Detroit gospel singer Kim Weston was for a brief moment, Motown’s queen of soul, hitting the Top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1967 with It Takes Two, her heartfelt duet with Marvin Gaye. And today some 38 years on, Weston still cuts a regal presence as she sits in the lobby at Universal Music in Kensington, London wearing a red flared trouser suit, diamond musical note necklace, red snakeskin high heels and a full-length fur coat. She wraps an embroidered black scarf around her shoulders, then we’re off to a nearby Italian restaurant where Kim will once seated regale us with tales of Motown, plans for a collaboration with Tom Jones and those duets with Marvin. On the way back she’ll haggle over the price of grapes before playing us her new recordings that see her reunited with Motown songwriter Sylvia Moy, who along with Kim’s then husband Mickey Stevenson penned her fourth single, A Little More Love back in 1964.

For many though, Kim, born Agatha Natalie Weston in 1939, will always be known for those songs with Marvin. Yet she was equally adept as a solo artist. At Motown from 1962-’67 she delivered jazz tinged deep soul ballads (Love Me All The Way, Just Loving You) and delicious dancefloor soul (Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While), Helpless.) By ’67 she’d captured the attention of Duke Ellington – he called her “a beautiful ebony-hued satin doll whose generous physical adornments are well distributed” – and was recording with Count Basie’s backing band at MGM. Later she recorded one off albums for Stax and People before turning her attention to radio and community work. Here with Lois Wilson she discusses life at Hitsville USA, meeting the Gaye family and vomiting on the Funk Brothers.