Temptations Archives - chimesfreedom

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Ain’t No Valley Low Enough

Gaye Terrell
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is one of those rare songs with two definitive hit versions. The song, written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson in 1966 became a hit in 1967 as a duet for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Then, the tune climbed the charts again in 1970 in a solo version by Diana Ross.

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” features typical pop love song lyrics about loving someone using hyperbole and grand images. But the lyrics work, especially lifted by the music going from the verse into the rousing joyful chorus.

Remember the day I set you free,
I told you, you could always count on me darling;
From that day on, I made a vow;
I’ll be there when you want me,
Some way, some how.

‘Cause baby there ain’t no mountain high enough,
Ain’t no valley low enough,
Ain’t no river wide enough,
To keep me from getting to you babe.

The Gaye-Terrell version hit the top twenty on the pop charts on the Tamia label, which was a division of Motown. Originally, Dusty Springfield wanted to record the song, but Ashford and Simpson held out because they wanted to be on Motown. They got their wish when Gaye and Terrell recorded the song.

Interestingly, Gaye and Terrell did not record this classic duet together. Terrell recorded her part by herself, and Gaye’s vocals were added later. The two, however, did get together for the video.

For fans of sports movies, you might remember that this version appears in Remember the Titans (2000). I have seen that movie so many times, I no longer can hear the song without thinking of the Titans.

The Gaye-Terrell version also appears in Stepmom (1998). Below, Susan Sarandon introduces her movie kids to the beauty and joy of the recording.

As an uplifting duet, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” makes a great movie bonding song.

Before making her own solo hit recording of the song in 1970, Diana Ross in 1968 recorded a version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with the Supremes on a crossover group recording with the Temptations.

The 1968 version with the Supremes and the Temptations features a production very similar to the hit version by Gaye and Terrell. Check it out.

Supposedly, Ross was reluctant to record the song again when asked to do so as a solo artist. But she did so anyway for Motown in March 1970, giving the song a new sound. Her gospel-sounding recording also featured the songwriters Ashford & Simpson singing background vocals.

Ross’s 1970 solo version also features a segment of Ross talking instead of singing. Reportedly, Motown head Barry Gordy was not a fan of the talking part of the song, but listeners loved the recording. It went to number one on the pop and R&B charts in the United States.

Other artists have since covered “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” And Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye had great success with other songs that everyone knows. Yet, you might wonder why you may not know much about Tammi Terrell.

Terrell did have other successful songs, such as another duet with Gaye on “Your Precious Love.” But on October 14, 1967, the same year “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was released, she collapsed onstage into the arms of her friend Gaye. She was subsequently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, and she died on March 16, 1970, the same week Diana Ross was recording her version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

Regarding the mountain of the song, TMZ recently caught up with Valerie Simpson to ask her if she had a certain mountain in mind when she wrote the song. She replied, perhaps with tongue in cheek, that she was thinking of tall buildings in Manhattan.

What is your favorite version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough? Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via Fair Use.

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You’ve Taken Away My Reason for Livin’

In the Temptations classic “I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You),” the singer’s lover has just told him that she is leaving and he begs her to stay, pleading he could never love another. Many sources explain that the song, and in particular the line, “You’ve taken away my reason for livin’,” were based on a true story.

The story behind the song involves young Motown songwriter Rodger Penzabene, who co-wrote “I Could Never Love Another” and the similarly themed “I Wish It Would Rain” from the same album. On those songs, his co-writers were Norman Whitfieldand Barrett Strong. He also wrote other songs of heartbreak, including co-writing “Save Me From This Misery” for the Isley Brothers.

Penzabene and his wife had met as youths at Mumford High School. But sometimes love does not last forever.

Reportedly Penzabene had taken his wife back after she had an affair, but she ended up leaving him after all. As the album with “I Could Never Love Another” climbed the charts, Penzabene killed himself by gunshot on New Year’s Eve in 1967. He was 22.

Nothing makes the story more convincing than the anguished lead vocals on “I Could Never Love Another” by the great David Ruffin, who also died too soon from a tragic death. The way Ruffin sings the word “believe” in the first line immediately conveys the heartbreak and pain that permeates the entire song.

To the degree the backstory is true, though, we can never really know. Penzabene wrote the great song, and it seems he felt that heartbreak. But suicide is a complicated act. If everyone who is deeply heartbroken killed herself or himself, our species would have died out long ago. No doubt Penzabene’s feelings about his loss contributed to his final act, but one could probably point to other things too regarding the young father, like reportedly he was losing his sight at the time due to a head injury. So, I suspect there is more to the story than someone was heartbroken, wrote a sad song, and then killed himself.

Penzabene’s wife Helga Penzabene at the time was very young herself, caring for the couple’s two young sons, Rodger Jr. and 10-month-old Carl. Since then, she has tried to set the record straight by clarifying that Rodger did not kill himself over her. In 2012, she wrote in the comments to a post on Elvis Needs Boats that she was alive and well, living in Mount Clemens, Michigan. She has remarried twice, most recently divorced, and she still sang. She reported that she was working on a book about her life with Rodger.

That book was never written. Helga passed away in 2016 from cancer.

I suspect, though, that whatever might have been written in a book, many would still choose to believe the less complex heartbroken suicide version. We need tragic heroes, and the song is too good and the Temptations too awesome to believe that the songwriter did not kill himself after losing his reason for living.

Check out other posts in our series “The Story Behind the Song.” What is your favorite heartbreak song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Cool Cats Dancing On the Big Screen

Check out this short video, “Dancing and Cool in Movies,” compiled by MovieCool.Final2. The video does a good job of exploring how “cool” is expressed in movies though dancing scenes. Movies discussed include Jailhouse Rock (1957), Grease (1978), and Pulp Fiction (1994). Check it out.

For a full list of the movies in the video, head over to Slate.

Onscreen dances are used to convey other messages besides cool, of course. I find it hard to select a favorite dance scene from a film, although it is hard to top Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Few movie scenes have conveyed the happiness of being in love as well.

Another film uses dance to show a different type of happiness. When the cast of The Big Chill (a film that had a recent anniversary) begin moving to the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” one cannot help but smile. Of course, “older” people dancing to the music from their younger days is the antithesis of the “Dancing and Cool in Movies” theme exploring the intersection of hippness and dance. But, like Gene Kelly’s dance, the dance creates a great expression of joy.