Songfacts®:

• Kim Weston (from Mojo magazine February 2009): "Marvin and I went into the studio together to record the album Take Two. We didn't pick the tracks, they were picked by Mickey Stevenson, my then-husband, and our producer, but 'It Takes Two' had been written by him and Sylvia Moy especially for us and it really worked. Being in the studio with Marvin, I saw a new side to him. I'd traveled and shared bills with him so we knew how each other worked. In the studio he was really encouraging. He added little ad libs, intonations here and there and suggested things for the arrangements. I saw the genius shine out of him but also the frustration. You could hear it in his voice. He wanted more control.
  It was a shock when they released the song as a single. I'd already left Motown and gone to MGM. I don't think Motown knew I was going to leave and I was upset that this came out after I'd gone. I regret never having the chance to sing it live with Marvin. I felt my duets with Marvin really paved the way for what he did with Tammi Terrell next. Our songs influenced theirs, and if I'd stayed at the label I think I'd have been singing those songs with him instead."
• This song celebrates sharing dreams, wishes and experiences with your lover. Rock critic Dave Marsh writes in his book The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made that the lyrics "flies in the face of rock mythology… Here, Marvin Gaye, probably the greatest iconoclast pop has ever known, speaks with tender care in favor of the most intimate collectivity."
• Though Gaye had already racked up a number of hits in the US, this was his first Top 40 hit in the UK.
• Among the other duos to cover this tune were Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Rod Stewart and Tina Turner. Stewart and Turner's version, which was recorded for a Pepsi Cola advert, was a Top Ten hit throughout Europe in 1990. In 2009, Tower of Power recorded the song with Joss Stone for their album The Great American Soulbook.
• Other than a similar sentiment, this has nothing to do with Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's 1988 Hip-Hop hit of the same title, which is the only other "It Takes Two" to chart. The Rob Base song reached #36 in the US.
• Beverly Hills, 90210 alumnus Jennie Garth performed the jive to "It Takes Two" with partner Derek Hough on season 5 of Dancing with the Stars.