Tammi Terrell - A Profile

Tammi Terrell (Thomasina Winifred Montgomery 29 Apr 1945 - 16 Mar 1970) is perhaps best know for her duets with Marvin Gaye as she released three albums with him between 1967-69 and prior to that a dual album with the recently departed Chuck Jackson on Wand.

Tammi was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1945 and tragically died on this day in 1970 of brain cancer aged only 24.

She was signed to Specter Records by Luther Dixon in 1960 aged 15 where she sang on demos for The Shirelles. Her first single was released as Tammy Montgomery on Specter in 1961 when she was just 16 followed by one on Wand in 1962. She then spent nine months as a member of James Brown's Revue and released a Brown written and produced single, "I Cried", on Brown's Try Me label (named after his hit record) in May 1963. The chord progression on "I Cried" would later become the template for "It's A Man's, Man's Man's World". A final single as Tammy Montgomery appeared on Checker a year later in 1964 (which was an uncredited duet with Jimmy Radcliffe).

In 1961-62 she was briefly a member of The Sherrys. Northern Soulies will know the group as they consisted of the daughters and niece of Little Joe Cook and their 1966 record "Put Your Arms Around Me" (which has the same backing as Cooke's 1965 song "I'm Falling In Love With You Baby") was the first record ever played at Wigan Casino when it opened its doors on 23 Sep 1973 (so is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year).

After the Checker single Tammi was invited to tour with Jerry Butler and it was during one of these shows at The 20 Grand Hotel in Detroit that she was spotted by Berry Gordy who signed her to Motown on her 20th birthday on 29 Apr 1965 and changed her name to Tammi Terrell.

Terrell released only two solo singles on Motown before she was paired up with Marvin Gaye with only another two interspersed within the nine duets released. So, Motown only released four solo singles for her: "I Can't Believe You Love Me" / "Hold Me Oh My Darling" (1965), "Come On And See Me" / "Baby Don'tcha Worry" (1966), "What A Good Man He Is" / "There Are Things" (1967) and "This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)" / "Just Too Much To Hope For" (1968). I guess that the company didn't want to interrupt a winning run as five of the duet singles were Top 3 R&B (two of them reaching #1).

Only one solo album was recorded "Irresistible" in 1968 which featured six of the eight sides of the singles in addition to another five songs not released on singles including "Tears At The End Of A Love Affair".

Terrell collapsed on stage in 1967 which led to her diagnosis for brain cancer and underwent eight surgical operations to have a tumour removed. It was following the last operation that she fell into a coma and eventually died on 16 Mar 1970 at the very tender age of 24.

It is said that Tammi had romantic relationships with James Brown, when she was 17, and later David Ruffin, both allegedly abusive. When she died, Gaye went into a depression resulting in drug abuse, however, it was during this period that he wrote and recorded his iconic album "What's Going On".

For her last duets album with Gaye, "Easy" (1969), Valerie Simpson stepped in to do Tammi's vocals when she was too ill to do them. There are conflicting stories between Simpson and Gaye as to whose vocals ended up on the final release.

In Jun 2005 Tammi's sister Ludi Montgomery had her book "My Sister Tommie - The Real Tammi Terrell" published. She was called Tommie as a child (short for Thomasina) and later changed it to Tammi. There have been rumours for the last few years that the book was being made into a film but as far as I can tell it has not materialised yet.

The playlist below is 50/50 solo material and duets with Marvin Gaye.

Thanks to Yves Lambert for the suggestion to do this profile.

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