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.
Gaye recorded the album during 1975 and 1976 at his studio Marvin's Room in Los Angeles and at Motown's Los Angeles–based Hitsville West studio. The album has often been noted by critics for producer Leon Ware's cinematic, downtempo sound, the erotic themes in his and Gaye's songwriting, and the singer's prominent use of the synthesizer. The album's cover artwork adapts neo-mannerist artist Ernie Barnes's famous painting The Sugar Shack (1971).
I Want You consisted of Gaye's first recorded studio material since his highly successful and well-received album Let's Get It On (1973). While it marked a change in musical direction for Gaye, departing from his trademark Motown and doo-wop-influenced sound for funky, light-disco soul, the album maintained and expanded on his previous work's sexual themes. Following a mixed response from critics at the time of its release, I Want You has earned retrospective recognition from writers and music critics as one of Gaye's most controversial works and influential to such musical styles as disco, quiet storm, R&B, and neo soul.
Background
By 1975, Marvin Gaye had come off of the commercial and critical success of his landmark studio album Let's Get It On (1973), its successful supporting tour following the album's release, and Diana & Marvin (1973), a duet project with Diana Ross. However, similar to the conception and recording of Let's Get It On, Gaye had struggled to come up with an album as an appropriate follow-up. And much like Let's Get It On Gaye reached for outside help, this time seeking the assistance of Leon Ware, a singer and songwriter who had found previous success writing hits for fellow Motown alum, including pop singer Michael Jackson and the rhythm and blues group The Miracles.[1] Ware had been working on songs for his own album which he would later issue under the title Musical Massage, a collection of erotic singles Ware had composed with a variety of writers, including Jacqueline Hillard and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross, brother of Diana Ross.[1] When Motown CEO Berry Gordy paid a visit to Ware, the songwriter was more than happy to play Gordy his selection of tracks. After hearing a preliminary mix of the songs however, Gordy figured that Ware should let Gaye handle his material.[1]
While the majority of the album's songs were conceived by Ware, I Want You was transformed into a biographical centerpiece for Gaye, who was then in a volatile marriage with Anna Gordy, sister to Berry Gordy, and also in a long-standing affair with Janis Hunter, who would later become the mother of his two youngest children.[2] Gaye and Hunter were introduced to each other by producer Ed Townsend in 1973 at Hitsville West, while Townsend and Gaye were recording Let's Get It On. Hunter was 17 years old while Gaye was seventeen years her senior at the time Townsend introduced them. In his book Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves, and Demons of Marvin Gaye, the author and music writer Michael Eric Dyson elaborated on the relationship between I Want You and Gaye's affair with Hunter:
"I Want You is unmistakably a work of romantic and erotic tribute to the woman he deeply loved and would shortly marry, Janis Hunter. Gaye's obsession with the woman in her late teens is nearly palpable in the sensual textures that are the album's aural and lyrical signature. Their relationship was relentlessly passionate and emotionally rough-hewn; they played up each other's strengths, and played off each other's weaknesses."[3]
Though it was often hinted that Let's Get It On was the album Gaye had dedicated to her, Marvin has stated that this album was dedicated to Hunter, who is believed to have been in the studio when he recorded it. According to music critics, her presence may have increased the emotion in Ware's and Gaye's conception of I Want You.[2] From Gaye's first recordings of I Want You to the album's release in 1976, Hunter and Gaye married and divorced in the span of three short years. Having gone mostly silent since the years of Gaye's death, Janis broke her silence in 2013 by releasing a book titled, After the Dance: My Life with Marvin Gaye where she recalls her turbulent and often violent relationship with Marvin.[4]
Gaye's albums, and especially I Want You, have been influential on modern soul music and contemporary R&B.[2]EMIArtists and Repertoire executive Gary Harris, who later assisted neo soul singer D'Angelo in recording his debut album Brown Sugar (1995), later commented on Gaye's significant artistry on I Want You and its opening title track.[6] In an interview with writer Michael Eric Dyson, Harris comments on another popular track from the album "Soon I'll Be Loving You Again":
With the opening, with the congas and the strings; it's like the sun is rising. It's a very cinematic approach to the whole thing. It shows a thing Quincy Jones called "ear candy." The voicings and the arrangements convey not only mood but time, place and image. He's talking about "dreamed of you this morning." It's crazy. The other thing about Marvin and the song is he always, no matter what he was doing, how many risks he would take, he was a radical traditionalist and always held onto his doo-wop upbringing. Those background harmonies... no matter how increasingly percussive he got, how funky, the background vocals were always steeped in that tradition.[6]
Another significant feature of the recording sessions for I Want You was Gaye's use of the synthesizer in his music.[1] During the time of recording, the instrument had entered its modern period of use and had been included in the music of such popular acts as Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin. For the instrumental version of "After the Dance", Gaye implemented it for a more spacey sound than his previous recordings had featured. Other recordings from these sessions to feature Gaye's synthesizer were later featured on the deluxe edition re-release of I Want You.[1]
Artwork
The original The Sugar Shack painting, which was later used for the front album cover of I Want You, was painted and released by neo-mannerist artist Ernie Barnes in 1971.[7] In 1976, Barnes redesigned the painting for use by television producer Norman Lear for the opening credits of Good Times,[8] his hit CBS sitcom that ran from 1974 to 1979.[9]The Sugar Shack portrays a cultural image of a shack full of black people dancing. The Sugar Shack was painted by Barnes in his signature post-mannerist style, using serpentine lines, elongation of the human figure, clarity of line, unusual spatial relationships, painted frames, and distinctive color palettes. This style of technique and composition is similar to the mannerist style of 16th-century artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael, which has led Barnes to be credited as the founder of the Neo-Mannerism movement.[10] Art critic Frank Getlein later called The Sugar Shack a "stunning demonstration of the fusion of Neo-Mannerism and Genre painting that Barnes alone has perfected and practices", and went on to say:
The dances of ordinary people have been a standard subject of Genre painting since it was invented by Breughel. The perfectly controlled lighting and the elaborate poses of the elongated figures are class Mannerism. Sugar Shack effortlessly combines the two heritages in Neo-Mannerism Genre painting. Any Mannerist painter would be proud of the succession of figures in the main, central group of dancers, but the whole is infused with the innocent exuberance of Breughel and his fellow Flemings.[10]
The Sugar Shack has been known to art critics for embodying the style of art composition known as "Black Romantic", which, according to Natalie Hopkinson of The Washington Post, is the "visual-art equivalent of the Chitlin' Circuit."[11] According to Barnes, he created the original version after reflecting upon his childhood, during which he was not "able to go to a dance."[12] In an interview with SoulMuseum.net, Barnes was asked whether there were any messages he was attempting to express through the painting. He stated "'Sugar Shack' is a recall of a childhood experience. It was the first time my innocence met with the sins of dance. The painting transmits rhythm so the experience is re-created in the person viewing it. To show that African-Americans utilize rhythm as a way of resolving physical tension"[7]
Gaye was introduced to Barnes by colleague Barbara Hunter, which led to him buying eight Barnes originals, including The Sugar Shack. After Gaye asked him for permission to use the painting as an album cover, Barnes then augmented the painting by adding references to Gaye's album, including banners hanging from the ceiling of the shack promoting the album's singles.[1][11] Since the initial wide acclaim for The Sugar Shack, Barnes has gained further recognition from art critics as one of the best black painters of his time and was cited by the Oakland Tribune as the "Picasso of the black art world."[10][12] The original piece was later purchased by actor and comedian Eddie Murphy.[13]
I Want You was released March 16, 1976 in the United States on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records.[22] While not as successful sales-wise as Gaye's previous landmark albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On, I Want You sold in excess of 1 million copies in the United States with help mostly coming from its first single "I Want You". The single topped the Billboard Soul Singles chart, quickly becoming Marvin Gaye's eleventh number-one hit on that chart, while peaking at number fifteen on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.[2]
The album's second single, the quiet storm track "After the Dance (Vocal)", charted modestly, peaking at #14 on the Soul Singles chart and #74 on the Pop Singles chart, while another single release version of the song, a double A-sided vinyl record for dance clubs and discothèques, hit the top ten of the Billboard Disco Singles chart. The song became a staple of dance clubs and discothèques during the late 1970s.[2] "After the Dance" was hailed as one of Gaye's signature songs during the late 1970s and was later described by Gaye-biographer David Ritz as "emblematic for the final chapter of his career."[2]I Want You became his fourth album to reach the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart and his fifth number-one album on the Soul Albums chart.
Despite its chart success, I Want You received mixed reviews from music critics at the time of its release.[2] It has been noted by music writers that the critical reception of disco music in general had been poor and ill-considered, which may have caused the slightly disco-styled I Want You to suffer critically, in comparison to Gaye's previous albums.[2]Los Angeles Times writer Dennis Hunt called the album "disappointing" and "only partially commendable".[23]Rolling Stone's Vince Aletti criticized Leon Ware's production for being too low-key, and perceived that Gaye lacks the certain passion in his lyricism and singing from his previous records.[24] Aletti compared the album to Gaye's previous work, writing that "Gaye seems determined to take over as soul's master philosopher in the bedroom, a position that requires little but an affectation of constant, rather jaded horniness. The pose has already been established in Let's Get It On, on which Gaye was hot, tender, aggressive, soothing and casually raunchy—the modern lover with all his contradictions. I Want You continues in the same vein but with only the faintest traces of the robust passion that shot through and sustained the earlier album... one expects something with a little more substance and spirit. But there's no fire here, only a well-concealed pilot light."[24]
Cliff White of NME called the album "almost a voyeur's delight", and was not favorable of Gaye's sensual themes, stating "Although getting down, getting mellow, and getting it on are paramount considerations in the privacy of my own home, I don't particularly want to be party to someone else's night life. Not on record anyway... Like peeking through the windows of the Gaye residence in the wee wee hours. Perhaps that's your kick, but personally I find it a mite frustrating."[25] White also criticized the album's sound, describing the songs as "all expressions of the same mood. Sensual, satisfied, and spaced out", and calling I Want You "simply the explorative aftermath of Let's Get It On. The sweet nuthin's of a drowsy, sweat-streaked lover."[25]Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote favorably of the album's sound quality.[21] However, he criticized the lyrical content, as well as Ware's involvement in songwriting, stating "was it Ware who instructed Marvin to eliminate all depth and power from his voice? I mean, if you're into insisting on sex it's in bad taste to whine about it."[21]
Legacy and influence
After critical re-examination of the album, I Want You has been recognized by writers and music writers as one of Marvin Gaye's most controversial and influential works and, much like its predecessor Let's Get It On, has served as a major influence on the quiet storm and contemporary R&B genres.[26] Its standing has also improved among critics following an expanded edition release of the album on July 29, 2003, which featured extensive liner notes and photography by Ryan Null. Following that release, AllMusic praised Gaye's different direction in music and the eroticism portrayed in Leon Ware's smooth-tempo production and Gaye's intimate lyricism. Reviewer Thom Jurek wrote:
Its subject matter is as close to explicit as pop records got in 1976... The feel of the album was one of late-night parties in basements and small clubs, and the intimacy of the music evokes the image of people getting closer as every hour of a steamy night wears on... the most astonishing things about I Want You are its intimacy, silky elegance, and seamless textures... I Want You and its companion, Ware's Musical Massage, are the pre-eminent early disco concept albums. They are adult albums about intimacy, sensuality, and commitment, and decades later they still reverberate with class, sincerity, grace, intense focus, and astonishingly good taste. I Want You is as necessary as anything Gaye ever recorded, and is as compelling in the 21st century as when it was first issued.[14]
Such musicians as Todd Rundgren, Robert Palmer and Madonna have stated they were influenced by I Want You, while songs from the album have been sampled by such hip hop artists as EPMD to Mary J. Blige, who sampled the title track for her hit song "Be Happy".[27] The careers of neo soul and R&B musicians including D'Angelo, Musiq Soulchild, R. Kelly, Maxwell (particularly on Urban Hang Suite), Sade, and Prince show the influence of the soulful sound and equally romantic and erotic lyrics of I Want You, Let's Get It On and Leon Ware's Musical Massage.[6][28] According to one critic, Ware's arrangements "solidified the suite-like theme for the album."[28] Much like Let's Get It On, slow jam music, as well as modern soul and the quiet storm genre, are now viewed by critics to have been engendered by I Want You and by Gaye.[26]
Following the release of I Want You, Ware released Musical Massage (1976), which received little mainstream notice.[2] Despite this, Musical Massage, Ware's second studio album, became 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."[29]
Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–11 on digital reissues.
2002 remaster bonus tracks
No.
Title
Length
12.
"I Want You" (vocal; single mix)
3:28
13.
"I Want You" (instrumental; single mix)
4:39
14.
"Strange Love (Feel All My Love Inside)" (instrumental; single mix)
2:58
Deluxe edition
In 2003, I Want You was reissued by Motown as a two-discexpanded edition release, featuring 24-bitdigital remastering of the original album's recordings, previously unissued material, and a 24-page booklet, which contains the original LP liner notes by Marvin Gaye, as well as comprehensive essays by writers including David Ritz.[5]
Original LP (Disc one)
"I Want You" (vocal) – 4:36
"Come Live with Me Angel" – 6:30
"After the Dance" (instrumental) – 4:25
"Feel All My Love Inside" – 3:23
"I Wanna Be Where You Are" – 1:17
"I Want You" (intro jam) – 0:19
"All the Way Around" – 3:50
"Since I Had You" – 4:05
"Soon I'll Be Loving You Again" – 3:13
"I Want You" (intro jam) – 1:40
"After the Dance" (vocal) – 4:42
"I Want You" (vocal, promo only version) – 3:38
"I Want You" (instrumental) – 4:39
"Strange Love" (Feel All My Love Inside)" (instrumental) – 2:57
The Sessions| alternate mixes, vocals & outtakes (Disc two)
"I Want You" (vocal & rhythm) – 5:05
"Come Live with Me Angel" (alternate version) – 7:37
"After the Dance" (instrumental) – 5:33
"Feel All My Love Inside" (alternate version) – 3:52
"I Wanna Be Where You Are" (alternate version) – 6:07
"I Want You" (guitar jam) – 0:29
"All the Way Around" (alternate version) – 3:52
"Since I Had You" (alternate version) – 4:16
"Soon I'll Be Loving You Again" (alternate version) – 4:30
"I Want You" (jam, undubbed) – 4:52
"After the Dance" (vocal, alternate version) – 5:14
"I Wanna Be Where You Are (After the Dance)" – 4:01
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye, was an American 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".
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, and United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as a producer and to credit Motown's in-house studio band, the 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.
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.
"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.
"Distant Lover" is the sixth song issued on singer Marvin Gaye's 1973 album, Let's Get It On and the B-side of the second single from that album, "Come Get to This". A live recording was issued as a single in 1974. The live version of the song was Gaye's most successful single during the three-year gap between Let's Get It On and his following 1976 album, I Want You.
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.
In Our Lifetime? is the sixteenth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released January 15, 1981, on Motown label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin's Room in Los Angeles, California, Seawest Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at Odyssey Studios in London, England, throughout 1979 and 1980. The album cover was designed by Neil Breeden. Gaye's final album for Motown before leaving for Columbia Records, the album was the follow-up to the commercial failure of Here, My Dear, a double album which chronicled the singer's divorce from Anna Gordy. Entirely written, produced, arranged, and mixed by Gaye, In Our Lifetime? was a departure for Gaye from the disco stylings of his previous two studio efforts and was seen as one of the best albums of the singer's late-Motown period.
The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye is the debut studio album by Marvin Gaye, released in 1961, and the second long-playing album (TM-221) released by Motown. The first was Hi... We're the Miracles (TM-220). It is most notable as the album that caused the first known struggle of Gaye's turbulent tenure with the label.
Frederick Earl "Shorty" Long was an American soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer for Motown's Soul Records imprint. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980.
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.
"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.
Marvin Gaye was an American music artist and singer-songwriter who won acclaim for a series of recordings with Motown Records. Gaye's personal life, mainly documented in the biography, Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, included his faith; child abuse by his father; personal relationships with his two wives, friends, and girlfriends; and bouts of depression and drug abuse.
Anna Ruby Gaye was an American businesswoman, composer and songwriter. An elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, she became a record executive in the mid-to-late 1950s distributing records released on Checker and Gone Records before forming the Anna label with Billy Davis and her sister Gwen Gordy Fuqua. Gordy later became known as a songwriter for several hits including the Originals' "Baby, I'm for Real", and at least two songs on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album. The first wife of Gaye, their turbulent marriage later served as inspiration for Gaye's 15th studio album, Here, My Dear.
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.
"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.
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