Customer Reviews

Anthology

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With the exception of Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye is probably the greatest male singer of the 20th century. His greatest hits collected here can still charm a listener's ear. From soulful love ballads to socially conscious protest songs, Marvin always had the sweetest voice and the tightest harmonies. He could seduce with the best of them, but he never stopped evolving as an artist as this collection proves. There are great love songs like "How Sweet It Is", great protest songs "What's Going On", great spiritual songs "God Is Love", sexual come-ons "Let's Get It On" and "I Want You", and even a disco-funk number "Got To Give It Up", all displaying MArvin's wide range of talents. It's so sad that his life was cut short so tragically when he was on a comeback. We will never get to hear the wonderful music that he would have made. Every male r&b singer owes a debt to this great artist.

This Anthology of Marvin Gaye is a great retrospective of a brilliant career. The two disks are broken up in a way we hear the two distinct eras of his career. Disk one contains all his work from the 1960's including the amazing "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (his first number one hit) and other hits including "Stubborn Kind Of Fellow", "Pride & Joy", "Hitch Hike" and "Can I Get A Witness", his duets with Kim Weston and the late Tammi Terrill including "It Takes Two", "Your Precious Love" and "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" and some lesser known gems like "Little Darlin'". During his time at Motown in the 60's, he was a typical Motown artist, recording the songs that were given to him and had no real creative control. In the 1970's he rebelled against this system and took control over his music with tremendous results. Disk two covers the 70's songs including the number songs "Let's Get It On" and "Got To Give It Up (Part 1)" and other classics like "What's Going On", "Inner City Blues", "Trouble Man" & "I Want You".

What can I say about this man? Although there are a lot of people who forgot what Marvin Gaye did, I found out last year and I listened to the box set all the time. I am 16 years old , mind you. Classic oldies, protest songs,sensual, and disco. Marvin could do everything. U can't compare him.

The way he lived, and everything that happened to him, should have brought him down, but eh got up and made wonderful music, that is still great.

The greatest songs here include: Pride and Joy, How sweet it is, it takes 2, ain't no mountain high enough, your precious love, ain't nothin' like the real thing, i heard it throught the grapevine.

on the 2nd set, what's going on, you're the man, let's get it on, come get to this, got to give it up. I've never heard of When did u stop loving me, and ego trippin' out, but I LOVED them. They were awesome.

It was a disappointment not to put Sexual Healing, but I think that is becuase it's Columbia, not Motown.

I love this box set. I think it did a great job of chronicaling Marvin Gaye's career. I am a DJ on a college radio station and I play it all the time.

This comprehensive collection contains all Marvin's American hits for Motown as well as highlighting other aspects of his music, including his political songs of the seventies. It does not include Sexual healing, recorded after he left Motown. His British hits were sometimes different from his American hits. Three UK top ten hits are missing, though as this is an American compilation, there is no reason why they should have been included. Abraham Martin and John was an American hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - perhaps it was felt that Marvin's version was better for the UK market. You are everything. A duet with Diana Ross, made the UK top five. Onion song, a duet credited as being with Tammi Terrell but recorded with a stand-in, made the UK top ten.

The classic American hits (not all of which charted in Britain) are all here including Can I get a witness, How sweet it is, I'll be doggone, Ain't that peculiar, I heard it through the grapevine, Too busy thinking about my baby, That's the way love is. What's going on, Mercy mercy me, Trouble man, Let's get it on and Got to give it up. Some of his duets are here, too, including Ain't no mountain high enough, Your precious love, If I could build my whole world around you, Ain't nothing like the real thing, You're all I need to get by (all with Tammi Terrell), It takes two (with Kim Weston), What's the matter with you baby (with Mary Wells) and My mistake (with Diana Ross).

Marvin always considered himself a balladeer like Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole rather than a typical R+B singer, but his early attempts to establish himself in this role were not a success. Eventually, he did gain acceptance as a balladeer after proving that he could do the R+B material - compare his definitive version of I heard it through the grapevine with the Gladys Knight version, released a year earlier. Marvin actually recorded the song before Gladys but Berry Gordy initially rejected his version. It shows what perseverance can do.

Marvin once again had Berry Gordy worried when he completed his anti-Vietnam album, What's going on. Motown had always been primarily a singles label so this album was completely alien to the marketing department, although it appears that many people at Motown loved it. Once again, Marvin was right. The album was a huge success and four of its tracks are here - they are the first four on CD 2.

There are plenty of other great songs here besides the hits and the anti-Vietnam song, too numerous to mention. This remains the best double CD of Marvin's Motown music notwithstanding the omissions. The British hits and Sexual healing are all easy to find elsewhere - not just on other Marvin Gaye albums, but also on various artist compilations.

If you can't find this album, you can either buy the more recent double-CD, Very best of Marvin Gaye, or go for the boxed set. In any event, no collection of soul music is complete without at least one Marvin Gaye album.

Now I know that some of you are disappointed that Marv's last hit (at least on the pop charts), "Sexual Healing", is not in this fabulous collection of classic hits but let's face it, it chronicles his time as a MOTOWN artist. So of course they weren't going to include an out-of-label hit even if the hit was viable to that star's career. Same thing they did with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson's anthologies.

Anyway, this 2-CD (or 2-tape) collection of 67 songs, 40-some known hit singles and some album cuts, b-sides and rarities is the PERFECT album for a true artist like Marvin Gaye was. Many cats can only wish that they can have the hit catalogue that this brotha from the Chocolate City had! I mean, he was not only just a popular singer who recorded some of the 20th century's greatest songs and albums known to mankind, but he was also a great writer, producer, arranger, mixer, musician and instrumentalist not to mention he already had a career as a lead singer of two R&B groups in the late-'50s before signing with Motown in 1961 to be a jazz singer (his original intention of rebelling against what people were telling him how he should be).

And then you can't forget his LEGENDARY and AMAZING duets with classic R&B female legends like Mary Wells (the first female superstar of Motown), Kimberly Weston, the wonderful and memorable Tammi Terrell and last but not least the Motown Queen, Diana Ross. So not only has his career spread four decades but in the middle of it, he was able to be in a couple of groups, be a legendary duet partner and he even played in a couple of movies or three.

But anyway back to the anthology set of Marvin! The man's hit career spreads into three or four or even five different periods at a time:

Suave Gentleman (1962-67)
Soul Loverman (1967-70)
Patriotic Ghetto Warrior (1971-1972)
Romantic and Erotic Ladies' Man (1973-1977)
Confessional Ghetto Preacher (1978-1981)

The first CD (full of 20 solo hits and 7 wonderful duets) may be the most interesting of the anthology set. It shows Marvin at first reaching his inner Sam Cooke in the early portion of his career going from "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" to "Baby Don't U Do It" and then finding his own voice slowly from "How Sweet It Is" and then finally finding his vocal POWER in songs like "You" (check out the HIGH note near the middle of the song!) and "Grapevine". And then there's the memorable duets with Tammi Terrell that are the essence of true soul. Marvin & Tammi should both be inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame just for the five songs listed on the album.

But then again, the second CD of the anthology set can be the most complex! I mean, this is when Marvin Gaye took FULL ARTISTIC CONTROL and gave us the legendary albums WHAT'S GOING ON, TROUBLE MAN, LET'S GET IT ON, MARVIN GAYE LIVE, I WANT YOU, HERE, MY DEAR, and IN OUR LIFETIME (which was Marvin's first entry into the '80s). You would fall in love with the different production of "What's Going On", without so much of the people talking and just the music, it also shows more of Marvin's vocal backings in its beautiful pitch. "God Is Love", even with its short time, is classic MOTOWN with a gospel-soul feel to it. You had a feeling R. Kelly was listening closely to this album while making Step In The Name of Love. "Sad Tomorrows" with its different feel of a bluesy and classical feel and with that soul is different from the album version (Flying High) from What's Going On and it's also breathtaking that you have to play it over and over. "The World Is Rated X" and "You're The Man" is the brotha's finest work as a political preacher as he sung about the social ills of the world and the political administration. And of course songs from the wonderful "Let's Get It On" album is produced brilliantly here. "Just to Keep U Satisfied" is classic doo-wop!

Then you get into the live recording of "Distant Lover" even while edited (for album purposes) and well it's still a masterpiece. "I Want You" and "After the Dance" are classics and of course "Got to Give It Up" is a blue-light in the basement party anthem that is still hot even after all these years. Finally Marvin's later work with "Here, My Dear" and "In Our Lifetime" are produced and helps brings a climatic ending to the entire 2-CD set.

From "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" in 1962 where he was in love with a girl but somehow stubborn to his or his woman's feelings to when he was looking for love in 1981's funky "Heavy Love Affair", it's particularly the Diary of Marvin Gaye. Nobody in soul music was like this cat and there will be nobody like him again no matter what you say! Marvin Gaye is forever the Original King of R&B! (TAKE THAT, WHITNEY, HA-HA!)

I am not used to writing reviews but I had to for this item. This is the most comprehensive collecion of classics from Marvin Gaye, especially the second disc. He has had such an influence from Soul and R&B to Hip-Hop and continues to be a legendary force in music. If you are seriously considering purchasing a Marvin Gaye album, please go with this one. It will give you a balanced and enjoyable experience with the beauty of his music and will leave you wondering why you hadn't done it sooner. I was 18 when I "borrowed" this album from my mother and don't think she will love it as much as I have consistantly loved it for the past 5 years.

Marvin Gaye was a great singer who lived from 1939-1984. He had a tremendous vocal ability that allowed him to sing sweet soul music, politically-aware commentaries, hard funk, disco-ish stuff and eco-friendly classics all with equal conviction. As a boy in 1985 I remember TWO tribute songs to him that charted in the US Top 10 - a measure of the esteem in which he and his music was held. As one of the original Motown artists, he helped to define the golden era of mid-60's pop music, and trumped even this with his great album What's Going On in 1971.

This superb anthology from the Motown vaults is packed with great songs, and I have been a big fan of this record since discovering it in 2001. I cannot recommend this more highly to those Amazon shoppers who may yet be unaware of this great vocalist.

By the way, these Motown Anthology 2CD sets are not to be missed. Try out The Supremes and The Temptations also in this series.

5 stars!!

This golden collection of just some of his very greatest work is pure magic to listen to and some of these tracks have gotten better with age. This lengthy and worthwhile combination begins with his early Motown days. Even on listening to those early songs, you can still detect a positivley unique, distinct talent that would soon propell him into one of the most important figures of 20th century music, with his superb, undeniable flair for versatality. Tracks like his International chart topper, I Heard it Through The Grapevine is probably his most distinctive recordings, one that he will most likely be remembered for. His origanilty and exquisite vocal talent is put too good use on such distinguished soul classics such as What's Going On and the sultry, sexually charged Lets Get It On. Every major classic of Marvin Gaye's highly succesful and acomplished career is here on this compilation from the disco-funk sounds of the infectious Got To Give It Up, lush bedroom ballards like the provactive Sexual Healing to tracks that bared that familiar, distinct Tamla Motown sound such as Too Busy Thinking About My Baby. There are a vast number of his most timeless duets such as the breath takingly beautiful, You Are Everything, with the Queen Of Motown, Diana Ross, as well as the fabulous, It takes Two with the vastly underated Kim Weston and many classics with his personal favourite singing partner, Tami Terrell on tracks like You're All I Need To get By and You Ain't Livin' Till your Lovin'.

The album makes compelling and startling listening from one of the most distinguished singer/songwriters in the history of Soul music. Every track is a winner and remarkable in itself. Magnificent! Highly recommended!

The voice of Marvin Gaye is one which is the essence of soul. Despite all the commercial publicity it has gotten, no thanks to those damn California Raisins, I feel his recording of "Heard It Through the Grapevine" is still one of the most beautifully soulful pieces of music ever sung. Listen and learn from this man whose life lasted all to briefly.