I Want You (Marvin Gaye song)

Infobox Single
Name = I Want You


Artist = Marvin Gaye
from Album = I Want You (album)
B-side = I Want You (Instrumental)
Released = April 1, 1976
Format = Vinyl single
Recorded = Marvin's Room, Los Angeles, California, 1975
Genre = Soul, downtempo disco
Length = 4:34 (single release)
Label = Tamla
Writer = Leon Ware Arthur "T-Boy" Ross
Producer = Leon Ware Marvin Gaye
Last single = "Distant Lover" (live)
(1974)
This single = "I Want You" (1976)
Next single = "After The Dance (1976)
Misc = Audiosample
Upper caption = Music sample
Name = I Want You
Audio file= I Want You sample.ogg

"I Want You" is a 1976 hit song recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye and released on the Tamla subsidiary of Motown Records. It was the title track and biggest release from the album of the same name.

History

Conception

Originally conceived by Motown songwriter Leon Ware and his songwriting partner "T-Boy" Ross, it was originally intended to be included in Ware's "Musical Massage" album. When Ware, who was also signed to the label as a solo artist, presented the rough draft of his album to Motown-CEO Berry Gordy, the mogul was appreciative of the songs, including a rough version of "I Want You". But after hearing it, he convinced Ware to give some of the songs to Marvin Gaye, who was coming off the release of his acclaimed 1973 record, "Let's Get It On", his final duet recording with Diana Ross and a commercially successful live album and was coming off a US tour at the time. Marvin, who called himself a perfectionist, had struggled with creating a follow-up album to "Let's Get It On". When Ware played Gaye the rough draft of "I Want You", Marvin, then inspired by his relationship with his nineteen-year-old girlfriend Janis Hunter [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/bluessoulreggae/reviews/marvingaye_iwantyou.shtml] , was motivated to record a convincing performance of the song, which was about a man trying to convince a wayward lover that he wanted the woman to love him as much as he did.

Purportedly recorded at Marvin's Room, the singer's new recording studio in Los Angeles, Marvin also reportedly recorded the song while lying on his back of his sofa according to Ware, who said that he couldn't see Gaye at first but then discovered a laid-back Marvin delivering the song in his trademark tenor vocals.

Reception

Released on April 1, 1976, the single was released a month after its similarly-titled parent album was released, the single gained success on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles chart, eventually peaking at number-fifteen on the Hot 100 and number-one on the R&B chart. The single's light-disco/soul approach helped the song gained a club audience after it was combined with the album's second single, "After the Dance" and peaked at number-ten on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart, Marvin's first single on that chart. Eventually the song would help its self-titled album sell over a million copies. Marvin would also be nominated with a Grammy Award for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance, losing out the second time to Lou Rawls, whom he had a competitive rivalry with, for his single, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine".

Covers

Diana Ross, whose brother T-Boy co-wrote the song, remade "I Want You" for her "I Love You" album, released in 2007.

Robert Palmer released a medley of "I Want You" and another Marvin Gaye song, "Mercy Mercy Me" in January, 1991. This single reached #9 in the UK charts.

"I Want You" is also the name of Australian television star Toni Pearen's debut single from 1993.

Madonna recorded the song with British trip-hop group, Massive Attack. The cover was featured on the tribute album as well as Something to Remember and Collected.

References

* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:mqom963odee5/ Allmusic.com article about the Marvin Gaye version of "I Want You"]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/bluessoulreggae/reviews/marvingaye_iwantyou.shtml BBC Review of "I Want You" album]

Footnotes

*BBC Review Op Cit. 4 August 2003