Take This Heart of Mine

"Take This Heart of Mine" is a song written by The Miracles members Warren "Pete" Moore, William "Smokey" Robinson and Marv Tarplin, produced by Robinson and released as a single by American soul singer Marvin Gaye, on Motown Records 'Tamla label in 1966.

Released in succession of three consecutive singles by Gaye helmed by the Miracles team from his "Moods of Marvin Gaye" album, the song took on a slightly different musical mix than the previous three. A little upbeat from the previous two singles, this song has the narrator describing how his love "is better than the tale of Jack and Jill" and how it's prescription fills up better than a doctor's among other things.

Unlike the previous three, this song fell short of reaching the pop top forty peaking at number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 but reached number ten on the R&B singles chart making it the fourth consecutive top ten hit on "Moods..." In 1966, Marvin sang this song on his only appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show".

Credits

*Lead vocals by Marvin Gaye
*Background vocals by The Andantes
*Written by Warren "Pete" Moore, William "Smokey" Robinson and Marv Tarplin
*Produced by William "Smokey" Robinson
*Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers and Marv Tarplin: guitars