"If This World Were Mine" is a 1967 song by soul music

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 duo Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....

 and Tammi Terrell

Tammi Terrell

Thomasina Winifred Montgomery, known as Tammi Terrell was an American singer-songwriter most notable for her association with Motown and her duets with Marvin Gaye. As a teenager she recorded for the Scepter–Wand, Try Me and Checker record labels. She signed with Motown in April 1965 and enjoyed...

 from their album United

United (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell album)

United is a studio album by soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced all of the tracks on the album, with the exception of "You Got What It Takes" and "Oh How I'd Miss You"...

. Written solely by Gaye, it was one of the few songs they recorded without Ashford & Simpson

Ashford & Simpson

Nickolas Ashford , and Valerie Simpson , were a husband and wife songwriting/production team and recording artists....

 writing or producing. When it was released as a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 in November 1967 as the B-side to the duo's "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You

If I Could Build My Whole World Around You

"If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" is a popular song recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1967 and released in December 1967. Written by Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, and Vernon Bullock, the single was Gaye & Terrell's third single together and the second to go Top Ten on both the...

", it hit the Billboard pop singles chart

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, peaking at number sixty-eight, and peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard R&B singles chart

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

. Gaye would later put the song into his set list

Set list

A set list, or setlist, is a document that lists the songs that a band or musical artist intends to play, or has played, during a specific concert performance...

 during his last tours in the early-1980s as he performed a medley of his hits with Terrell.

The song is covered by Joe Bataan on the 1968 Fania Allstars LP Live at the Red Garter, Vol. 2, and by Ambrose Slade (pre-Slade

Slade

Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...

) on their 1969 album Beginnings.

Fifteen years after the original recording, Luther Vandross

Luther Vandross

Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...

 and Cheryl Lynn

Cheryl Lynn

Lynda Cheryl Smith , known better by her professional name Cheryl Lynn, is a female African-American disco, R&B and soul singer known best for her 1978 disco song, "Got to Be Real".-Early career:...

 re-recorded it for her album Instant Love

Instant Love

Instant Love is an album by Cheryl Lynn, released in 1982 on Columbia Records. Luther Vandross produced the album and also performed a duet with Lynn on "If This World Were Mine", a cover of the original recording by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell...

and made the song a R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 top five smash peaking at number four in 1982. A decade later, Coko

Coko

Cheryl Elizabeth "Coko" Clemons is an American gospel and R&B singer, and lead singer of R&B group Sisters With Voices .-Musical career:...

 of SWV

SWV

Sisters with Voices, better known as SWV, is an American female R&B trio from New York. Formed in 1990 as a gospel group, SWV became one of the most successful R&B groups of the 1990s. They had a series of hits, including "Weak", "Right Here/Human Nature", "I'm So Into You", and "You're the One"....

 and rising R&B singer and Tyrese recorded it for her 1999 solo album Hot Coko. In 2005, Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...

 and Jermaine Paul

Jermaine Paul

Jermaine Paul is an American R&B/soul singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.-Early life:Jermaine Paul was raised in New York City. When eight years old, he began to acquire a reputation for singing while playing the drums at local churches and talent shows with his family...

 recorded it for the Luther Vandross tribute album So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross

So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross

So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross is a tribute album to the late soul legend Luther Vandross, consisting of cover versions of past songs by Vandross and other artists, recorded by several R&B and/or soul singers, in addition to rapper Wyclef Jean and pop singers Elton John and...

. R&B singer Tweet

Tweet (singer)

Tweet is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter.-Early years:The youngest child of Tom and Shirley Keys, Tweet was born in Rochester, New York on January 21, 1972, and grew up singing in the church along with her parents and her four older siblings...

 sampled

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 the Gaye/Terrell original for the intro of her 2005 single "Turn Da Lights Off", featuring Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott

Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott , is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actressA five-time Grammy Award winner, Elliott, with record sales of over seven million in the United States, is the only female rapper to have five albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one...

.

The song is featured on John Legend

John Legend

John Roger Stephens , better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career...

's 2004 live album Solo Sessions Vol. 1: Live at the Knitting Factory

Solo Sessions Vol. 1: Live At The Knitting Factory

Solo Sessions Vol. 1: Live at the Knitting Factory is a live album by John Legend. Recorded in July 2003 at the Knitting Factory in New York City, this album features John performing solo on the acoustic piano with special guest appearances by Kanye West, J...

, with Imani Uzuri singing the female lead.

The cover version by R&B/Soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 artists Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...

 and Jermaine Paul

Jermaine Paul

Jermaine Paul is an American R&B/soul singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.-Early life:Jermaine Paul was raised in New York City. When eight years old, he began to acquire a reputation for singing while playing the drums at local churches and talent shows with his family...

 were nominated Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals

Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals

The Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1970 and 2011. From 1967 to 1969 and in 1971 the award included instrumental performances...

 at the Grammy Awards. They didn't win. The Grammy was honored to Beyoncé Knowles

Beyoncé Knowles

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...

 and Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

for "So Amazing."