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Motown Junkies

~ because it's what's in the grooves that counts

Motown Junkies

Category Archives: Marvin Gaye

691. Marvin Gaye: “When I Had Your Love”

January 13, 2019

Marvin Gaye’s time with Smokey Robinson is drawing to a close here on Motown Junkies, but this absolutely has to go down as one of their best team-ups. It’s weird and it’s thought-provoking and it’s utterly beautiful, and it will stay on your mind for months on end (trust me on that last one). I love it. (9)

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690. Marvin Gaye: “One More Heartache”

January 11, 2018

Marvin’s life story was a fascinating patchwork of weird, unbelievable things; here, his musical story treads the same odd pathways, and the results are a strange, groovy trip, but a trip which still compels you to get up and dance. I love it. (9)

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635. Marvin Gaye: “She’s Got To Be Real”

August 22, 2013

It’s not great – it’s weird and it’s been poorly thought out, and what’s more it’s badly dated, as well as musically derivative of a much better song Marvin had already recorded. Still, even if it says very little about the Marvin Gaye we’ve come to know here in 1965, you can’t really accuse it of being dull, and that’s worth a couple of marks in itself. (5)

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634. Marvin Gaye: “Ain’t That Peculiar”

August 18, 2013

Not for the first time, Marvin Gaye sounds every inch the pop superstar, and once again here he’s made an excellent pop record. The difference, now, is that he’s making excellent records that sound like Marvin Gaye records, and everyone else is hereby put on notice. (8)

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599. Marvin Gaye: “Now That You’ve Won Me”

March 22, 2013

The overall effect is to remind me of the Supremes’ similarly beautiful, similarly half-realised Standing At The Crossroads Of Love: when it’s lovely, it’s lovely enough to matter. (6)

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598. Marvin Gaye: “Pretty Little Baby”

March 20, 2013

While this isn’t Marvin’s best Motown side so far – it’s bizarre, and it’s miserable, it’s probably my favourite. It’s raw, it’s honest, it’s painful, it’s beautiful, it’s everything I want when I go to Marvin’s later albums. Quite some going. (9)

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551. Marvin Gaye: “You’ve Been A Long Time Coming”

November 19, 2012

Never in a million years is this a single, and a greater contrast to the A-side you’d be hard-pushed to find, but it’s effortlessly beautiful all the same. (7)

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550. Marvin Gaye: “I’ll Be Doggone”

November 17, 2012

I love Marvin Gaye. Love him. As you’ll see later, he’s probably my favourite Motown artist. But this – this beautifully-formed little pop record – is wrong, and I’d be lying to myself – and undoing the entire purpose of this blog – if I didn’t call him and Smokey out for it. (5)

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520. Marvin Gaye: “My Way”

August 21, 2012

The painful truth is that while Marvin Gaye may have been Motown’s greatest and most fascinating solo star, his MOR output is that of a keen hobbyist indulging himself at the listener’s expense, and on this evidence, I’m not sad we won’t be covering any more of it. (2)

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519. Marvin Gaye: “This Is The Life”

August 19, 2012

A lifeless, rote rendition of a song that wasn’t all that great in the first place, and its very existence underlines the fact Marvin Gaye still wasn’t quite the finished article. (2)

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502. Marvin Gaye: “Forever”

July 10, 2012

The song itself hasn’t got worse, it’s still superb, and this is still a fine record. But yet again, I’m left wondering what I might have made of a Motown recording if I’d heard this version first, because as things stand, as lovely as Marvin sounds here, I’d go for the Marvelettes’ version every single time. (7)

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Motown Junkies

This is Motown Junkies, an unofficial guide to every Motown single ever released, or planned for release, on every US Motown label (or via Tamla Motown in the UK), featuring reviews of each A-side and B-side in chronological order. New reviews appear every couple of days.

Think of it as an unauthorised track-by-track companion to the magnificent The Complete Motown Singles CD box sets, and beyond, with marks out of ten.

I'm NOT Paul Nixon.

FURTHER INFORMATION

More info about the blog (and me) can be found here. If you want to leave a comment on any review, please feel free to do so - all feedback, corrections, disagreements and encouragements gratefully received. If you've something you'd rather not say in public, I can be contacted at fosse8 at gmail dot com.

(Oh, and if you arrived here looking for the Motown Junkies music group, they're nothing to do with me, I'm afraid - but they are very nice people, and they can be found at www.motownjunkies.com instead.)

HOW TO USE THIS BLOG

You can jump straight to the full list of reviews so far in the Master Index, or browse by label instead.

If you're looking for something a bit more specific, you can click an artist's name in the "Artist" menu at the top of the screen to see a little biography and all the reviews we've done for them so far. Only people whose records I've already discussed appear there at the moment - more names will be added to the lists all the time as I work my way through Motown's history, so do keep checking back!

Alternatively, the front page displays excerpts from the most recent reviews, and on the right hand side of the screen you'll see a list of the most recent entries and also a sampling of the most popular entries from the last 48 hours, as well as the latest comments left by visitors.

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This is an unofficial site, and is not affiliated in any way with Universal Motown, Hip-O Select or any of the artists referred to in the blog.

Where indicated, label scan images appear by kind permission of Lars "LG" Nilsson (as originally prepared for the Complete Motown Singles series).

Digital images courtesy of Gordon Frewin are supplied for use at motownjunkies.co.uk by arrangement. All applicable rights reserved. No unauthorised republication is permitted.

Many label images were kindly provided by Robb Klein, together with invaluable historical research.

All text © Motown Junkies, 2009-19. All rights reserved.

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