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.

Marvin Gaye's "You're the Man"

In 1972, Marvin Gaye appears to have been at a crossroads, not sure what direction to take next. He’d followed up his hugely successful What’s Going On? album with a soundtrack to Trouble Man.

At first, his focus was an album of socio-political songs, kicked off with the title track “You’re the Man.” However, when the title song didn’t become a crossover hit when released as a single, enthusiasm for a full album appears to have waned. Plus, Gaye seems to have been brimming with lots of different ideas.

In the book “Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye,” author Michael Eric Dyson writes, “As [Harry] Weinger sorted through the tapes vault, he was bewildered by the huge amount of material. It became clear that Marvin had many false starts and pursued a number of directions – and even another album – before settling on the songs that became Let’s Get It On.”

Indeed, besides tracks for the You’re the Man album, Gaye also recorded instrumentals, and songs written by Willie Hutch, and even began a Christmas album that Motown put on its schedule (only one holiday single was produced). There were also plans for a duet album with Diana Ross. 1972 was a busy year.

The result is that there are basically three partially created albums between Trouble Man and Let’s Get It On. My first attempt was to create You’re the Man with the six tracks that were known to have originally been planned for it and fill in the blanks with three instrumentals. But the more I looked into what had been recorded, I thought maybe there was something bigger and better possible. You can arrive at a surprisingly good double album if all the tracks are gathered and carefully assembled.

SIDE A

1. Running from Love, Part 1
2. I’m Going Home (Move)

3. You’re the Man (Parts 1 & 2)

4. I’m Gonna Give You Respect

SIDE B

1. This World is Rated X

2. Sad Tomorrows

3. Try It, You’ll Like It

4. Checking Out (Double Clutch)

5. We Can Make It Baby

SIDE C

1. Woman of the World

2. My Love is Growing

3. Cakes

4. You are That Special One

5. Mandota

SIDE D

1. Where are We Going?

2. Symphony

3. Running from Love, Part 2

4. Piece of Clay

I book-ended the album with the two parts of "Running from Love." The angrier-sounding version kicks off the album, and the moodier version ends it, with "Piece of Clay" as an epilogue. The social and political songs remain, along with more personal songs and one instrumental punctuating each of the four sides.

Gaye’s popularity was certainly strong enough to support a double album, and “Woman of the World” "Where Are We Going?" and “Piece of Clay” could have been strong contenders for singles. It seems to me to be a missed opportunity. One final thing – the inclusion of “Sad Tomorrows” is kind of a cheat. It was a non-album B-side to “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” from 1971. However, I needed one more song and it fit well, I think.

Most tracks are available on the extended versions of What's Going On? and Let's Get It On.

I can’t take any credit for the cool cover shown at the top – I found that on a blog and was impressed with how great it looks. I also made an attempt at a cover, using a similar photo from the "You're the Man" single sleeve, but as you can see below it didn't come out anywhere near as nice.

Here's the album via a YouTube playlist.