slower, more mysterious tempo".[31] In a new Rolling Stone list published in 2011, the single was placed slightly lower at number 81.[32]

In 1998, the Marvin Gaye version of the song was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value. In June 2008, on the commemorative fiftieth anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 issue of Billboard magazine, the Marvin Gaye version was ranked as the sixty-fifth biggest song on the chart.[33] In 2018, the Gladys Knight & the Pips version was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[34]

Other versions

In addition to being recorded several times by Motown artists, the song has been recorded by musicians including Creedence Clearwater Revival, whose 11-minute version appeared on their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory[35] The band had initially started to play the song live before rearranging it in the studio with a long jam-like instrumental part for their record.[2] Unusually for such a long song, radio stations began to play the song, and eventually it was released as a single against the band's wishes.[2] The release reached 43 on Billboard's chart, with more modest success in other countries.[36]

In addition, funk musician Roger Troutman whose extended version taken from his 1981 solo album, The Many Facets of Roger,[37] brought the song back to number one on the R&B chart in 1981, marking the third time the song reached the top spot on that chart. It also made the Billboard Hot 100, but was not a Pop success this time around, peaking at number 79.[38] British punk band the Slits recorded the song in a post-punk style as a bonus track on their 1979 album Cut.[39] In 1996, the Soultans released their version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". It reached number 24 in Austria,[40] and charted in New Zealand, Germany and Belgium.[41][42] !align="left"|Chart (1996-97)

Pras Michel for her album Order in the Court.[45]

In popular culture

"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" has been used twice in television commercials – each time using session musicians recreating the style of the Marvin Gaye version. For the 1985

clay animation group The California Raisins which sang it as part of a TV advertising campaign.[52]

Marvin Gaye's version of the song is used in the opening credits of

extradiegetic fashion to both unite the main characters' friendship and to locate it nostalgically for the viewer.[53][54][55]

Personnel

Marvin Gaye version

Gladys Knight & The Pips

Charts

Weekly charts

Gladys Knight & the Pips
Chart (1967–1968) Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles[59] 5
UK Singles (OCC) 47
US Billboard Hot 100[60] 2
US
Cash Box Top 100[61]
1
Marvin Gaye

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Italy (FIMI)[82]
sales since 2009
Gold 25,000
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[83] Gold 30,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[84]
1997 release
Gold 400,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[85]
2004 release
Silver 200,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[86]
2004 release
Platinum 600,000
United States 4,000,000[87]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Grapevine (Tiësto)

"Grapevine"
Tijs Verwest
Producer(s)Tiësto
Tiësto singles chronology
"Jackie Chan"
(2018)
"Grapevine"
(2018)
"Ritual"
(2019)

"Grapevine" is a song by

Brazilian bass genre.[88] Gaye's song is extensively sampled in the track, which was premiered during Tiësto's set at Ultra Music Festival 2018 in Miami.[89] The music video was released on January 12, 2020.[90]

Fabien Dori from French webmedia Guettapen criticized the "cruel lack of originality" of the track, stating that "the drop seems strangely like the one from 'Boom', and this is not the generic vocal which will enhance the whole".[91]

Track listing

Digital Download (MF306)
  1. "Grapevine" - 2:30
Digital Download (MF306)
  1. "Grapevine" (Extended Mix) - 3:27
Digital Download / Remixes (MF319)
  1. "Grapevine" (Tujamo Remix) - 3:21
  2. "Grapevine" (
    John Christian
    Remix)
    - 2:30
  3. "Grapevine" (Carta Remix) - 2:35

Charts

Charts (2018) Peak
Position
Belgium Dance (Ultratop Wallonia)[92] 14
US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (Billboard)[93] 34

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  • David N. Howard, Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings, 2004, Hal Leonard Corporation
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