"What You Gave Me" | ||||
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Single by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell | ||||
from the album Easy | ||||
B-side | "How You Gonna Keep It (After You Get It)" | |||
Released | November 1969 | |||
Recorded | 1968–1969, Hitsville USA | |||
Genre | Soul | |||
Length | 2:38 | |||
Label | Tamla | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ashford & Simpson | |||
Producer(s) | Ashford & Simpson | |||
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell singles chronology | ||||
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"What You Gave Me" | ||||
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Single by Diana Ross | ||||
from the album Ross | ||||
Released | 1978 | |||
Genre | Soul, Disco | |||
Label | Motown Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ashford & Simpson | |||
Producer(s) | Hal Davis | |||
Diana Ross singles chronology | ||||
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"What You Gave Me" is a hit duet written and produced by Ashford & Simpson and issued as a single originally by the vocal duo of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1969 on the Tamla label.
Recorded in the final throes of the Gaye-Terrell duet recordings, the song became the second single from their album, Easy. As with much of the album, there is debate over who sang with Gaye: Terrell, who was undergoing treatment for brain cancer, or the track's co-writer and co-producer, Valerie Simpson.
While Gaye later insisted that Simpson stood in for Terrell, Simpson has maintained that Terrell took part in the recordings. Whatever the case, the song gave the duo a modest charting, peaking at number forty-nine pop and number six R&B.[1]
Cash Box described it as a "finely honed vocal collaboration."[2]