| 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 |
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by the 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.
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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.
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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.
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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. 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.
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"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.
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"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.