Search - Marvin Gaye :: The Very Best of Marvin Gaye

Some Are Way Too Easy To Please

08/28/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Let's begin by acknowledging that Marvin Gaye was one of THE most important singing artists/stylists of the 1960s/70s and early 1980s. From 1962 to the time of his tragic death in April 1984 he had 60 R&B singles hits, most of which also scored on the Billboard Pop Hot 100 for Motown's Tamla subsidiary.



Following his death, three more would make the R&B charts, including My Last Chance, released in 1990 on Motown. He was also inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 1987, and in 1996 was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.



So, in putting together a 22-selection CD under the title "The Very Best Of" the producers certainly had a wealth of material to choose from among his hit records. So what do they do? Include six tracks [4, 7, 11, 14, 20, and 22] that were not hits or even the B-sides of hits, and one [track 16] which was the flip of a hit - 1960's Keep On Lovin' Me Honey with Tammi Terrell [# 11 R&B/# 24 pop]. Which they do NOT include, by the way. Nor do they provide liner notes or discography of the contents.



Here's a man with a background that could fill several books and they can't find someone to give us a few pages of information. For example, it might have been of interest to some to know that, on both Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By and The Onion Song the female vocalist was actually Valerie Simpson, as Tammi was too ill at the time to complete the sessions [although she is credited on the records]. That also applied to the late 1969 hit What You Gave Me, also not included here.



I like Marvin Gaye's music as much as the next person, but some people are obviously way to easy to please. Companies like Motown, MCA, BMG, etc., have to learn that the buying public demands a bigger bang for their buck these days, especially when something is hailed as "The Very Best Of" or "The Greatest Hits Of."



Quality outfits like Ace Records of London, Rhino, Varese-Sarabande, Eric, and Bear of Germany know this and go out of their way to provide us with detail-filled liner notes and, for the most part, the singles that made these people stars in the first place.

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