| "I'll Be Doggone" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Marvin Gaye | ||||
| from the album Moods of Marvin Gaye | ||||
| B-side | "Forever" | |||
| Released | February 26, 1965 | |||
| Recorded | January 21, 23 & 29, 1965 Hitsville, USA (Studio A), Detroit, Michigan | |||
| Genre | Soul | |||
| Length | 2:50 | |||
| Label | Tamla | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | William "Smokey" Robinson | |||
| Marvin Gaye singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"I'll Be Doggone" is a 1965 song recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye and released on the Tamla label. The song talks about how a man tells his woman that he'll be "doggone" about simple things but if she did him wrong that he'd be "long gone". The song was written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore and Marv Tarplin, initially for The Temptations, who rejected the song.[1]
It became his first million-selling record and his first number-one single on the R&B chart, staying there for two weeks, and was the first song Gaye recorded with Smokey Robinson as one of the songwriters of the record. The song was co-written by Robinson's fellow Miracles members Pete Moore and Marv Tarplin. The Miracles also sang background on this recording, along with Motown's long-standing female back-up group, The Andantes, and Miracle Marv Tarplin played lead guitar. "I'll Be Doggone" gave Marvin his third top-ten pop hit, where it peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, with that number matched by his follow-up record, "Ain't That Peculiar".[2] Billboard described "I'll Be Doggone" as a "powerful follow-up to 'How Sweet It Is,'" stating that "Gaye's wailing vocal performance is pitted against a driving dance beat backing."[3] Cash Box described it as "a rhythmic, chorus-backed bluesy tearjerker with a contagious repeating riff."[4] Record World said it is "up tempo and bright and bound to go far on charts."[5]
The song has since gone and been recorded by several other artists, including Paul Revere & the Raiders, Albert King and Solomon Burke. However, the most notable renditions of "I'll Be Doggone" were recorded by Swedish rock band Tages who managed to reach the Swedish top-10 with it in 1966 and Penny DeHaven who charted on the Billboard Country Chart with it in 1973.
- ^ Riley, Tim (2014-07-29). Fever: How Rock 'n' Roll Transformed Gender in America. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4668-7656-9.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 225.
- ^ "Singles Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. March 13, 1965. p. 75. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
- ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. March 20, 1965. p. 10. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
- ^ "Singles Reviews" (PDF). Record World. March 13, 1965. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-07-22.