Kim Weston & Marvin Gaye -- It Takes Two 1966

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doowopIS4ever
March 15, 2009

Marvin Gaye enjoyed his parallel career as a duettist with Motown's favoured ladies, and enjoyed commercial success with each, but was always ultimately unlucky with his vocal partners. First, Mary Wells left the label for Twentieth Century Fox, then Kim Weston left with husband-producer Mickey Stevenson to sign to MGM, and finally Tammi Terrell collapsed in his arms onstage with a fatal brain tumour, at which point he pledged never to pair up again.

Mary Wells' sudden departure caused seismic waves at Motown. It is well known that some new songs she had recorded were reassigned to other singers, notably a reluctant Brenda Holloway, but it now appears that in May 1964 work had also begun on another record with Marvin Gaye. The evidence is the song You've Got To Be For Real which was assigned to Marvin and Mary, and is released here for the first time, with Mary's vocal having been replaced in September 1964 by that of Kim Weston.

After Motown had caught its breath, the choice of Kim as Marvin's new singing partner must have been quite swift as the B-side of their first joint single, What Good Am I Without You/I Want You 'Round, was cut in July 1964. It must have been a natural choice as Kim had been a supporting artist on the Marvin Gaye Revue concerts that year.

I Want You 'Round was a Smokey Robinson song that Smokey had tried out with Mary Wells the year before but not released. Another early try-out was James Brown's I Love You, Yes I Do which Kim Weston had recorded alone in April 1964 and to which Marvin Gaye added his new vocals that September. Although a few tracks were recorded during 1965, and a one-sided acetate of Baby Say Yes was circulating towards the end of the year, after the failure of What Good Am I Without You in the charts no follow-up single appeared until December 1966, when It Takes Two became a huge smash.

It remains the song for which Kim Weston is best known, and was the only single to be taken from the album Take Two, released a couple of months earlier. It looks from this as if the sessions of March 1966, during which It Takes Two was completed, marked the last time Kim Weston recorded for the label.

The album veered slightly awkwardly between the trademark hot Motown groove of the in-house compositions, many co-written by Mickey Stevenson, and the standards thought by Berry Gordy to appeal to the more "adult" buyers - songs like 'Til There Was You and Secret Love, blessed though they were by some modern arrangements and brilliant playing from the Funk Brothers. Kim's vocals were strong though, and were the foil that coaxed some competitively inspired performances from Marvin. The piecemeal recording process, however, stretched over more than two years, gave a lack of cohesion to the album.

In 1998 the album was released on CD in the Motown Master Series, in an expanded and re-mastered form, under the title Take Two Plus. It sold out quickly, was not re-pressed and has apparently been in strong subsequent demand. Mixed among the twelve re-sequenced tracks (eleven in stereo, I Love You Yes I Do in mono) were a further six mono contemporary duets that had been debuted on various posthumous compilations. The liner notes suggests that these had been intended for a further album tentatively titled Side By Side, though as all six tracks were recorded between 1964 and 1965 apart from I Couldn't Help Falling You (from the March 1966 sessions) it looks as if such an album would have been largely leftovers.

They include three further standards - Exactly Like You and Let's Do It (both borrowing from Nina Simone's versions) and Dinah Washington's Teach Me Tonight, which further weigh down the album. Furthermore, the out-take Teach Me Tonight is another old Mary Wells backing track to which Marvin and Kim had recorded new vocals either in 1965 or, more probably, 1964. One wonders why the bonus tracks were not placed at the end of the disc to retain the integrity of the original album.....MY LOVE IS FOR DOOWOP AND FARE DOOWOP .50'S.60'S & Golden Oldies SOUND.!!

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Kim Weston & Marvin Gaye -- It Takes Two 1966

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