ICON - Marvin Gaye / Tammi

Marvin Gaye was a superb duets singer, supporting his vocal partners and drawing them out like a graceful horn player, and he did delightful duets all throughout his career with the likes of Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and Diana Ross, but his most striking duets were with Tammi Terrell. Terrell instinctively understood that the best way to sing WITH Marvin Gaye was to sing AT him, and she more than held her own in the elegant call and response that resulted between the two. The pair's versions of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Your Precious Love," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," and "You're All I Need to Get By"-- all songs from the inspired songwriting team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson -- are classic recordings that never fall from grace. But this story has a very sad ending that adds even more emotional poignancy to these recordings. Terrell collapsed in Gaye's arms in the middle of a concert the pair was giving in 1967. Diagnosed with a brain tumor, she died from it