Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – Tears At The End Of A Love Affair b/w Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston – Just Too Much To Hope For – West Grand UK 7″

The brand new WEST GRAND label has been set up to lovingly mine the tape vaults of Motown.

And their debut single – under licence from Universal/ Motown – is simply superlative.

It’s hard to imagine a better first release than MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL’S much demand TEARS AT THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR.

Up until now the track has only been available via a limited download some years ago done by Universal to retain the right to the copyright in the master recording. It has eluded compilers of Motown CD compilation albums, and this is its’ worldwide debut release on vinyl.

Tammi Terrell originally recorded her much loved solo version which was released on her only album. It became a must have for Motown and Northern Soul aficionados and the emergence of the duet with Marvin caused consternation. Nobody knew of it’s existence and it was even better than Tammi’s solo! IT’S MARVIN GAYE AND TAMMI TERRELL!

Why it did was not released when recorded is a question only Motown’s famed Quality Control department can answer. They certainly slipped up.

Worldwide interest from the Soul community in this track is huge and the single is guaranteed to be an instant prized collectors item.

The flip by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston was unreleased for decades and is very much a ‘lost and found’ gem.

Normally it would be good enough to make it as an A side but the mighty ‘Tears At The End Of A Love Affair’ inevitably claims that honour, but this is not so important if you get TWO UNISSUED MOTOWN MONSTERS at the price of a standard reissue 45.