| Musical Massage | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 1976 | |||
| Recorded | August 22, 1975 – July 1976 | |||
| Studio | ||||
| Genre | ||||
| Label | Gordy | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Leon Ware chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
Musical Massage is an album by Leon Ware released in 1976. This was his second solo album and his only release for Motown's Gordy Records subsidy.
By 1975, Ware was signed to Motown as a solo artist. He started working on demos for his next album as well as to win a record deal for T-Boy Ross. One of the demo recordings, "I Want You", was heard by Berry Gordy, who decided the song would be a good fit for Marvin Gaye. Gaye heard the other demos Ware had worked on and decided to record much of it for what would be his next album, I Want You . Buoyed by the number-one title track, that album peaked at number-one on the Soul charts and reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and sold over a million copies.
Having given away the material for his album, Ware had no choice but to compose an entirely new set of songs. The result would be Ware's second album, Musical Massage. Produced primarily by Ware with Hal Davis producing three tracks (Instant Love, Body Heat & Share Your Love). Musical Massage picks up right where Gaye's "I Want You" leaves off utilizing some of the same musicians.
Following the release of I Want You, Ware released Musical Massage in September 1976. The album failed to chart and was not properly promoted by Motown. Despite this, Musical Massage has become a cult hit among soul music fans who were intrigued by I Want You and songs from that album's producer. [2] Critical recognition of Ware's album later improved, being cited by AllMusic as "the perfect mix of soul, light funk, jazz, and what was about to become the rhythmic foundation for disco." "Musical Massage" was released on CD for the first time by UK label Expansion Records in 2001 and then by Motown in 2003 in the US.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Learning How To Love You" | Leon Ware | 3:31 |
| 2. | "Instant Love" | Jacqueline Hilliard, Leon Ware | 3:27 |
| 3. | "Body Heat" | Bruce Fisher, Leon Ware, Quincy Jones, Stan Richardson | 4:50 |
| 4. | "Share Your Love" | T-Boy Ross, Leon Ware, Pam Sawyer | 3:30 |
| 5. | "Holiday" | Leon Ware | 3:25 |
| 6. | "Phantom Lover" | Jacqueline Hilliard, Leon Ware | 3:52 |
| 7. | "Journey Into You" | Leon Ware, Terri McFaddin | 4:04 |
| 8. | "Musical Massage" | Leon Ware | 3:47 |
| 9. | "French Waltz" | Leon Ware | 2:02 |
| 10. | "Turn Out The Light" | Leon Ware, Minnie Riperton, Richard Rudolph | 4:01 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11. | "I Wanna Be Where You Are" | Arthur "T-Boy" Ross, Leon Ware | 3:34 |
| 12. | "Comfort (A.K.A. Come Live With Me, Angel)" | Jacqueline Hilliard, Leon Ware | 6:15 |
| 13. | "Long Time No See (Demo for Since I Had You)" | Leon Ware, Pam Sawyer | 3:46 |
| 14. | "Don't You Wanna Come (Demo for After The Dance)" | Arthur "T-Boy" Ross, Leon Ware | 3:42 |
| 15. | "You Are The Way You Are" | Arthur "T-Boy" Ross, Leon Ware | 3:22 |
Marvin Pentz Gaye was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and musician. He helped 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, which earned him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by American soul singer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as producer and to credit Motown's in-house session musicians, known as the Funk Brothers.
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a single in September 1967. It went to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and shortly became the biggest selling Motown single up to that time.
Syreeta Wright, who recorded professionally under the mononym Syreeta, was an American singer-songwriter, best known for her music during the early 1970s through the early 1980s. Wright's career heights were songs in collaboration with her ex-husband Stevie Wonder and musical artist Billy Preston.
Let's Get It On is the thirteenth studio album by the American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP.
"What's Going On" is a song by American singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye, released in 1971 on the Motown subsidiary Tamla. It is the opening track of Gaye's studio album of the same name. Originally inspired by a police brutality incident witnessed by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, the song was composed by Benson, Al Cleveland, and Gaye and produced by Gaye himself. The song marked Gaye's departure from the Motown Sound towards more personal material. Later topping the Hot Soul Singles chart for five weeks and crossing over to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, it would sell over two million copies, becoming Gaye's second-most successful Motown song to date. It was ranked at number 4 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of all Time in 2004 and 2010.
"I Want You" is a song written by Leon Ware and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and performed by American singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released as a single in 1976 on his fourteenth studio album of the same name (1976) on his Tamla label. The song introduced a change in musical styles for Gaye, who before then had been recording songs with a funk edge. "I Want You", among other similar songs, gave him a disco audience. Ware, who produced the song alongside Gaye, also was attributed with the single's success.
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.
"Stubborn Kind of Fellow" is a 1962 song recorded by Marvin Gaye for the Tamla label. Co-written by Gaye and produced by William "Mickey" Stevenson, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" became Gaye's first hit single, reaching the top 10 of the R&B chart and the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1962.
Midnight Love is the seventeenth studio album by Marvin Gaye and the final album to be released during his lifetime. He signed with the label Columbia in March 1982 following his exit from Motown.
That Stubborn Kinda Fellow is the second studio album by Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label in 1963. The second LP Gaye released on the label, it also produced his first batch of successful singles for the label and established Gaye as one of the label's first hit-making acts in its early years.
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.
Leon Ware was an American songwriter, producer, composer, and singer. Besides a solo career as a performer, Ware was best known for producing hits for other artists including Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Maxwell, Minnie Riperton and Marvin Gaye, co-producing the latter's album I Want You.
"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 Gaye's best ballads and served as part of the template for quiet storm and urban contemporary ballads that came afterwards.
Live at the London Palladium is a live double album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released March 15, 1977, on Tamla Records. 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. 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. 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.
David T. Walker is an American soul/R&B, and jazz guitarist. In addition to numerous session musician duties since the early 1970s, Walker has issued fifteen albums in his own name.
"I Wanna Be Where You Are" is a song written by Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and Leon Ware for Michael Jackson, who took the song to number 7 in Cash Box and number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. It also reached number 2 on the Billboard R&B singles chart in 1972.
"Baby, I'm for Real" is a soul ballad written by Marvin Gaye and Anna Gordy Gaye, produced by Marvin and recorded and released by American Motown vocal group The Originals for the Soul label issued in 1969.
"Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide" is the debuting single for singer Marvin Gaye, released as Tamla 54041, in May 1961. It was also the first release off Gaye's debut album, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, in which most of the material was the singer's failed attempt at making an 'adult' record compared to Motown's younger R&B sound.
"Come Live with Me Angel" is a smooth soul song by soul singer Marvin Gaye. The song was co-written by singer-songwriter Leon Ware and lyricist Jacqueline Dalya-Hilliard for the former's album Musical Massage. However, Ware gave it to Gaye as he showed interest in it, as well as the other songs Ware had written with Arthur Ross. The song first appeared on Gaye's album I Want You as the second track.