Although many people immediately assume that Marvin Gaye's 1968 #1 version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" is the original version, with Creedence Clearwater Revival charting a year later with a remake, people would be wrong. The original version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" was from Gladys Knight & the Pips while still recording for Motown records in 1967. Gladys Knight & the Pips version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" went to #2 in the charts (getting stuck behind the Monkees' "Daydream Believer") in December 1967 and had a very uptempo jazzy feel to it. With when the group was performing it, live, the Pips and Gladys Knight making a lot of fine dance moves. It's definitely a dance tune, but the lyrics are just as depressing on afterthought as is Marvin Gaye and Creedence Clearwater Revival's more subdued versions, with it's emphasis of hearing through the grapevine that Gladys' lover has been untrue and her confronting him.

The song's upbeat enough musically, and is romantic in a sense. But while it's sweet that the woman wants to follow the man back to his humble former life (as the chorus implies), the fact that this guys hopes and dreams were shattered is depressing indeed.