Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing: Aretha's Slow Grammy to an EDM Sample

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Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, written and produced by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, was released in March 1968 on Tamla as the lead single from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's second album, You're All I Need. Ashford and Simpson built it as a conversation, with the two singers trading lines within the same breath, over a Funk Brothers track driven by a four-on-the-floor snare, tambourine and a melodic bass line. It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, was the duo's first of two number ones on the soul singles chart, and ranked as the 57th biggest US hit of 1968.

Later artists pulled the song in opposite directions. Aretha Franklin slowed it into a deep soul ballad on Let Me in Your Life in 1974; some rock critics called it misguided, but it reached number 6 on the soul chart and won her eighth consecutive Grammy for best female R&B vocal performance. Donny and Marie Osmond brightened it into a 1976 pop hit that reached number 21. The 1990s brought two duets with mixed results, and in 2015 British DJ Alex Adair built the dance hit Make Me Feel Better on the original Gaye and Terrell vocal stems.

• Elton John and Marcella Detroit's 1994 version, produced by Chris Thomas, peaked at number 24 in the UK and also charted in Iceland.
• Critics split on that duet, with some calling it pale next to the original and others praising Marcella Detroit's piercing tone.
• Vince Gill and Gladys Knight's version for the 1994 album Rhythm, Country and Blues was widely judged a failure, his soft delivery overpowered by her performance.
• A 2019 live duet by Michael McDonald and Chaka Khan drew praise for this song over their rougher take on Ain't No Mountain High Enough.
• Alex Adair's Make Me Feel Better later received an official remix by Don Diablo and CID.