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Information about Tammi Terrell

Tammi Terrell (born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery) (April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970) was an American soul singer, most notable for her association with Motown and her duets with Marvin Gaye. As a teenager she recorded for the Scepter/Wand, Try Me and Checker record labels. She signed with Motown in 1965 and enjoyed modest success as a solo singer. Once she was paired with Gaye in 1967, her star rose, but in the fall of that year she collapsed on stage into Gaye's arms during a performance. She was then diagnosed with a brain tumor which eventually led to her death at the age of only 24.

Biography

Early years



Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she entered the music business at the age of 13, regularly performing live. In 1961 she was signed to the fledgling Scepter Records (later Wand Records), recording under the name "Tammy Montgomery". After coming to the attention of James Brown she recorded one single apiece for Brown's own Try Me record label and, in 1964, Checker Records. The year after that, she was spotted by Berry Gordy Jr. while playing live, and signed to his Motown label. Attractive and talented, she became romantically linked with both James Brown and David Ruffin, who was in the award winning group The Temptations.

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

Enlarge picture
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
Initially Terrell recorded solo, with only moderate success (she had a pair of R&B Top 30 singles in 1966, "I Can't Believe You Love Me" and "Come on and See Me") . However, from 1967 onwards she recorded a series of duets with Marvin Gaye, producing hits with Ashford & Simpson written tunes such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By".

However, Terrell's success was to be short-lived. On October 14, 1967, while in concert at the homecoming for Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, she collapsed in Gaye's arms. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was later diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. From then on her health deteriorated. Gaye later told his biographer David Ritz that Terrell was no longer able to record and that Valerie Simpson recorded most of the female vocals on the final Gaye/Terrell duet album, Easy. (Simpson is quoted as denying this in a book written by Terrell's sister Ludie Montgomery.) Terrell died on March 16, 1970 at the age of 24. Marvin Gaye reacted to her death by taking a two year hiatus from concert performance and went into self-isolation. In addition, in 1971 Gaye's classic album What's Going On, an introspective, low-key work which dealt with mature themes, was in part a reaction to Terrell's death.

Rumors

Rumors persist that Terrell's condition was either brought on, or worsened by, domestic abuse from her live-in boyfriend, Temptations singer David Ruffin, as well as James Brown during her early career. While Ruffin and Terrell did fight, it was never proven that Ruffin abused her severely enough to damage her in such a way. Speculation has occurred for years that Terrell may have had an affair with her frequent singing partner Marvin Gaye. Tammi Terrell was also rumored to have married boxer Ernie Terrell, but Terrell's sister Ludie Montgomery dispells this rumor as false in Terrell's biography, My Sister Tommie, explaining that "Terrell" was a stage name that Motown founder Berry Gordy gave her.

Discography

Albums

with Marvin Gaye

Solo

Singles

with Marvin Gaye

(* - credited as Tammi Terrell, but allegedly sung by Valerie Simpson, see above)

Solo

  • 1963: "I Cried" (as Tammi Montgomery) #99 US
  • 1966: "I Can't Believe You Love Me" (H Fuqua, J Bristol) #72 US
  • 1966: "Come On and See Me" (H Fuqua, J Bristol) #80 US
  • 1967: "What a Good Man He Is" (Wm Robinson, A Clevelend) no chart position
  • 1969: "This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)" (B Holland, L Dozier, E Holland, S Moy) #67 US

See also

  • List of notable brain tumor patients

Further reading

  • Montgomery, Ludie. My Sister Tommie: the Real Tammi Terrell (2005, ISBN 1-904408-16-8)
  • Ritz, David. Divided Soul: the Life of Marvin Gaye (2003 edition, ISBN 0-306-81191-X)
  • Whitall, Susan. For the Record: Women of Motown (1998, ISBN 0-380-79379-2)

External links

April 29 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Soul Music is the sixteenth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1994. Like many of Pratchett's novels it introduces an element of modern society into the magical and vaguely late medieval, early modern world of the Disc, in this case Rock and Roll
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A singer is a musician who uses their voice to produce music. Often the singer is accompanied by musicians and instruments. While many people sing for pleasure, vocal skill is usually a combination of innate talent and professional training.
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Motown Records, also known as Tamla-Motown outside of the United States, is a record label originally based out of Detroit, Michigan ("Motor City", hence mo(tor)town), from where it achieved widespread international success.
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Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.) (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer-songwriter, musician and performer who gained international fame as an artist on the Motown label in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Scepter Records is a record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg. She had just sold Tiara Records with The Shirelles for $4000 to Decca Records. When The Shirelles didn't produce any hits for Decca, they were given back to Greenberg, who promptly signed them.
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Wand Records was started by Florence Greenberg in 1961 as a subsidiary of Scepter Records. In 1976 Florence Greenberg decided to retire from the business and sold her record labels to Springboard International. When Springboard went bankrupt, Gusto Records acquired the catalog.
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Try Me Records, in 1963 under the auspices of Syd Nathan's King Records. Named after Brown's 1958 R&B hit, Try Me released a handful of singles by performers and groups associated with the James Brown Revue, including Brown's backing band (recording under the name The Poets),
..... Click the link for more information.
Checker Records was started in 1952 as a subsidiary of Chess Records. Like Cadet Records it stopped releasing records around 1971.

Its most known artists include young Aretha Franklin, Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, J. B.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1962 1963 1964 - 1965 - 1966 1967 1968

Year 1965 (MCMLXV
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1964 1965 1966 - 1967 - 1968 1969 1970

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Brain tumor
Classification & external resources

CT scan of brain showing brain cancer to left parietal lobe in the peri-ventricular area.
ICD-10 C71, D33.0-D33.2
ICD-9 191 , 225.
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Nickname: "City of Brotherly Love", "The City that Loves you Back", "Cradle of Liberty", "The Quaker City", "The Birthplace of America", "Philly".
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-1961-  1962 . 1963 . 1964  1965 . 1966 . 1967 . 1968 . 1969 . 1970 .
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Scepter Records is a record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg. She had just sold Tiara Records with The Shirelles for $4000 to Decca Records. When The Shirelles didn't produce any hits for Decca, they were given back to Greenberg, who promptly signed them.
..... Click the link for more information.
Wand Records was started by Florence Greenberg in 1961 as a subsidiary of Scepter Records. In 1976 Florence Greenberg decided to retire from the business and sold her record labels to Springboard International. When Springboard went bankrupt, Gusto Records acquired the catalog.
..... Click the link for more information.
James Joseph Brown (May 3 1933[1][2] – December 25 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business
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Try Me Records, in 1963 under the auspices of Syd Nathan's King Records. Named after Brown's 1958 R&B hit, Try Me released a handful of singles by performers and groups associated with the James Brown Revue, including Brown's backing band (recording under the name The Poets),
..... Click the link for more information.
-1964-  1965 . 1966 . 1967  1968 . 1969 . 1970 . 1971 . 1972 . 1973 .
..... Click the link for more information.
Checker Records was started in 1952 as a subsidiary of Chess Records. Like Cadet Records it stopped releasing records around 1971.

Its most known artists include young Aretha Franklin, Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, J. B.
..... Click the link for more information.
Berry Gordy, Jr. (b. November 28 1929, Detroit, Michigan) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label and its many subsidiaries.

Biography

Early years

Berry Gordy, Jr.
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Motown Records, also known as Tamla-Motown outside of the United States, is a record label originally based out of Detroit, Michigan ("Motor City", hence mo(tor)town), from where it achieved widespread international success.
..... Click the link for more information.
David Ruffin (Davis Eli Ruffin) (January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer most famous for his work as lead singer of The Temptations from 1964 to 1968.
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The Temptations (often abbreviated as "The Tempts" or "The Temps") are an American Motown singing group whose repertoire has included doo-wop, soul, psychedelia, funk, disco, R&B, and adult contemporary.
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-1967-  1968 . 1969 . 1970  1971 . 1972 . 1973 . 1974 . 1975 . 1976 .
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Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.) (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer-songwriter, musician and performer who gained international fame as an artist on the Motown label in the 1960s and 1970s.
..... Click the link for more information.


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