Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell United

United was the first of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's three LPs, and quite possibly the best of the lot. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol handled the productions and gave the photogenic duo a slightly harder edge than subsequent productions by Valerie Simpson and Nickolas Ashford. Three blockbusters -- "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "If I Could Build My World Around You," and "Your Precious Love" -- propelled the album to number 29 on the pop charts, the highest rating of any of the duo's LPs. Plus, you had treats like "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl," a remake of Loe & Joe's little-known release on Fuqua's Harvey Records in 1962. "Two Can Have a Party" grooves from start to finish and could have been the fourth hit, but Motown thought otherwise. I like the duo's rendition of "Hold Me Oh My Darling," a song Tammi first recorded on her solo album; the stuttering chorus and bass backing voice makes it unique. You won't find two better ballads than "Give a Little Love" or the often-recorded "If This World Were Mine"; written by Marvin Gaye, the starry-eyed proclamation has become an R&B standard, and rightfully so. Andrew Hamilton