# Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition’ Special 50th Anniversary Release Out August 25th

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/marvin-gayes-lets-get-it-on-deluxe-edition-special-50th-anniversary-release-out-august-25th/
- Published: 2023-08-10T17:00:00-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

“It flows with ease… Gaye’s voice, hovering around the falsetto, holding our attention
and providing unique transitions in mood and style.” – Jon Landau, **_Rolling Stone_**

“A record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy.” – Jason Ankeny,**
_AllMusic.com_**

### **Motown/UMe Celebrates the 50^(th) Birthday of **⏎ **Marvin Gaye’s  _Let’s Get It On_ With Brand-New Deluxe Edition Available August 25 at Digital Platforms

#### _**Let’s Get It On**_** Event Taking Place at the GRAMMY Museum on August 23⏎ Featuring Smokey Robinson, Jimmy Jam and Marvin Gaye Biographer David RitzRare & Unreleased Tracks Will Be Premiered

**AUGUST 9, 2023 (Los Angeles, CA ) — ** In celebration of the Golden Anniversary
of the iconic** Marvin Gaye** album**_ Let’s Get It On_**, Motown/UMe is releasing
digitally a revised and expanded**_ Let’s Get It On:_** **_Deluxe Edition_** on **
August 25, 2023**, the day before the album’s original release date in 1973 fifty
years prior. Featuring a fascinating trove of 33 bonus tracks, 18 of them previously
unreleased, the Prince of Soul’s creative explorations continued to unfold with 
the production of this pivotal release. Collectively, the bonus material leans into
the story of Gaye’s multi-layered personal struggles during the album’s creation.
To honor this milestone, a _Let’s Get It On_ event will take place at the GRAMMY
Museum on August 23 featuring Smokey Robinson, Jimmy Jam, and Marvin Gaye biographer
David Ritz. Get tickets [here](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=45dc2218b3&e=615f2b8493).

[⌊Marvin Gaye album cover⌉⌊Marvin Gaye album cover⌉[

**MARVIN GAYE**
**_Let’s Get It On – Deluxe Edition_**_ ([pre-order here](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=36fa8e925b&e=615f2b8493))_

Comprised of tracks recorded during an intense six months of sessions in Los Angeles
in ’73, this newly enriched**_ Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition_** presents the album’s
original eight songs alongside unheard mixes and material from all the sessions 
along the way, in addition to a trove of funky and fascinating instrumental tracks–
and unreleased versions of the ballad recordings Marvin returned to time and again.

To further commemorate the record’s golden anniversary, the original album will 
be available in Dolby ATMOS. In the coming weeks, Motown/UMe will premiere new video
content for select tracks, and an e-commerce-only colored vinyl edition of the original
album.

After the success of **_What’s Going On _**which Rolling Stone has deemed on of 
the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (and its title track one of the 500 Greatest
Songs of All Time) and the following album, the proto-acid-jazz soundtrack to_ Trouble
Man_, Gaye had won Motown’s trust.

The freedom was liberating but also fueled a heightened uncertainty about where 
to take his career. At a personal crossroads involving relocation to Los Angeles,
a fraying marriage, a budding romance with Janis Hunter, who attended the initial
sessions, and a driving need to experiment, Gaye found a steam valve in creating
a suite of erotically charged yet emotionally vulnerable songs. But the final album
lineup was drawn from a series of different sessions, resulting in a wealth of vaulted
material.

Marvin’s first step in early ’73 was to seek out Ed Townsend, the artist, songwriter
and producer best known for his 1950s ballad hit, “For Your Love.” He initially 
had Townsend guide him through ballad arrangements created especially for Marvin
by arranger/pianist Bobby Scott in 1966, tracks he obsessed over for years.

But these versions of the ballads, like ones Marvin recorded earlier, were left 
behind; the revealing, previously unreleased ’73 versions are included on the new_
Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition_. (Later vocals were included on the posthumous 
release, _Vulnerable_.)

Simultaneously, sharing their mutual vulnerability, Marvin and Ed wrote new material
that eventually became Side 1 of the _Let’s Get It On_ album.

“I’d just come out of rehab, where I’d beaten a monstrous addiction to alcohol,”
the late Townsend said. “I was looking to move ahead with my life – to ‘get it on.’
Marvin grasped this completely. But he didn’t stop learning the lyrics. He bypassed
superficiality, questioning where you were coming from when you composed the song.
He couldn’t just sing it; he had to connect with it as deeply as he’d written it
himself. 

“I witnessed the pain he was going through in his life; I was also blessed to witness
the joy of an artist fully engaging with his work.”

With Townsend and veteran arranger Rene Hall, and a slew of stellar session musicians,
including veteran saxophonist Plas Johnson, guitarist Melvin “Wah Wah” Ragin, jazz
drummer Paul Humphrey and the Crusaders’ Wilton Felder on bass, Gaye recorded six
songs, completing three, transforming the hopeful theme of what became the album’s
title song into a call for spiritual sex. Again, he moved on.

Marvin reunited with David Van DePitte — the Detroit arranger who unified **_What’s
Going On_** into a cohesive suite — and they delivered blazing cuts with a few of
the same musicians, plus Herbie Hancock on piano, who met “Wah Wah” for the first
time during these sessions and would go on to collaborate with him on several albums;
guitarists John Morell, then with Shelly Manne’s band and soon a veteran of countless
hits, and Richard Bennett, who became a key member of Neil Diamond’s band for nearly
two decades and later produced Emmylou Harris. James Jamerson, the original Motown
Funk Brother who was also new to LA, switched off on bass with Felder. Yet Marvin
left those tracks behind, too. 

Nothing hung together until Motown, watching months fly by without a new Marvin 
Gaye record, pulled “Let’s Get It On” from the tapes and rush-released it as a single
before an album was finished. Alongside new hits from Motown’s own Stevie Wonder,
a newly solo Smokey Robinson (in his solo debut), Eddie Kendricks, and Diana Ross,“
Let’s Get It On” shot to No. 1 Pop (2 weeks) and R&B (6 weeks). The company’s first
full year on the West Coast was proving a resounding success.

During the song’s climb to the top, _Let’s Get It On_ the album began taking shape.
Gaye built upon tracks that had originated in Detroit in the fall of 1970 – the 
Side 2 gems “Come Get To This,” “Distant Lover” (the album’s second single) and “
Just To Keep You Satisfied” – while also finalizing additional selections from the
Townsend sessions and his own, provocative “You Sure Love To Ball,” which was eventually
the third single from the album. _Let’s Get It On_ stayed No. 1 on the Soul Albums
chart for 11 weeks in the fall of 1973 while peaking at No. 2 Pop. 

Inducted into the **GRAMMY Hall of Fame** in 2004, _Let’s Get It On_ represents 
a pivotal moment not only in the career of Marvin Gaye but in the evolution of soul
music. Gaye gave voice to intimate desire in a way that was lightning charged. At
the time, he claimed it was spiritually guided. Fifty years on, it’s never been 
more apparent that he was telling the truth.   

In the acclaimed biography, _**Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye**_, author 
David Ritz put the project into perspective with the following summation: “The paradox
is this: The sexiest of Marvin Gaye’s work is also his most spiritual. That’s the
paradox of Marvin himself. In his struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration
of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hunger—the hunger for God. In 
those songs of loss and lament—the sense of separation is heartbreaking. On one 
level, the separation is between man and woman. On a deeper level, the separation
is between man and God.”

_**Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition**_
**Tracklisting**

[⌊Marvin Gaye album cover⌉⌊Marvin Gaye album cover⌉[

_**Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition**_

**Original Album \***
1.     Let’s Get It On2.     Please Stay (Once You Go Away)
3.     If I Should Die Tonight4.     Keep Gettin’ It On5.     Come Get To This6.
Distant Lover7.     You Sure Love To Ball8.     Just To Keep You Satisfied

**Single Edits**
 9.    Let’s Get It On (single version) *10.   You Sure Love To
Ball (single version) *11.   If I Should Die Tonight (original LP edit) *

**Album Bonus Tracks**
12.   Let’s Get It On – demo **13.   Let’s Get It On – Pt.
II (a.k.a. Keep Gettin’ It On) **14.   I Knew One Day My Day Would Come (instrumental)
15.   Interlude #116.   Please Stay (Once You Go Away) – alternate mix 1 **17.  
Lovely Lady (instrumental)18.  If I Should Die Tonight – demo **19.   I Don’t Have
To Get High To Do It (instrumental)20.   Come Get To This – alternate mix 1 **21.
Distant Lover – alternate mix 1 **22.   You Sure Love To Ball – alternate mix 1 
w/alternate vocal **23.   Just To Keep You Satisfied – alternate mix w/alternate
vocal **24.   Interlude #225.   If I Should Die Tonight – SaLaAM ReMi’s Piano Mix
26.   Just To Keep You Satisfied – John Morales’s Stripped Mix  

**The David Van DePitte Sessions**
27.   Song #1 (instrumental)28.   Song #2 (instrumental)
29.   Song #3 (instrumental) **30.   Song #4 (partial vocal)31.   Shake Well (instrumental)
32.   Perfection (instrumental)33.   Cakes (instrumental) **34.   My Love Is Growing(
Super Polished) **

_**Vulnerable**_**: The 1973 vocals**
35.   She Needs Me 36.   Why Did I Choose 
You37.   Funny, Not Much 38.   This Will Make You Laugh 39.   The Shadow Of Your
Smile 40.   I Wish I Didn’t Love You So41.   I Won’t Cry Anymore *   Previously 
released      ** Previously released bonus songs with fresh mixes**All other tracks
are previously unreleased. **

_The newly revised Deluxe Edition replaces a deluxe edition first released in 2001,
as most of its bonus tracks are now available in the previously vaulted album of
1972 recordings, _You’re the Man_, issued by Motown/UMe in 2019._

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