"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by (2 Versions)

Song 41:

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Diana Ross

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

Peak: 1, 19

Year: 1970, 1967

Year end position: 6, 87

Alphabetical Songs by Artist: 1/19, 1/25

Chronological Songs by Artist: 2/19, 10/25

Video?: No

Wikipedia?:  Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_No_Mountain_High_Enough

Spotify?:  Yes

Lyrics:  http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dianaross/aintnomountainhighenough.html, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/marvingaye/aintnomountainhighenough.html

So you probably noticed that the format for this song was a little different than every other song previous.  That's because this is the first song we've had so far where there is more than one version of the song that made it into the top 20.  In this case, there was an original song which was a duet between Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and a cover version by Diana Ross.  If you remember my criteria for which songs come first, the higher charted song comes first, so the statistics for the song are for the Diana Ross version first followed by the Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell version second.

Looking at this song grammatically, it's a strange set up.  The correct grammar should be "There Isn't Any Mountain High Enough".  Instead there's a strange quasi-double negative of "Ain't No...".  Several songs employ this convention and I think we give it a pass since we know what they mean.  It uses "ain't" and then follows it up with that double negative.  It's like a double helping of bad grammar.

When I saw that these songs were coming up, I immediately thought of the Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell version.  I was a little surprised to see that it only hit #19.  I think it's the version that has held up better over time.  I then listened to the Diana Ross, and I think this was the first time in a long time that I put together that those two songs were supposed to be the same song.  They sounds almost nothing alike.  Actually, they have very little in common with one another.  Both of them have similar themes, and they have the same chorus, but the verses are not the same.

The song was originally written by the team Ashford & Simpson, who will come up much later in the blog with a song called "Solid".  Dusty Springfield initially wanted to sing it, but Ashford & Simpson held on to it hoping that it could get them in the door at Motown records, which it did to great effect.

Going chronologically, this was the first of 4 songs that Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell would record that made it to the top 20.  That means that Tammi Terrell gets short shrift in this blog.  After reading about her short, tragic life, that seems even more grossly unfair.  Reading about her life and death is particularly heartbreaking, so if you get a chance, I recommend looking her up.  Rumor has it that Tammi was so nervous about recording the song, that she didn't actually record it with Marvin Gaye.  She recorded her version separately, and they put the song together later.  This particular version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, which is a testament to the longevity of the song, despite only hitting #19 on the charts.  This version is an upbeat song.  The theme is pretty simple. The two people in the song care so much for each other, that if either of them needs the other, there's nothing that could keep them apart.  Given that they seem so devoted to each other, it seems strange that they just don't get together.  Why be apart, if you care so much for the other person?  Maybe that's the inevitable conclusion after a song like this.  Maybe it's more about being friends that you can rely on than romantic partners.  That's the beauty of songs.  There are a million interpretations, and whatever you get out of the song, then that's what's right for you.

Three years after the Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell version, Motown put out the Diana Ross version.  It was at a time when they were trying hard to launch Diana Ross as a solo act.  It seemed to accomplish this goal, since it was her first #1 solo song, and Diana Ross has made it into my Hall of Fame.  I would argue that Diana Ross is a little underrated as a singer.  Consider that she's had as much chart success as Jay Z as of the time of this writing.  That's a tremendous amount, yet I don't feel that she gets mentioned all that often.  Maybe I'm travelling in the wrong circles.  Anyway, as I mentioned above, her version is totally different than Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's version.  For one thing, her version is practically a spoken word poem more than a song that is sung by Diana Ross.  In the chorus, she does something similar to what I mentioned in the "Ain't in Funny" blog post.  She doesn't really sing on the chorus.  The background singers do the bulk of the work on the chorus.  She comes in with some flourishes, but it's mostly background singers.  Eventually she sings the chorus.  The theme is essentially the same as the original version.  The main difference (other than musical style) is that in the original it feels like Marvin Gaye is singing to Tammi Terrell and vice versa.  In Diana Ross's version, she's singing it directly to you.  That's a little shift of perspective, but it makes the two songs seem pretty distinct.

As we will see as we go on, I almost always like the original version of songs more than the remake, and this song is no exception.  Even though Diana Ross's version made it to #1 while the original only made it to #19, I still prefer the Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell version.  Maybe I'm a little weirded out by Diana Ross talking directly to me.