Search - Marvin Gaye :: When I'm Alone I Cry

A Tour de Force By The Great Marvin Gaye

Shell-Zee | Long Island, NY | 02/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With the recent trend of pop stars covering standards, you'll be stunned by Marvin Gaye's interpretations of these Tin Pan Alley classics. Everybody it seems is hopping onboard this trend. Carly Simone put out Torch about eight years ago. Harry Nilsson recorded A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night. And Rod Stewart was so smitten with the bug he put out three albums of standards. Not only does Mr Gaye have the impecable voice inflection and pharsing to pull this off, the accompaniment here is almost flawless in creating the appropriate mood to make this a full fledged tour de force by one of pop music's greatest song stylists. When I'm Alone I Cry is a unique entry in the cannon of recorded works by the inimitable Marvin Gaye. Long out-of-print and not easy to find, seek out this wonderful recording. Turn out the lights and listen as Marvin Gaye pours his heart out!"

Easily one of his best albums

Nicholas Bochna | Wayne, NJ | 01/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Clearly this was the type of music Marvin wanted to record. As evidenced by his solo debut with Motown, 'The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye', he recorded an album full of standards. That album was a failure(in my opinion because of the flat instrumentation) which forced him to record RnB because of Berry Gordy's persistence. Marvin's next album, 'That Stubborn Kinda Fellow' was RnB and had several hits that gave him some popularity. He then recorded a 2nd album of standards called 'Hello Broadway', which I have not heard.



In the same year, 1964, he released another album of standards called 'When I'm Alone I Cry', which to me, is an amazing effort. The production and orchestrations are very well put together and blend beautifully with Marvin's soft voice. You can really feel his emotions.



This CD contains both the stereo and mono versions of each song. It's hard to choose a favorite song, but the three that stand out the most to me are: I Was Telling Her About You, the title track, and If My Heart Could Sing. If you were a fan of Billie Holiday's 'Lady in Satin' and/or Frank Sinatra's 'In The Wee Small Hours', I would definitely recommend this album to you. Those two other albums are definitive classics in history, but somehow this one got lost in the mix. This kind of music is really great and something about the softness in Marvin's voice makes it so special to me, truly unique.



The only drawback is that it's out of print so it'll be hard to find and also expensive. It was a must have for me, and one of the only albums I haven't heard of his 'til now. I think it's one his very best though. Others looking to hear this type of music from Marvin should check out his tribute CD to Nat King Cole, which came out two years after this one. That CD is good too and is still available very cheap."

Like you have never heard him before

Mk Shoemaker | Fort Worth, TX USA | 08/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Give this early recording of Marvin a try. I promise you will hear him like you never have before. You will end up wearing out your cd and then searching like a mad person trying to find another copy, as they are rare and hard to come by."