I want you marvin gaye album cover

In some ways, that led to You're the Man remaining unreleased at the time it finally got an official release in And when he was putting together music for his next album inhe sought help from producer Leon Ware, a Motown staffer who'd recently scored solo hits for Michael Jackson and the Smokey Robinson-less Miracles.

But inall was still relatively good. Like he'd been doing on his previous records, Gaye multi-tracked himself singing different parts. Gaye recorded the album during 19at his studio Marvin's Room in Los Angeles and at Motown's Los Angeles–based Hitsville West studio.

The opening title track, for example, is a third over before Gaye starts singing. Marvin Gaye was still in a pretty good place, personally and professionally, in early as he was prepping the release of his 14th album, I Want You. In between those two records, he wrote and produced the soundtrack for Trouble Man.

A truly solo achievement, Trouble Man served as some sort of consolation after What's Going On 's sequel, You're the Manwas shelved because of its political leanings. This album cover for Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” features artwork by African American artist Ernie Barnes.

I Want You Marvin

Elements of jazz and doo-wop also found their way into the material, bridging Gaye's '60s and early '70s music with a new future. Back inwhen he was assembling the songs and ideas that would result in What's Going OnGaye was leading a new artist-driven campaign at Motown, which slowly and tentatively began to loosen its grip on some in its stable of stars.

The deep bass, spacey soundscapes and groove-based beats in a way were just a step or two ahead of the burgeoning disco scene, but the overall picture seems much wider now. He also began experimenting with a synthesizer, which complemented the new musical direction Ware started steering toward.

There weren't a whole lot of albums that sounded like I Want You at the time, but in the decades since, the album's "quiet storm" sound inspired a genre, as well as an entire movement of neo-soul artists in the '90s and beyond. Within two years, it would all come tumbling down, as a messy divorce, drug abuse, another canceled record and dwindling sales piled up.

Gaye — who'd been around from nearly the start of the company, singing on his own hits as well as penning songs for others — wasn't given total control of his music until Trouble Manbut for the most part he was trusted with his vision.

This all added up to a slightly disjointed but mostly captivating album that seemed like another turning point for the artist, even upon its release on March 16, The three-year break since his last LP certainly had some effect here, but the musical leap had almost as much to do with Gaye and Ware's combined vision.

It hit No. Someone of Gaye's stature almost always charted well coming off a previous success, and the album's first single, the title track, made it to No. Those controversial lyrics certainly didn't help in spreading the word on radio or connecting with more conservative-minded listeners.

Marvin Gaye I Want

I Want You is the thirteenth studio album by the American soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. The painting “The Sugar Shack” illustrated by Barnes was originally created in and later adapted for Gaye’s album cover in Gaye and Ware holed up in the artist's newly opened Marvin's Room studio in Los Angeles, where they, along with Motown's Funk Brothers session musicians, spent chunks of and early working on the album.

Not that the album was appreciated as much back then. Gaye also embarked on a successful tour and recorded the last of his popular duet albums, this one with Diana Ross, around this time. He ended up playing a big part in shaping what eventually became I Want You.

His marriage to the sister of his Motown boss Berry Gordy was going through its final stages as his relationship with Janis Hunter, whom he met during the Let's Get It On sessions when she was 17, was heating up. The remarkable story of how Ernie Barnes' work became cover art for Marvin Gaye's album "I Want You" and a regular presence on the TV's "Good Times."?.

It was released on March 16,by the Motown Records -subsidiary label Tamla. More expansive and sweeping than much of Gaye's previous work, many of the songs on I Want You took a slow-burn approach to its melding of soul, funk and disco. Thing is, Gaye didn't always trust that vision himself.