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There Will Be A Reckoning: “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” by Gladys Knight and The Pips

By Marcello Carlin
  
The basic idea for the song came from Barrett Strong, who noticed, while walking through the streets of Chicago in 1966, how often he heard people using the title phrase, the provenance of which went back to the human telegraph chain of communication used by black slaves in the Civil War. Strong took the idea back to Norman Whitfield, who worked on the song and in particular formulated a coherent lyric.

The first recording of the song appears to have been made by The Miracles, with Whitfield in the producer’s chair, in August 1966, but Berry Gordy didn’t think it would make a strong enough single and vetoed its release; it eventually appeared on the group’s 1968 Special Occasion album. Then came Marvin Gaye; that version took two months to record, between February-April 1967 – this was a much more complex production involving intricate arrangements for lead and backing vocals (including overdubs), the Funk Brothers and the strings and principal French horn of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Whitfield was convinced that the Gaye version would be a huge hit, but again Gordy demurred, possibly not so much with the song’s content as with Gaye’s wracked lead vocal, purposely recorded an octave higher than his comfort range – this was not the smoothness expected of a new Nat Cole. Annoyed but persistent, Whitfield then turned to Gladys Knight and The Pips; he had heard Aretha’s “Respect” and thought that he could at least  match it, and at best surpass it. Using a far looser (and considerably faster) arrangement, and some gender-related changes to the lyric, Gladys and The Pips worked on the vocal arrangement for some weeks, with the final recording taking place in June 1967.

Although Gordy remained reluctant to release it – the matter may have been as simple as his basically not liking the song very much – this version did come out as a single in September 1967. Motown put little promotional muscle behind it, but radio DJs got on the record’s case and it steadily climbed to the top of the R&B chart, and nearly became the last pop number one of 1967.

This summary of 1967 might not have been what some readers expected – we have touched upon soft psychedelia and the early stirrings of bubblegum – but overwhelmingly it has told the story of the importance of black pop music in that era. Gladys and The Pips do a fine job with the song and indeed take it back to church. Knight’s  lead vocal is never less than committed – note her triple “just about”s in the choruses, and how that flows into the eerie human telegraph as The Pips pass the words to each other, one by one, underpinned by a sinister piano figure (as well as, as ever, James Jamerson’s wondrous bass). Junior Walker’s alto even turns up briefly, but finally the record’s velocity is such that Knight has to sing, or shriek, the final verse in a high, sustained one-note fashion.

What happened with the song after this will be told at the end of the next summary.

Date Record Made Number Two:  16 December 1967
Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 3
Records At Number One: “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees and “Hello Goodbye” by The Beatles
UK Chart Position: None

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