AMG Review of Complete Duets

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

Most listeners will be satisfied enough with a best-of compilation to cover the work that Gaye and Terrell did together. Those who want to hear more should make The Complete Duets their next and only subsequent stop. The two-CD collection includes everything from their three Motown duet albums, along with the previously unreleased "We'll Be Satisfied," an alternate take of "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," and an alternate vocal of "Keep on Lovin' Me Honey." For good measure, the second half of disc two is devoted to rare solo Terrell sides. That includes four songs from 1965-1966 singles, including the non-LP B-side "Baby Don'tcha Worry," all of which were also released as duets with added Gaye vocals; it sounds like they're trying to make her a mini-Mary Wells on "Hold Me Oh My Darling." There are also nine previously unreleased Terrell solo tracks (though all of the songs were also featured, with Gaye on duet vocals, on the Gaye-Terrell LPs). It would have been good for the otherwise satisfactory liner notes to include more specific details on those unreleased Terrell items, and in all the non-hits on the package are enjoyably generic late-'60s Motown, rather than being of particularly exceptional merit. At the same time, it's of reasonably strong consistency and a useful compendium of the total known output of one of soul's top duets.