Marvin Gaye has always been my favorite Motown artist – although the more I find out about him, the less there is to like. He had an unfortunate childhood (he was the father of a minister who drank and occasionally cross dressed; Gaye was often beaten by his father, who in turn had been beaten by his father), and developed an intolerance for authority (resulting in a quick discharge from the Air Force and a longstanding dispute with the IRS over nonpayment of taxes). Gaye was a brilliant musician, however; he started out as one of The Moonglows (whose leader, Harvey Fuqua, would work with Gaye on and off throughout their lives), and became a studio musician for Fuqua’s label Tri-Phi, and later Motown. When he first started recording for the label, he primarily recorded standards as Frank Sinatra did, but his R&B songs became huge hits, so that’s where his career went.
In the 1960s, he made a ton of hits, with 17 songs (either
solo or as duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, or Tammi Terrell) making Billboard’s top 20 pop hits. His output
slowed down for several years during Terrell’s battle with a brain tumor (she
would die in 1970), but he would reemerge in 1971 with What’s Going On, a genuine classic album. Another series of hits
followed that would be much more deeply personal (both political and sexual),
only to be slowed down by his personal life – a divorce from his first wife,
Anna Gordy (sister of Motown president Berry Gordy), a stormy remarriage to a
woman 17 years his junior, and an ever-worsening cocaine problem. A label
switch to Columbia in 1982 yielded one final major hit in “Sexual Healing,” but
he would be shot to death two years later – by his father.
Motown (and Columbia) have released lots of hits sets over
the years. A quick word of warning: Only buy Motown/BMG greatest hits sets from
Marvin Gaye. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. Columbia’s only
hit with Gaye was “Sexual Healing,” and he only released one album with them
during his lifetime; Columbia released two other albums by scraping together
demos and whatever was lying around that Gaye would probably not have wanted the
public to hear (Dream of a Lifetime)
and second-rate versions of the standards he’d worked on for years (Romantically Yours); those are used to
fill up the Columbia sets and should be avoided. And anything on a nonamo label
is either grey market or taken from Gaye’s last tour, in which he was
completely fried from cocaine (and started dropping his pants halfway through
the tour to draw a few more women to the shows). Stick with the real thing.
Unfortunately, UMG has done a pretty lousy job of keeping good anthologies in print and available online. The choice I have here isn’t my favorite, but it’s the best one available.
Unfortunately, UMG has done a pretty lousy job of keeping good anthologies in print and available online. The choice I have here isn’t my favorite, but it’s the best one available.
Here’s the first problem: Motown loved this title so much
they released three different albums
under this name, which is hugely confusing. The first one is only available on
vinyl – it was released in 1973 along with sets by all of their top artists
(Gaye, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Temptations,
The Four Tops, and Stevie Wonder got three-LP sets; acts such as The
Marvelettes, Martha & The Vandellas, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and Jr.
Walker & The All-Stars got two LPs). These are all great finds on LP for
vinyl collectors – I bought my copy of this Marvin Gaye Anthology in 1983, not long after being transfixed by the Motown 25 special, and a couple of us
went on a Motown purchasing and taping frenzy for the following few months – but
by the time of the CD era, most of them were incomplete, so Motown re-released
many of them (and gave new sets to acts that had been hitting in the 1970s,
such as The Jackson 5, The Commodores, and Diana Ross solo) with revised track
listings and new cover art. (I have to say the 1970s cover art looks much better
in retrospect than the Day-Glo 1980s versions.) And in the 1990s, Motown
revised the track listings for many of them and re-released them again with more
new cover art.
The one I’ve got here is the 1990s version. It goes deeper
into his 1970s work than the original 1973 release (obviously), but it also
excludes a number of 1960s hits as a result, including a couple of top 20s
(“Once Upon a Time,” “You’re a Wonderful One”) – and I’m not sure if picking up
several unreleased songs from that era was worth the exchange. (Gaye’s career
slices so neatly into two sections – before What’s
Going On and after – that sometimes his hits releases have to be adjusted
occasionally to keep those two groups of songs on separate discs.) And while
Motown has occasionally licensed “Sexual Healing” from Columbia, they didn’t
for this one, so you’ll have to download it – or spring a lot of money for the
box set. Still, two CDs packed to the brim (47 songs, clocking in at just over
two and a half hours) for $18.60 for the discs and $18.99 for the download on
Amazon ($19.99 on iTunes) is a pretty good deal.
Notes:
1) If you’re shopping on Amazon for the discs, be sure to get the more recent 1994/1995 release (the release dates are apparently best guesses; Wikipedia has it as 8/22/95 release), and not the one with the pink and purple cover – that version isn’t bad, it’s just a different configuration and it’s not the one available for download.
1) If you’re shopping on Amazon for the discs, be sure to get the more recent 1994/1995 release (the release dates are apparently best guesses; Wikipedia has it as 8/22/95 release), and not the one with the pink and purple cover – that version isn’t bad, it’s just a different configuration and it’s not the one available for download.
2) And if you want the discs, search for “Anthology Marvin
Gaye” in Amazon’s CD & Vinyl section, because the one I’m talking about is only
available as an import copy. (Whether or not it’s actually an import is another question; Amazon’s listings aren’t
always 100 percent accurate.) For some reason, the CD attached to the Anthology download is a two-disc set
called The Very Best of Marvin Gaye –
good, but not the same thing. More on that below.
3) Finally, if you’re looking to download on iTunes,
searching “Marvin Gaye” won’t yield this album, for whatever reason. Searching
“Anthology Marvin Gaye,” however, will.
Here are the other options. The links go to the Wikipedia entries.
Greatest Hits (1964) – Motown had some chutzpah back then – Gaye had released four albums by the time this came out; three of them were styled like Nat King Cole and filled with standards; the other was the R&B hit That Stubborn Kinda Fellow. Motown took a few standalone singles from 1963 and 1964, attached it to the hits from Stubborn Kinda, and poof, instant hits set. In fact, seven of the ten songs from That Stubborn Kinda Fellow show up here, which is astonishing – if I’d been a Gaye fan back then (unlikely at age two, I know), I would have been furious. Out of print, and it wasn’t even released on CD, so there’s no legal digital version.
Marvin Gaye and His Girls (1969) – What a charmingly sexist title. Four songs each from Mary Wells and Kim Weston (which is probably more than you’ll want), as well as Tammi Terrell (which is a little less than I’d like). Since none of the other hits sets included any of the duets, this release made sense at the time. Out of print and unavailable for download; again, there are CD copies out there someplace.
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s Greatest
Hits (1970) – Issued a few months after Terrell’s death from brain
cancer or a malignant brain tumor, depending on which source you read. Gaye
recorded far more than Terrell than he did with Wells or Weston and had much
more commercial success with her as well, so this standalone set makes sense. The
problem is the third album they did together, Easy (which came out in 1969) is highly disputed – some sources
(including Gaye himself) say producer and writer Valerie Simpson sang most of
the female vocals, as Terrell was too sick to record at this point. A biography
by Terrell’s sister denies this, and Valerie Simpson herself has said Terrell’s
vocals were the final ones, but she sang guide vocals with Gaye in the studio,
then Terrell was brought in to sing a line or two at a time. It would be nice
to have a final answer, but since most of the principals are no longer
with us (except Valerie Simpson and Berry Gordy, both of whom would probably
have said something definitive by now), I’m not holding my breath. In any case,
most of the best-ofs have sidestepped the question by sticking strictly to the
songs known to have been completed by Terrell; this one does not (“The Onion
Song,” “What You Gave Me”). $15.80 for the CD on Amazon and $9.49 for the
download there, but not available on iTunes. It’s also available on Spotify
(but you’ll need to use both Gaye and Terrell’s names in the search engines).
Marvin Gaye’s Greatest Hits (1976) – More product; not sure what Motown was thinking here. This ranges from “Can I Get a Witness” and “How Sweet It Is (To be Loved by You),” both of which had been on three of Gaye’s four previous hits sets (so why are they needed here?) to “I Want You,” which had just been released six months before. Meanwhile, “Inner City Blues” is left off, along with “You’re the Man (Part 1),” a minor hit released only as a single. Out of print and not available for download.
Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye (1986) – It’s not a greatest hits set, but it’s interesting, at least. Most of the songs here were previously unreleased, and Motown decided to graft some 1980s rhythm tracks to the originals – which, surprisingly, works okay. (Several songs have since been re-released on version anthologies with their original mixes.) A later release has an extended version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” but I have the original on vinyl, and I don’t hate it at all. Out of print and unavailable for download.
The Marvin Gaye Collection (1990) – not the box set you want. All the solo hits are on the first disc, the duets are on the second (I have no idea who Oma Page is, but previously-unreleased duets with her are there), live and unreleased songs on the third disc, and “The Ballads” (standards Gaye had recorded and revised throughout his career) on the fourth disc. The cover art is hideous – a very young Gaye looks like he’s getting his picture taken for the high school yearbook. There are a couple of songs here worth hunting down (“Pops, We Love You,” recorded with Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder after the death of Berry Gordy Sr.), but for the most part this can be skipped. Out of print and unavailable for download, but not impossible to find at used record stores.
Seek and You Shall Find: More of the Best (1963-1981) – As with several other Motown acts, Rhino stepped in to create a secondary “hits” CD after Motown/MCA figured they’d issued enough music. Other than “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home),” a very early album track, and “Ego Tripping Out,” which was released as a standalone single in 1979 and later added to CD copies of In Our Lifetime, there’s nothing you absolutely need here, but it’s interesting. Out of print and unavailable for download.
The Norman Whitfield Sessions (1994) – Whitfield was primarily known as The Temptations’ producer and chief songwriter during their glory years, as well as creating music for Edwin Starr, The Undisputed Truth, and (after he left Motown) Rose Royce. But he also worked frequently with Gaye from 1965 to 1969, so Motown was able to put this collection together. Obviously nothing here from “What’s Going On” onward, but it does have a few songs unavailable elsewhere. Out of print (and I’ve never seen it), and unavailable for download.
Love-Starved Heart: Rare and Unreleased (1996) – Just what it says; more rarities, not hits. Originally released with 18 tracks and a hideous cover; later re-released with ten additional tracks and a cover to make it part of Motown’s Lost and Found series (other heritage artists have gotten the same treatment). Some of the Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye tracks show up here in their original versions. I like it fine, but be aware you won’t be familiar with most of the material. $17.49 for the CD and $10.49 for the download on Amazon (you don’t need to spend seven dollars for the liner notes), $10.99 for the download on iTunes, available on Spotify.
The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (1994/2001) – Another record company trick; release two completely different configurations under the same name years apart (1994: a one-disc version with a George Hurrell-type studio shot from the mid-1960s; 2001: a two-disc set with a cover picture from the Let’s Get It On era), and see if the lemmings will buy both. The one-disc version has one unreleased track (“Lucky Lucky Me”), as well as a what’s-this-doing-here song (“Abraham, Martin, and John”), but is missing several key songs (“Inner City Blues,” “I Want You,” “The End of Our Road,” “I’ll Be Doggone”) and is more expensive than Every Great Motown Hit. The two-disc version has 34 songs, including a rarity (“Where Are We Going?”), but lacks the breadth of Anthology (and its running time is about a half hour less). About the only good news is both of them have “Sexual Healing,” which Motown must have leased from Sony. The two-disc version is the one that pops up for purchase when you click on the physical disc link for Anthology, so be careful. One disc: $9.13 for the disc, $11.49 for the download on Amazon, $11.99 for the download on iTunes, available on Spotify. The two-disc version can be had on Amazon for $14.97, but is not available for download or on Spotify.
The Master (1961-1984) (1996) – If you’re getting a box set, this is the one you want. Every pop top 40 hit is here except one (“You’re a Special Part of Me,” a not-so-special duet with Diana Ross from 1973, part of an album of duets between the two that nobody was particularly happy with), along with a healthy dollop of rarities and two of the ballads Gaye obsessive worked on (they were released, finally, a few years later under the title Vulnerable). If you’re a Gaye obsessive like me, this is a must-have. Out of print on disc (but you can probably find it used, and the liner notes by Gaye biographer and “Sexual Healing” lyricist David Ritz may be worth it), $37.99 for the download on Amazon and $39.99 on iTunes, available on Spotify.
Love Songs (2000/2002/???) – Just don’t. There are several configurations with a title like this; one is mostly duets, the others are highly questionable as love songs, either because they’re not about love (“What’s Going On,” “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”) or they’re really boink songs (“You Sure Love to Ball”). Get something else and make a playlist if you must. They’re probably available on Amazon, iTunes, and Spotify, but I’m not going to check.
The Complete Duets (2001) – A two-disc set of everything Marvin recorded with Tammi Terrell, along with a bunch of Terrell solo recordings, some alternate takes, and the questionable songs from Easy. The two-disc set, at $11.84, is quite a bargain, but I don’t think I’d want the download ($23.99 on Amazon, $24.99 on iTunes); that’s a little much for a lot of repetitive material. Available on Spotify.
Marvin Gaye Gold (2005) – Another two-disc set; this might be worth searching out if it were still in print – it has a few rarities (“His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” “Where Are We Going?”), along with “Sexual Healing.” But it’s out of print and unavailable for download; it is on Spotify, so try it out there and if you love it, search the used record stores.
And if you’re looking for one list of his hits and where you’ll
find them, look no further.
Song
|
Year Released
|
Pop Charts
|
R&B Charts
|
Anthology (version 3)
|
The Master
|
Every Great Motown Hit
|
Stubborn Kind of
Fellow
|
1962
|
46
|
8
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Hitch Hike
|
1962
|
30
|
12
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Pride and Joy
|
1963
|
10
|
2
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Can I Get a Witness
|
1963
|
22
|
3
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
I'm Crazy 'Bout My
Baby
|
1963
|
77
|
-
|
|||
You're a Wonderful
One
|
1964
|
15
|
3
|
Yes
|
||
Once Upon a Time
[w/ Mary Wells]
|
1964
|
19
|
3
|
Yes
|
||
What's the Matter
With You Baby [w/ Mary Wells]
|
1964
|
17
|
2
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Try It Baby
|
1964
|
15
|
6
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Baby Don't You Do
It
|
1964
|
27
|
14
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
What Good Am I
Without You [w/ Kim Weston]
|
1964
|
61
|
28
|
|||
How Sweet It Is (To
Be Loved by You)
|
1964
|
6
|
3
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
I'll Be Doggone
|
1965
|
8
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Pretty Little Baby
|
1965
|
25
|
16
|
Yes
|
||
Ain't That Peculiar
|
1965
|
8
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
One More Heartache
|
1966
|
29
|
4
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Take This Heart of
Mine
|
1966
|
44
|
16
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Little Darling (I
Need You)
|
1966
|
47
|
10
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
It Takes Two [w/
Kim Weston]
|
1966
|
14
|
4
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Ain't No Mountain
High Enough [w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1967
|
19
|
3
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Your Unchanging
Love
|
1967
|
33
|
7
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Your Precious Love
[w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1967
|
5
|
2
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
You
|
1967
|
34
|
7
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
If I Could Build My
Whole World Around You [w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1967
|
10
|
2
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
If This World Were
Mine [w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1968
|
68
|
27
|
Yes
|
||
Ain't Nothing Like
the Real Thing [w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1968
|
8
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
You're All I Need
to Get By [w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1968
|
7
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Chained
|
1968
|
32
|
8
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Keep on Lovin' Me
Honey [w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1968
|
24
|
11
|
Yes
|
||
I Heard It Through
the Grapevine
|
1968
|
1
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Good Lovin' Ain't
Easy to Come By [w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1969
|
30
|
11
|
Yes
|
||
Too Busy Thinking
About My Baby
|
1969
|
4
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
That's the Way Love
Is
|
1969
|
7
|
2
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
What You Gave Me
[w/ Tammi Terrell]
|
1969
|
49
|
6
|
|||
How Can I Forget
|
1969
|
41
|
18
|
Yes
|
||
Gonna Give Her All
the Love I've Got
|
1970
|
67
|
26
|
|||
The Onion Song [w/
Tammi Terrell]
|
1970
|
50
|
18
|
|||
California Soul [w/
Tammi Terrell]
|
1970
|
56
|
-
|
|||
The End of Our Road
|
1970
|
40
|
7
|
Yes
|
||
What's Going On
|
1971
|
2
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Mercy Mercy Me (The
Ecology)
|
1971
|
4
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Inner City Blues
(Make Me Wanna Holler)
|
1971
|
9
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
You're the Man
(Part 1)
|
1972
|
50
|
7
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Trouble Man
|
1972
|
7
|
4
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Let's Get It On
|
1973
|
1
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
You're a Special
Part of Me [w/ Diana Ross]
|
1973
|
12
|
4
|
|||
Come Get to This
|
1973
|
21
|
3
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
You Sure Love to
Ball
|
1974
|
50
|
13
|
|||
My Mistake (Was to
Love You) [w/ Diana Ross]
|
1974
|
19
|
15
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Don't Knock My Love
[w/ Diana Ross]
|
1974
|
46
|
25
|
|||
Distant Lover
(Live)
|
1974
|
28
|
12
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
I Want You
|
1976
|
15
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
After the Dance
|
1976
|
74
|
14
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Got to Give It Up
(Part 1)
|
1977
|
1
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Pops, We Love You
(A Tribute to Father) [w/ Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder]
|
1978
|
59
|
26
|
|||
A Funky Space
Reincarnation
|
1979
|
106
|
23
|
Yes
|
||
Ego Tripping Out
|
1979
|
-
|
17
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Praise
|
1981
|
101
|
18
|
Yes
|
||
Heavy Love Affair
|
1981
|
-
|
61
|
Yes
|
||
Sexual Healing
|
1982
|
3
|
1
|
Yes
|
||
'Til Tomorrow
|
1983
|
-
|
31
|
|||
Joy
|
1983
|
-
|
78
|
|||
Sanctified Lady
|
1985
|
101
|
2
|
|||
It's Madness
|
1985
|
-
|
55
|
|||
My Last Chance
|
1991
|
-
|
16
|
|||
Music [w/ Erick
Sermon - vocals from "Turn On Some Music"]
|
2001
|
21
|
2
|
|||
Let's Get It On
[M.P.G. Groove Mix]
|
2005
|
-
|
94
|
