<Tr> <Td> "His Eye is on the Sparrow" (1968) </Td> <Td> "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1968) </Td> <Td> "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By" (1969) </Td> </Tr> <P> "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966 . The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a single in September 1967; it went to number two in the Billboard chart . </P> <P> The Miracles recorded the song first and included their version on their 1968 album, Special Occasion . The Marvin Gaye version was placed on his 1968 album In the Groove, where it gained the attention of radio disc jockeys, and Motown founder Berry Gordy finally agreed to its release as a single in October 1968, when it went to the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart for seven weeks from December 1968 to January 1969 and became for a time the biggest hit single on the Motown label (Tamla). </P> <P> The Gaye recording has since become an acclaimed soul classic, and in 2004, it was placed 81 on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time . On the commemorative fortieth anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 issue of Billboard magazine in June 2008, Marvin Gaye's "Grapevine" was ranked sixty - fifth . It was also inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value . </P>

Who recorded heard it through the grapevine first