"I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (N. Whitfield, B. Strong) - Marvin Gaye; Tamla label, # 1 Billboard Hot 100, # 1 Billboard R&B - 1968. Inducted in 2007.
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", and Whitfield produced it with Marvin Gaye in early 1967. Berry Gordy rejected the song, however, and released Gaye's "Your Unchanging Love" instead.
Whitfield then re-recorded a different version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" with Gladys Knight & The Pips, and it was a # 2 Pop hit in the fall of 1967.
Despite having that hit, Whitfield kept bugging Berry Gordy to release Marvin's version, and he finally did in the fall of 1968. Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" spent 7 weeks at # 1 on both the Pop and R&B charts, and it turned out to be Motown's biggest-selling single of the 1960's. Marvin's version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
