Tammi Terrell
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she entered the music business at the age of 13, regularly performing live. In 1961 she was signed to the fledgling Scepter Records (later Wand Records), recording under the name "Tammy Montgomery". After coming to the attention of James Brown she recorded one single apiece for Brown's own Try Me record label and, in 1964, Checker Records. The year after that, she was spotted by Berry Gordy Jr. while playing live, and signed to his Motown label. Attractive and talented, she became romantically linked with both James Brown and David Ruffin, lead singer of The Temptations.
Initially Terrell recorded solo, with only moderate success (she had a pair of R&B Top 30 singles in 1966, I Can't Believe You Love Me and Come on and See Me) . However, from 1967 onwards she recorded a series of duets with Marvin Gaye, producing hits with Ashford & Simpson written tunes such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By".
However, Terrell's success was to be short-lived. On October 14, 1967, while in concert at the homecoming for a college in Virginia, she collapsed in Gaye's arms. (Sources differ as to the exact site; some say it was Hampton University, others say it was Hampden-Sydney College.) She was rushedto the hospital, where she was later diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. From then on her health deteriorated. Gaye later told his biographer David Ritz that Terrell was no longer able to record and that Valerie Simpson recorded most of the female vocals on the final Gaye/Terrell duet album, Easy. (Simpson is quoted as denying this in a book written by Terrell's sister Ludie Montgomery.) Terrell died on March 16, 1970 at the age of only 24.
Marvin Gaye's classic album What's Going On, an introspective, low-key work which dealt with mature themes, was in part a reaction to Terrell's untimely passing. Both Terrell's solo work and her duets with Marvin Gaye remain in print today.
Rumors persist that Terrell's condition was either brought on, or worsened by, domestic abuse from her live-in boyfriend, Temptations singer David Ruffin. While Ruffin and Terrell did fight, it was never proven that Ruffin abused her severely enough to damage her in such a way.
It has been speculated for years that Terrell may have had an affair with her frequent singing partner Marvin Gaye.
Information courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org
