Easy (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell Album)

Easy (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell album)

Easy is an album recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and released by Motown Records on September 16, 1969 under the Tamla Records label. One song on the album, "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By", was a hit single and remains popular to this day. Terrell had been ill, suffering from complications caused by a brain tumor, since the fall of 1967. Marvin Gaye later claimed that as a result, most of the female vocals on this album were performed by Valerie Simpson, who served as co-songwriter and co-producer for the LP with her boyfriend and future husband Nickolas Ashford. Simpson is quoted in Ludie Montgomery's biography of Terrell, My Sister Tommie, as not having subbed Terrell for vocals. Simpson again explicitly denied having done so in the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles series. On a recent documentary on Terrell, Simpson admitted she sang with Gaye during sessions saying, "I sang things with Marvin because Tammi was not available. And, then we would bring Tammi in to go over her parts. Those are Tammi Terrell vocals because we know that we went back in with Tammi and got what we needed." Gaye at the time criticized Motown for the album thinking they were taking advantage of Terrell's health. Motown assured him proceeds from the album would go to Terrell's family for insurance of her health. At the time the album was released, Terrell was on her seventh operation to cure her brain tumor. The album was released on compact disc in 1992, and again in 2001 as part of The Complete Duets.