Marvin Gaye - "Marvin Gaye Sings Romantic Standards"

Between 1963 and 1973, Marvin Gaye released a solo studio album every year except 1967. Yes, there was a best-of collection and a duet album with Tammi Terrell released that year, but the lack of a solo studio album seems like an oddity given the Motown Machine's constant pumping out of material, especially for its biggest acts.

In fact, Gaye appears to have planned a 1967 album, even though one doesn't appear on the Tamla Records schedule for that year.

In 1965, Marvin Gaye released an album titled A Tribute to the Great Nat "King" Cole. The album didn't sell very well, and the following year Gaye's next album, In the Groove, was a return to tunes by Motown songwriters. Yet not only were there leftover tracks from the Nat "King" Cole tribute album, but Gaye had recorded a number of other standards and songs from musicals at that time that weren't released.

In early 1967, Gaye went into the studio and re-recorded his vocals on a dozen of the 1965 outtakes. It seems to me that there can only be one reason for doing so -- this was to be a new album. Why else go to the trouble?

SIDE A

1. She Needs Me 

2. Emily 

3. The Shadow of Your Smile 

4. Fly Me to the Moon (in Other Words) 

5. Maria

6. All the Way 

SIDE B

1. Funny (Not Much) 

2. More (Theme from “Mondo Cane”) 

3. This will Make You Laugh

4. Fanny

5. What’s New 

6. Where are You?

At least four of these songs had previously been recorded by Cole, and others had been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams and Bobby Darin.

Why work was done on these old songs when the Nat "King" Cole tribute album wasn't a big seller is a bit of a mystery. And it may have been the reason an album was never realized. Although 1967 did see the release of The Four Tops doing an album of Broadway musical tunes (Four Tops on Broadway) and there was a plan for The Supremes to release an album titled From Broadway to Hollywood (the plan was eventually scrapped). So in this light, a Gaye album of standards isn't surprising.

Without a track list, I just assembled the songs with six tunes on each side. All tracks can be found on Motown Unreleased 1967. For a cover, I used a photo of Gaye I found online and added titles and the Tamla logo.