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

[ejluther]

Did it not give anyone pause for questions when a number of songs when loaded up are credited to Marvin Gaye and VALERIE SIMPSON? The artist information would have been done by a Universal Motown producer and NOT iTunes. If Motown could substitute Mary and Florence, they why wouldn't they substitute Tammi Terrell?

Not always true about a UM Producer doing that. iTunes uses a database from a company called GRACENOTE for that information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracenote

Gracenote’s database was originally created from and continues to receive voluntary contributions from users.

This explains why often times the information from iTunes is wrong and not 100% reliable [[it's happened quite a few times to me on various releases). I'm not saying Valerie didn't sing on these songs, I'm just saying that the fact that the downloaded information via iTunes/Gracenote said she did doesn't mean anything other than someone submitted that information. And that someone could be anyone with an internet connection and not someone in a position to speak with authority on the matter.

[hwume]

Not always true about a UM Producer doing that. iTunes uses a database from a company called GRACENOTE for that information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracenote

This explains why often times the information from iTunes is wrong and not 100% reliable [[it's happened quite a few times to me on various releases). I'm not saying Valerie didn't sing on these songs, I'm just saying that the fact that the downloaded information via iTunes/Gracenote said she did doesn't mean anything other than someone submitted that information. And that someone could be anyone with an internet connection and not someone in a position to speak with authority on the matter.

I dug down into this and that's exactly what happened. A listener uploaded their own information to the Gracenote service and that data was accepted. This will change back to the correct artist info shortly.

[mysterysinger]

I'm stating the obvious here but in the booklet to The Complete Duets, Brian Chin states that by the time Easy was in production, Tammi was no longer strong enough to sing at all and Valerie Simpson would stand in, uncredited, for most of the LP. Marvin told Ritz that it felt strange singing to Valerie - he felt guilty.

In TCMS Val said she would stand in initially but once Marvin had his vocals down, they would bring Tammi in and record her in a different way as she wasn't well. Of course, it's possible that this inital standing in is what Marvin was referring to when he said he was singing to Val.

Surely the tapes in the vault hold the answer? You know, maybe both sets of vocals from Valerie and Tammi, if indeed that is what happened?