Marvin
Gaye
‘Love
Songs’
Universal/Motown
Released
in the UK 14th February 2003
Released in time for Valentine’s Day this fourteen track CD whilst being brilliant delivers nothing new that we all haven’t seen before. Last year saw various releases from Marvin especially his duets during the middle of the sixties and ‘Love Songs’ basically is a lift from various other currently available CD’s.
Whilst this release contains mainly songs from the glory years it also features a couple of tracks from the seventies. ‘Distant Lover’ a big hit for Marvin on his own, now sees the same song recorded as a duet with Betty Wright who had always been a big fan of Gaye and had longed to sing one of his songs. This version takes nothing away from the original – superb. Also, from 1973 ‘Pledging My Love’ with diva Diana Ross an alternate take of this song sourced from the original Japanese quad album release ‘Diana & Marvin’
In 1964 Marvin teamed up with the first of his girls Mary Wells who had already made her mark as a solo artist on the label and by the time their first single ‘Once Upon A Time’ had been released she was already a hit recording artist in her own right at Hitsville. Other songs recorded with Mary including ‘What’s The Matter With You Baby’ and ‘After The Lights Go Down Low’ taken from their 1964 album ‘Together’
The rest of this CD is made up of various songs from Marvin’s other collaboration’s including the late Tammi Terrell with ‘Your All I Need To Get By’, ‘Your Precious Love’ (brilliant) ‘Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing’ and ‘Keep On Lovin’ Me Honey’ and their excellent ‘b’ side ‘If This World Were Mine’ which features the pair in perfect vocal harmony.
Next up are three songs from the recording sessions with the superb Kim Weston including the hit ‘It Takes Two’ plus the flip to that single ‘It’s Got To Be A Miracle (this thing called love) which without doubt is THE standout song of this set, as well as ‘I Want You ‘Round’ from their 1966 LP ‘Take Two’
As mentioned above most of these songs are available on other CD’s and readers of this review are advised to check existing track listings to avoid duplication.
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