This new four CD set from one of Motown’s greatest artists comes as a bit of surprise leaving me wondering who Universal Music’s target audience are for this release? We have only recently completed a review of Marvin’s greatest hits package, a superb double CD complete with a bonus DVD of his 1981 concert from Montreaux commemorating the twentieth anniversary of his untimely death. You can see that review by clicking here. No sooner did that limited edition hit the streets and Universal Music issue another release on Marvin showcasing his music from the 1970’s much of which was post ‘What’s Going On’ era and comprised many of Marvin’s funk based gems.

Whilst I cannot quite understand the record company’s reasons for issuing this box set (other than the fact that Motown45 has just been aired in the US last week) as the aforementioned double CD/DVD release contains almost everything that is on this latest issue and many Motown fans/collectors here in the UK will argue ‘not another set of duplicated songs’. The accompanying press release claims that this these discs contain unreleased tracks although the promo disc covers merely give you the song titles some of which are LP tracks and you would need to be a real connoisseur to know which songs were previously unreleased.

Each of the four discs reflect an era of Marvin’s recording career at Motown with disc one featuring his early recordings for the label, whilst disc two contains hit recordings from the glory days at Hitsville and disc three from the seventies with many cuts from the ‘What’s Going On’ project of 1972 and an array of hit recordings between 1973-1978 where he entered into a new era of sexual innuendo flavoured songs via the likes of ‘Lets Get It On’ ‘Come Get To This’ and ‘Distant Lover’ to name but three.

In reality, unless you are a Motown fanatic committed to collecting every single release on the label irrespective of whether the disc contains duplicates of songs already in one’s own collection, then I can see many collectors being somewhat wary of shelling out hard earned cash for these songs many of which have issued time and time again over the last ten years. Nobody, and I mean nobody can ever complain or criticise the commitment of Universal Music here in the UK in their quest to bring the record buying public the best possible choice of Motown music and their efforts in achieving this are better than those of EMI and RCA put together when they distributed the label during the 1980’s, but that said, I cannot foresee anyone buying duplicate titles on this scale.

This is where the question of legal downloads via the internet are again brought into question. It may well be a good idea if the Universal Music had made the whole package available on the internet for paid downloads on selected songs giving collectors the option to purchase only the songs they need to complete collections, leaving out the songs the don’t want – but I suspect that is something that we will all see in the future.

The quality of these recordings is not in question – this is a good as it gets and contains all those great hit recordings that Marvin enjoyed as a solo artist as well as his hit duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and of course the late Tammi Terrell, the last two of which have enjoyed the 2 on 1 re-issue series over the last couple of years and can be found on this site by clicking here.

At this moment in time until/unless the finished artwork is made available to this site it is somewhat difficult to identify precisely those tracks that have been previously unreleased although the hit songs are obvious. There are a number of Marvin Gaye songs featured on this site as streaming audio and you are invited to check some, or all of these out by clicking here.

If you would rather see some stunning Marvin Gaye video footage then click here.

Available now in the UK
Rating 8/10 (but check out the below track listing first to avoid duplications)

Track listing;

Disc 1:

1.    Stubborn Kind Of Fellow
2.    Pride and Joy
3.    Hitch Hike
4.    Wherever I Lay My Hat
5.    What Do You Want With Him
6.    One Upon A Time (with Mary Wells)
7.    What's The Matter With You Baby (with Mary Wells)
8.    Can I Get A Witness
9.    Couldn't Ask For More
10.  You're Wonderful
11.  I Wonder
12.  Your A Wonderful One
13.  It's Got To Be Love
14.  Try It Baby
15.  Leavin'
16.  My Love For You
17.  How Sweet it Is
18.  Baby Don't You Do It
19.  Just like A Man
20.  Pretty Little Baby
21.  Talk About A Good Feeling
22.  I'll Be Dogonne
23.  Little Darling (I Need You)
24.  One More Heartache
25.  Ain't That Peculiar
26.  Tou're The One For Me
27.  Take This Heart Of Mine
28.  Your Unchanging Love

Disc 2:

1.    It Takes Two (with Kim Weston)
2.    I Couldn't Help Falling For You (with Kim Weston)
3.    Lonely Lover
4.    Without Your Sweet Lovin'
5.    Ain't No Mountain High Enough (with Tammi Terrell)
6.    If I Build My Whole World Around You (with Tammi Terrell)
7.    Your Precious Love (with Tammi Terrell)
8.    If This World Were Mine (with Tammi Terrell)
9.    Without You (my world is lonely)
10.  Together We Stand (divided we fall)
11.  You
12.  Chained
13.  I Heard It Through The Grapevine
14.  Your What's Happening In The World Today
15.  This Love Starved Heart Of Mine (is killing me)
16.  Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing (with Tammi Terrell)
17.  Keep On Lovin' Me Honey (with Tammi Terrell)
18.  Your All I Need To Get By (with Tammi Terrell)
19.  Too Busy Thinking About My Baby
20.  More Than A Heart Can Stand
21.  How Can I Forget
22.  That's The Way Love Is
23.  Yesterday
24.  The End Of Our Road
25.  Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By (with Tammi Terrell)
26.  What You Gave Me (with Tammi Terrell)

Disc 3:

1.    What's Going On
2.    Save The Children
3.    Mercy Mercy Me
4.    Inner City Blues
5.    I'm Going Home
6.    Piece Of Clay
7.    Your The Man Parts 1 & 2
8.    Checking Out (Double Clutch)
9.    Trouble Man
10.   Let's Get it On
11.   Come Get To This
12.   Just To Keep You Satisfied
13.   Pledging My Love (with Diana Ross)
14.   My Mistake (was to love you) with Diana Ross
15.   Distant Lover (live version)
16.   I Want You
17.   After The Dance

Disc 4:

1.    Got To Give It Up - Part 1
2.    Here My Dear
3.    When Did You Stop Loving Me - When Did I Stop Loving You
4.    Anger
5.    Anna's Song
6.    A Funky Space Reincarnation
7.    When Did You Stop Loving Me - When Did I Stop Loving You - reprise
8.    She Needs Me
9.    Why Did I Chose You
10.   Life Is For Learning
11.   Funk Me
12.   Love Me Now Or Love Me Later
13.   Ego Trippin' Out
14.   The Star Spangled Banner
15.   I Heard It Through The Grapevine (with Gladys Knight)
16.   Rockin' After Midnight *
17.   Sexual Healing *
18.   The Lords Prayer

* denotes Sony Music recordings
www.motown.com