Quote Originally Posted by midnightman View Post
That wasn't Valerie lol

I'm also not totally convinced anymore that Valerie subbed for Tammi for the "Easy" album. I saw that Unsung and Valerie explained it thoroughly what went down. Marvin probably was so angry about the situation and probably thought Motown was forcing Tammi to sing [[despite Berry Gordy reportedly paying the hospital bills) that he felt guilty of seeing Tammi be a victim of the industry, which is how he interpreted it.

Plus, when you're on drugs as he was, your mind gets all cloudy... plus how was she still able to sing near the end of her life? She sang with Marvin at the Apollo in November '69, just right before she died, so I can believe she did sing all those songs.

But anyway, I know she sang YAINTGB all the way.
The only reason why I even believe Tammi didn’t sing on “Easy” was because I was under the impression that Tammi wasn’t even aware there was an “Easy” album. Even then, I still never doubted YAINTGB no matter how many people have speculated. Marvin himself, made no comment about it. I feel the same about “Good Lovin’ Ain’t Easy To Come By”, the last song where they do the Marvin/Tammi exchange [[which is on the stereo mix).

I agree 90% with you. I don’t think Marvin was trying to throw Tammi under the bus [[If anything he was trying to throw Berry under the bus), but Marvin did have a track record of being unstable, especially around the time he made the statement. He also regularly got high while laying down vocals, so that also played a role in his recollections too.

The Apollo story also sealed the deal for me. If Tammi wasn’t keen about being replaced on stage, she would have pitched a fit if they tried to replace her in the studio, even if it was a close friend like Val. The way I see it, Valerie assisted, not replaced Tammi on the album.