TAMMI TERRELL: MOTOWN RECORDS UNSUNG QUEEN

thomasina winifred montgomery also known as tammy

terrell

was born on april 29, 1945 to her mother jeannie graham and father thomas montgomery now her mom and dad thought she was going to be a boy so they already had the name thomas jr lined up but you I know once Tammy came along they had to change it, that's where she got the name Thomasina. She didn't really like the name either, and growing up, you know, Tammy had to deal with the fact that her mother was in and out of mental health facilities. mom had some mental health issues, so she was getting electroshock therapy and things of that nature and, tammy, she also had some things that she was dealing with, like she used to have really bad headaches, you know, when she was girl and one of her cousins ​​said.

They remember, you know, she used to have these veins under her eyes sometimes, you know, and for some reason they came to the conclusion that it was something with her eyesight, you know, they never thought to try anything else, you know, and they didn't. Only at the young age of 11, Tammy would experience something that no, no, no girl, no person should have to experience: she was raped by three older boys while leaving a neighborhood party and, uh, this changed her man. , she she. she withdrew from the world she didn't want to talk to anyone and for months you know she was practically a secluded but according to her family and friends they say that once she came back she was like a new person, you know she was more open more, even more outgoing than before and definitely she was interested in boys, you know, even after the traumatic experience, they said she was, you know, very promiscuous and this is also the time she changed her name from Thomasina to Tammy, you know? because she liked the movie called uh tammy and the Bachelor, it's an old time comedy and that's where she got her name from and this is also the time when she started doing local talent shows in Philadelphia, you know, she was. from North Philadelphia, you know, she was doing talent shows and finally one day she was discovered by a man named Luther Dixon and he was at the record company called Skepter Records and that's when Tammy would record her first song, it's called If you.

Look at Bill and the crazy thing about this song is that this man was like 13 years old at the time but he sounded like a 21 year old woman. Tammy's talent was undeniable, but the label she was with didn't really see that because they had her. Making a lot of demos for other bigger stars that were on the label and finally Tammy got tired and left the label and that's when she met a man called Steve Gibson, now he was the lead musician in a band. he called the red hats and he offered her to go out, you know, and open for them, he wanted her to be the lead singer and she did it and this would teach tammy how to be a performer because she went like six nights a week and she was doing like five shows a night or something, I mean, it was like a crazy schedule, so it taught her work ethic, but her mother wanted more for her, so what she did was while James Brown was performing in Atlantic City, her mother was driving from Philadelphia. to atlantic city to locate james brown and convince him to come see his daughter sing and james brown did what he agreed and when james brown heard tammy sing he fell in love with everything about her her voice her look and he immediately hired her to her record label and the next thing you know, sixteen year old tammy was on a roll with Mr.

Dynamite himself, james brown, he was about 34 at the time and, um, they were in a relationship, james brown was in a relationship with tammy, he was volatile to say the least um she said that james brown used to hit her a lot you know he knocked out her teeth all kinds of things he gave her a black eye it's another story out there that um james brown used to have a thing in his who used to tell him that she needs to stay on stage while he performs and just watch him and he would look back to always make sure that she was there on that particular day, tammy wasn't there and they say that when james brown came off the stage and found Tammy, he hit her so hard that they said he kicked her down, man, all kinds of stuff and you know, Tammy just worked her way up, you know, and uh, she wanted to make it in the music business and she had also started her own group, also called the. sherry's and they were on James Brown's record label, you know, and it's funny because Tammy started the group but ended up getting kicked out of the group, you know, and went solo.

She eventually released a song on James Brown's record label, it's called i. I cried and that was actually her first chart record, you know, and I think it's probably called I Cry, if you listen to that record, it's probably because of everything she was going through at the time with James Brown, you know. , and his, you know, his abuse. towards her, but luckily she worked up the courage to finally leave him and she eventually signed with Checker Checker Records and, when she signed there, she ended up making some duet music with an artist called Jimmy Radcliffe, but the music was made by them.

It pretty much failed, you know, it didn't go anywhere and it just discouraged Tammy, you know, going through the situation with James Brown and now going to another label and still not getting to where you want to go, eventually she just decided she was going. giving up a music game, you know, and that's when tammy went to penn university in pennsylvania on a full scholarship for a pre-med degree, you know, so tammy she definitely wasn't a fool, you know? and she would continue Do This for the next few years. You know she had pretty much given up on music until a man named Jerry Butler came into her life.

Now look, Jerry Butler was a Philly soul legend and he offered Tammy to go on a roller coaster with him and he promised her he'd fix it so she could go to school too, you know, but it happened that at one of these dates were at a club in detroit called 20 grand and who was in that club. none other than Barry Gordy, the CEO of Motown, and when he heard Tammy sing and saw how beautiful she was, he walked up to her and said, "I'm going to hire you for Motown" and on April 29, 1965, at the Tammy's 20th birthday, that's exactly what happened?

Now you have the talent of Tammy Terrell backed by Motown. It was only a matter of time before she became a full-blown superstar and she released the first song of hers called "I Ca n't Believe You Love Me" on Motown and this. it became her highest charting solo single, it reached number 40 on the charts, so Tammy Terrell was starting to rise and this is also the time she will go on tour with Motown Review and open for Temptations and this is when the infamous and legendary Mr. David Ruffin would come in to play because you know they started to have something between them, but this was very volatile you know and she was saying that David hit her a lot, you know, during this time she was saying that he hit her. in the head with his motorcycle helmet at all kinds of madness, so it was a very sad situation that he found himself in with David, not only because he was also married at the time, so it was bad in every way, but , tammy.

You know she would move on and eventually Marvin Gaye You know he would come into the picture. You know he was known for doing duets. You know he had done some with Mary Wells. Kim Weston. You know when she was looking for another duet partner. he had some songs he had written and barry gordy came up with the idea of ​​"hey, i have this new artist, tammy

terrell

, you know, i can push her with marvin gaye, he's already popular and maybe that can give his career a boost." Bonus and man, when Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell got together, it was nothing short of a magical man, those two are so amazing together and what makes it even crazier is that they weren't even in the studio together when they were recording, right?

Is there a mountain high enough? They talked separately because it was like the first time they worked together, but after seeing the chemistry and they struck gold with it, the hits kept rolling, you know, especially when Ashford and Simpson wrote for him, they had songs. like your precious love if this world was mine and uh marvin said it was actually tammy's favorite song you know and they were a hot duo you know they started traveling together um you know they were very popular and they were very close marvin gaye really loved tammy terrell Not in a relationship way or in a sexual way, in a strictly platonic way, he really cared about her and they really had a connection, especially when it came to their music and, like I said, you know, they went on tour together for a while. but during this tour tammy suffered from migraines constantly and one night in 1967, when they were performing in virginia at a place called farmville, tammy collapsed in marvin's arms while they were singing the song your precious love and um marvin he caught her and took her to in the back, you know, they rushed her to the hospital, they finally took her, you know, back to her home in Philadelphia and that's when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, you know, and she had her first surgery to try to correct it in 1968 and after it recovered. surgery, you know she came back to try to make music, you know she recorded the songs, you're all I need to survive and there's nothing like the real thing, you know they were both number one, you know, even after her surgeries, she The talent was shining, she made two more number one songs and she wanted to continue touring as well, but her doctors told her that she couldn't do any more tours, you know, the tumor started getting worse and worse and she just, you know, had to withdraw from live life. performing live, she released an album in early 1969, it was her solo album, her only one and they called it irresistible, but at that time tammy was too ill to promote the album or do any kind of tour so the album just came out . by the way you know no one really remembers it and her and marvin also made another album and it was called easy but the album had controversy because according to marvin gaye tammy terrell didn't actually sing on that album it was a woman by the name of valerie simpson but according to valerie simpson she was also tammy terrell that when tammy was feeling good she would come in and sing so she was tammy but marvin said it was just a money grab by

motown

records

so who knows which one it is you know which one it is true, but what is known is that tammy's last public appearance was at the end of 1969 at the apollo theater where marvin gaye would perform and it said that when marvin gaye saw tammy in the crowd he ran towards her to be next to her. and they started singing you're all I need to get through and they said the crowd went crazy like everyone was celebrating and clapping because they knew how special that moment was and how much it meant and they got a standing ovation. but not long after Tammy's health began to fail, she began to suffer from blindness and hair loss, I mean, she dropped to 90 pounds, man, she was very sick due to the effects of her brain tumor and ended up undergoing eight surgeries. . even really to heal or cure the problem, but just to cure her pain a little bit because she was in a lot of pain all the time, but unfortunately on March 16, 1970, Tammy Terrell passed away and you would think her funeral would be a star studded event. , since she was a Motown artist and Motown had so many legends, but it wasn't because Tammy Terrell's mother supposedly banned all of Motown from attending Tammy's funeral, banned everyone except one person, Marvin Gaye, and allowed him to do his panegyric.

While they played "You're All I Need to Get Through," in the background it said that Marvin never really got over Tammy Terrell's death and that was part of the reason he ended up falling into that downward spiral into depression that he found himself in. . but what is known is that the music they created together will always live on and Miss Tammy Terrell will always be an angel and I just wanted to make a video for her because I feel like she doesn't get sung but she will always live and she was only 24 years old when she died.