Valerie on the Tammi vocals question----At last!!!!!!!

[motony]

Tammi Terrell was a phoenomenal vocalist!She was before she signed to Motown.As big as Marvin & Tammi were as a duo, I find it quite starnge that the cover of "Easy" was a drawing & the LP and all 45's from it were not really promoted...because she was terminally ill. The LP & 45's were for her benefit, to help the tremendous financial burden.I sure don't think any less of anyone involved.Motown was a business but they showed they could have heart.

[kenneth]

Tammi Terrell was a phenomenal vocalist!She was before she signed to Motown.As big as Marvin & Tammi were as a duo, I find it quite starnge that the cover of "Easy" was a drawing & the LP and all 45's from it were not really promoted...because she was terminally ill. The LP & 45's were for her benefit, to help the tremendous financial burden.I sure don't think any less of anyone involved.Motown was a business but they showed they could have heart.

Actually, I'd never thought about the album cover before, but you bring up something interesting. It's almost certain Motown had no recent studio photographs of Tammi, and we've seen how drastically her illness affected her looks, if you see those heartbreaking photos from the Ebony [[or was it Jet?) magazine someone posted a while back. She was of course still attractive but bone thin, obviously ill. Supposedly, this was from the time frame before she would have recorded "Easy." And Motown almost certainly had no recent photos of Marvin and Tammi together at the time. So the drawing, although I think it really comes off well, likely was a practical solution other than recycling an older photograph.

Likely for the same reasons, the following "Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's Greatest Hits" album sported two separate photos of the singers as I recall [[I think Tammi's was a live shot) and "Marvin Gaye and His Girls" recycled a photograph, which I think was from the "United" cover. I don't believe the "Complete Duets" CD has any photos new to us, either, except maybe slightly different poses from the same sessions.