Motown Released Grapevine With a Different Voice First (1967). Marvin's Version Had Been Waiting.

In 1967, Norman Whitfield brought Berry Gordy a completed recording of I Heard It Through the Grapevine — with Marvin Gaye's voice on it. Gordy listened and decided not to release it. Instead, he released a version by Gladys Knight and the Pips. Marvin's recording sat in the Motown archive for eighteen months. When it finally came out in 1968, it became the biggest-selling Motown single of all time. In this video, we look at the decision that kept Marvin Gaye's most successful single off the radio for a year and a half, why Berry Gordy made it, what Marvin understood about waiting, and what the eighteen-month delay produced that an immediate release would not have. Marvin Gaye, Berry Gordy, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Motown, soul music history, 1967 1968, classic R&B, Motown records, music history documentary. 0:00 — The recording Gordy decided to hold 1:30 — Norman Whitfield and the making of Grapevine 3:30 — The Gladys Knight version and the year it played on radio 5:30 — Marvin waiting — and what waiting meant 7:30 — The decision to release Marvin's version 9:30 — Four million copies in the first pressing 11:00 — The biggest Motown single, and why it was almost never heard 11:45 — What a year and a half in an archive can do to a song