Marvin Gaye never would have heard it through the grapevine if Norman Whitfield hadn't first heard it in his soul.
Whitfield, the prolific, Grammy-winning composer who cowrote and produced numerous R&B hits in the 1960s and 1970s, from the Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You" to Rose Royce's "Car Wash," died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 67 and had recently come out of a coma brought on by complications from diabetes.
In addition to his longtime work as the Temptations' go-to producer, a role he won in 1966 after his "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" performed better on the charts than the Smokey Robinson-penned "Get Ready," Whitfield also cowrote Motown's single biggest hit—"I Heard It Through the Grapevine."
The party staple was first recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1967 and became the legendary Detroit label's best-selling single of all time, only to be topped a year later by Gaye's version.