Live at the London Palladium | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | March 15, 1977 | |||
Recorded | October 3, 1976 London Palladium (London, England) December 13, 1976, December 14–17, 1976, January 20, 1977 January 31, 1977 Marvin's Room (Los Angeles, California) | |||
Genre | Soul, funk, disco | |||
Length | 78:35 | |||
Label | Tamla T7-352R2 | |||
Producer | Marvin Gaye Art Stewart | |||
Marvin Gaye chronology | ||||
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Live at the London Palladium is a live double album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released March 15, 1977, on Tamla Records. [1] Recording sessions took place live at several concerts at the London Palladium in London, England, in October 1976, with the exception of the hit single "Got to Give It Up", which was recorded at Gaye's Los Angeles studio Marvin's Room on January 31, 1977. [1] [2] Live at the London Palladium features intimate performances by Gaye of many of his career highlights, including early hits for Motown and recent material from his previous three studio albums. [1] As with his previous live album, Marvin Gaye Live! , production of the record was handled entirely by Gaye, except for the studio portion, "Got to Give It Up", which was managed by Art Stewart. [3]
Live at the London Palladium received a surprising and significant amount of critical recognition for a live album following its initial release. Critical reviews of the album were positive compared to the mild receptiveness Gaye's previous studio album I Want You received. As Gaye's most successful live release, the album also became one of his most commercially successful albums during his tenure at Motown's Tamla label, as well as a Billboard chart hit. Following digital remastering, Live at the London Palladium was reissued on August 24, 1999, by Motown on compact disc. [4]
In October 1976, Marvin Gaye had begun recuperating from personal issues. [5] He had recently gone through a divorce with his first wife, and sister of Motown-CEO Berry Gordy, Anna Gordy, and married his second wife, Janis Hunter. Hunter had previously inspired many of Gaye's romantic-themed albums including 1973's Let's Get It On and his previous album, the erotic I Want You . Gaye was also going through drug addiction to help cope with stage fright. By 1976, Gaye, while still a popular artist in America - his "I Want You" single hit the American top twenty - he was slowly starting a steep climb down as disco began to dominate popular music, but while American fans were moving on to other sounds, the British audience was still very appreciative of Gaye's fame and music, as Gaye would take advantage of this and perform a series of shows in Britain. [5]
Live at the London Palladium was recorded during several live shows performed by Gaye in England's capital city, London. The performances won rave reviews by the British press in London, the first of which took place on October 3, 1976, and continued throughout the rest of that month. [5]
Though he wasn't over his stage fright and often mumbled words on stage, when performing and singing, Gaye, then 37, still could dazzle an audience with his charm, wit and show-stopping talent as was heard on the album. [5]
Featuring a variety of songs from newer material encompassing from Gaye's 1976 album, I Want You , to older songs (featured in three segues of medleys) from his early to mid-1960s heyday to his famed What's Going On period in 1970–1971, his legendary duets and a trio of songs from his Let's Get It On album, Gaye performed for the British audience. Highlights include the performances of "Come Get to This", "Let's Get It On" (on which Gaye moaned during a break of the song to the delight of several female fans who were heard squealing, as heard on the album) and "Distant Lover".
Live at the London Palladium's three epic medleys, which all exceeded nine minutes, featured Gaye's intimate interactions with the audience and reflections on his songs. [5] An Allmusic reviewer later wrote of Gaye's performance, "you can feel the sultry passion in his voice as his singing drifts close to moaning and his ad libbing approaches tasteful, amorous aural lovemaking", and continued to write in a review of Live at the London Palladium that the "between-song moments" when Gaye addressed the audience revealed "just how shaken Gaye is at this troubled point in his career. Listen carefully and you can sense the struggling instability that would erupt cathartically a year later with Here, My Dear." [1]
After the concert was over following Gaye saying "Thank you!" over and over almost in sing-song medley as the band opened and closed with the intro to "I Want You", Gaye launches into the studio effort, his one attempt at making a convincing "disco record", the funk track, "Got to Give It Up". Recorded at Gaye's Los Angeles studio, Marvin's Room, the singer vocalized a song where the author is longing to get out of his shy cover and get on the dance floor with reckless abandon. [5] The original song runs for nearly twelve minutes, however, a single version of "Got to Give It Up" was released featuring a four-and-a-half minute A-side.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Christgau's Record Guide | B− [6] |
Pitchfork Media | (8.3/10) [7] |
Rolling Stone | (favorable) [8] |
"Got to Give It Up", which became a #1 hit on the Billboard pop and R&B/Soul singles chart, as well as a #1 hit on the Hot Dance/Disco chart, later influenced songs composed and performed by Michael Jackson. [9] The first of which, "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", featuring The Jackson 5, had Michael singing in the same manner, style and voice pitch as Gaye had during the closing chant in "Got to Give It Up": "Let's dance/let's shout/get funky what it's all about!", while his solo #1 hit, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", was strongly influenced by "Got to Give It Up". Soon after, Live at the London Palladium became one of Gaye's best-selling and most commercially successful albums during his late-Motown period, reaching the top of the Soul Albums chart and peaking at #3 on the Pop Albums chart. [9] Critical recognition of the album was also favorable and continued following the album's reissue on compact disc.
In late 1977, Live at the London Palladium remained in the top 10 for thirteen weeks and went on to sell two million copies becoming one of the top ten best-selling albums of that year in America. [9] The album was Gaye's last official live release until a July 1980 show at the Montreux Jazz Festival was released as a CD in 2003 though live bootleg copies of Gaye's 1979 Japan tour and 1983 North American tour have been released in small labels over the years.
Original 1977 US vinyl LP double album. [10]
1999 compact disc reissue. [1]
Chart (1977) | Peak positions |
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U.S. Billboard Pop Albums [11] | 3 |
U.S. Billboard Top Soul Albums [12] | 1 |
Chart (1977) | Peak positions |
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U.S. Billboard Pop Albums [13] | 45 |
U.S. Billboard Top Soul Albums [14] | 5 |
Year | Title | US | US R&B | US Dance | AUS | CAN | NED | UK |
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1977 | "Got to Give It Up, Pt. 1" | 1 | 1 | 1 | 89 | 3 | 24 | 7 |
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye, was an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
Let's Get It On is the thirteenth studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP.
Here, My Dear is the fifteenth studio album by music artist Marvin Gaye, released as a double album on December 15, 1978, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1977 and 1978 at Gaye's personal studios, Marvin Gaye Studios, in Los Angeles, California. The album was notable for its subject matter focusing largely on Gaye's acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye.
"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" is a 1966 song and hit single by The Temptations for Motown Records' Gordy label, produced by Norman Whitfield and written by Whitfield and Edward Holland Jr. The song peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and was a number-one hit on the Billboard R&B charts for eight non-consecutive weeks. The song's success, in the wake of the relative underperformance of the previous Temptations' single, "Get Ready", resulted in Norman Whitfield replacing Smokey Robinson, producer of "Get Ready", as The Temptations' main producer. In 2004 it finished number 94 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs poll thanks to its inclusion in The Big Chill soundtrack.
"Got to Give It Up" is a song by American music artist Marvin Gaye. Written by the singer and produced by Art Stewart as a response to a request from Gaye's record label that he perform disco music, it was released in March 1977.
"Let's Get It On" is a song by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released June 15, 1973, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. The song was recorded on March 22, 1973, at Hitsville West in Los Angeles, California. The song features romantic and sexual lyricism and funk instrumentation by The Funk Brothers. The title track of Gaye's album of the same name, it was written by Marvin Gaye and producer Ed Townsend. "Let's Get It On" became Gaye's most successful single for Motown and one of his most well-known songs. With the help of the song's sexually explicit content, "Let's Get It On" helped give Gaye a reputation as a sex symbol during its initial popularity. "Let's Get It On" is written and composed in the key of E-flat major and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 82 beats per minute.
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is a song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966 for the Tamla label, a division of Motown. The composition was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and became a hit again in 1970 when recorded by former Supremes frontwoman Diana Ross. The song became Ross's first solo number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
"I Want You" is a song written by songwriters Leon Ware and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and performed by singer Marvin Gaye. It was released as a single in 1976 on his fourteenth studio album of the same name on the Tamla label. The song introduced a change in musical styles for Gaye, who before then had been recording songs with a funk edge. Songs such as this gave him a disco audience thanks to Ware, who produced the song alongside Gaye.
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" is a 1968 single released by American R&B/soul duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, on the Tamla label in 1968. The B-side of the single is "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl" from the duo's United LP. The first release off the duo's second album: You're All I Need, the song - written and produced by regular Gaye/Terrell collaborators Ashford & Simpson - became a hit within weeks of release eventually peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Hot Soul Singles chart, the first of the duo's two number 1 R&B hits. In the UK "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" reached number 34.
"Can I Get a Witness" is a song composed by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland and produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier as a non-album single for American recording vocalist Marvin Gaye, who issued the record on Motown's Tamla imprint in September 1963.
I Want You is the fourteenth studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released on March 16, 1976, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla.
United is a studio album by soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced all of the tracks on the album, with the exception of "You Got What It Takes" and "Oh How I'd Miss You". Fuqua and Bristol produced "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "Two Can Have a Party" as Tammi Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966, and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them in order to create duet versions of the songs.
You're All I Need is the second studio album by soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released in August 1968 on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Highlighted by three hit singles written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, You're All I Need was recorded throughout 1966 and 1967 and features two Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By". It peaked at #60 on the U.S. Billboard 200 Album Chart. You're All I Need was the two singers' final collaboration effort, as Terrell would become ill following recording, before succumbing to a brain tumor in 1970.
Diana & Marvin is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Gaye and Ross were widely recognized at the time as two of the top pop music performers.
In the Groove is the eighth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on August 26, 1968 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. It was the first solo studio album Gaye released in two years, in which during that interim, the singer had emerged as a successful duet partner with female R&B singers such as Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. In the Groove was reissued and retitled as I Heard It Through the Grapevine after the unexpected success of Gaye's recording of the same name, which had been released as a single from the original album.
Marvin Gaye Live! is the second live album issued by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on June 19, 1974, by Tamla Records.
"After the Dance" is a slow jam recorded by singer Marvin Gaye and released as the second single off Gaye's 1976 hit album I Want You. Though it received modest success, the song was widely considered to be one of Marvin's best ballads and served as part of the template for quiet storm and urban contemporary ballads that came afterwards.
American music artist Marvin Gaye released 25 studio albums, four live albums, one soundtrack album, 24 compilation albums, and 83 singles. In 1961 Gaye signed a recording contract with Tamla Records, owned by Motown. The first release under the label was The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye. Gaye's first album to chart was a duet album with Mary Wells titled Together, peaking at number forty-two on the Billboard pop album chart. His 1965 album, Moods of Marvin Gaye, became his first album to reach the top ten of the R&B album charts and spawned four hit singles. Gaye recorded more than thirty hit singles for Motown throughout the 1960s, becoming established as "the Prince of Motown". Gaye topped the charts in 1968 with his rendition of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", while his 1969 album, M.P.G., became his first number one R&B album. Gaye's landmark album, 1971's What's Going On became the first album by a solo artist to launch three top ten singles, including the title track. His 1973 single, "Let's Get It On", topped the charts while its subsequent album reached number two on the charts becoming his most successful Motown album to date. In 1982, after 21 years with Motown, Gaye signed with Columbia Records and issued Midnight Love, which included his most successful single to date, "Sexual Healing". Following his death in 1984, three albums were released posthumously while some of Gaye's landmark works were re-issued.
The Very Best of Marvin Gaye is the title of two compilations by Motown artist Marvin Gaye.
Marvin Gaye: The Love Songs is a 2000 compilation album recorded by Motown singer Marvin Gaye. Included are his UK hits, "Abraham, Martin & John", his two duets with Diana Ross: "You Are Everything" and "Stop, Look, Listen " and his international hits including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "What's Going On" and "Sexual Healing". The album was only released in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number eight on the UK albums chart.