United (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell album)

United
Studio album by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Released	August 29, 1967
Recorded	December 1966 – June 15, 1967
Studio	Hitsville USA, Detroit
Genre	Soul
Length	33:36
Label	Tamla
Producer	Harvey Fuqua Johnny Bristol Hal Davis Berry Gordy, Jr.
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell chronology
United (1967) You're All I Need (1968)
Marvin Gaye chronology
Take Two (with Kim Weston) (1966) United (1967) Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1967)
Tammi Terrell chronology
United (1967) You're All I Need (with Marvin Gaye) (1968)
Singles from United
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Released: April 20, 1967 "Your Precious Love" Released: August 22, 1967 "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" / "If This World Were Mine" Released: November 14, 1967

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

United is a studio album by the soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records.^[2] Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced all of the tracks on the album, with the exception of "You Got What It Takes" (produced by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr.) and "Oh How I'd Miss You" (produced by Hal Davis).^[3] Fuqua and Bristol produced "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "Two Can Have a Party" as Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966, and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them in order to create duet versions of the songs.^[3]

United was the duo's as well as Gaye's most successful album of the 1960s with sales almost reaching one million copies, it yielded four Top 100 Billboard chart hits, including the two Top 10 singles "Your Precious Love," "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You," the Top 20 single, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "If This World Were Mine". United peaked at number 69 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and number 7 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart upon its release.^[2] The album was the first of three collaborative albums by Gaye and Terrell.

Gaye and Terrell's first session together was in December 1966, when they recorded "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".^[4] They recorded numerous tracks together at Motown's Hitsville USA Studio A in Detroit; work on United concluded on June 15, 1967.^[5]

Track listing

Side one

1. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) – 2:32
2. "You Got What It Takes" (Berry Gordy, Jr., Gwen Gordy, Tyran Carlo) – 2:59
3. "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" (Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Vernon Bullock) – 2:26
4. "Somethin' Stupid" (C. Carson Parks) – 2:46
5. "Your Precious Love" (Ashford, Simpson) – 3:07
6. "Hold Me Oh My Darling" (Harvey Fuqua) – 2:50

Side two

1. "Two Can Have a Party" (Johnny Bristol, Fuqua, Thomas Kemp) – 2:19
2. "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl" (Fuqua, Etta James, Brook Benton) – 2:46
3. "If This World Were Mine" (Marvin Gaye) – 2:46
4. "Sad Wedding" (Bristol, Jackey Beavers) – 3:27
5. "Give a Little Love" (Bristol, Fuqua, Clyde Wilson) – 3:01
6. "Oh How I'd Miss You" (Hal Davis, Frank Wilson, Vance Wilson) – 2:37

Chart history

Billboard (North America) – United

Year	Chart	Position
1967	Pop Albums	69
	Black Albums	7

Personnel

• Lead vocals: Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell
• Background vocals: Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, The Originals, The Andantes, The Spinners
• Production: Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Hal Davis, Berry Gordy, Jr.
• Instrumentation: The Funk Brothers (uncredited)

Notes

1. Allmusic review
2. allmusic – United overview
3. Chin, Brian (2001). Liner notes for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: The Complete Duets. New York: Motown Records/UMG Recordings.
4. Gaye 2003, pp. 63, 198.
5. Hughes, Keith (2018). "You've Got What It Takes". Don't Forget the Motor City. Ritchie Hardin. Archived from the original on September 16, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.

Sources

• Gaye, Frankie (2003). Marvin Gaye, My Brother. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 978-1-61774-498-3 – via the Internet Archive.