Ain't That Peculiar

Infobox Single
Name = Ain't That Peculiar


Artist = Marvin Gaye
from Album = Moods of Marvin Gaye
B-side = "She's Got to Be Real"
Released = September 1965
Format = 7" single
Recorded = Hitsville, USA, Detroit, Michigan; 1965
Genre = Soul
Length = 2:50
Label = Tamla
Writer = William "Smokey" Robinson, Marvin Tarplin, Ronald White
Producer = Smokey Robinson
Last single = "Pretty Little Baby"
(1965)
This single = "Ain't That Peculiar"
(1965)
Next single = "One More Heartache"
(1966)"Ain't That Peculiar" is a 1965 song recorded by American soul musician Marvin Gaye for the Tamla (Motown) label. The single was produced by Smokey Robinson, and written by Robinson, and fellow Miracles members Ronald White, Pete Moore, and Marv Tarplin. "Ain't That Peculiar" features Gaye, with The Andantes on backing vocals, singing about the torment of a painful relationship.

The single was Gaye's second U.S. million seller successfully duplicating its predecessor "I'll Be Doggone", from earlier in 1965 by topping Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart in the fall of 1965, peaking at number-eight on the US Pop Singles chart becoming one of Gaye's signature 1960s recordings, and was his best-known solo hit before 1968's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".

The song was later covered by several acts, including Japan (on their 1980 "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" album), The Jackson 5, KISS, and New Grass Revival. A live recording by Peter Gabriel, made from David Lord's cassette recordings, appears in an issue of The Bristol Recorder. Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth recorded a version of the song for his 1985 solo EP Crazy From The Heat although it was never released it is available for free download for members of his website the Roth Army.

Credits

*Lead vocals by Marvin Gaye
*Background vocals by The Andantes: Marlene Barrow, Jackie Hicks and Louvain Demps
*Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers and Marvin Tarplin of The Miracles (guitars).