I'm telling you...

If Marvin Gaye ever topped himself in his album work during the '70s, then somehow he did with his collaborative effort with another legendary soul man Leon Ware in this fabulous lover's concerto, part II, otherwise known as the "I Want You" album.

Mainly this collection deserves its stars for these reasons:

1.) It's Marvin Gaye
2.) Leon Ware is providing most of the tracks
3.) Live instrumentation and musician worship
4.) It's Marvin's diary to his young woman, Janis
5.) CD 2 shows more of Marvin's vocals and is more lengthy than the original LP when it was released in 1976 (almost 30 years ago)
6.) It's Marvin Gaye (LOL)

If that ain't enough, then the different cuts of "I Want You" should be enough. In the vocal and rhythm acapella of the song, there's like two Marvins fighting vocally over each other while three or four other Marvins are singing like they're a group with a bass Marvin, several Marvin tenors and a Marvin falsetto that comes out of nowhere.

If that's STILL not enough, then maybe the instrumentals to "After the Dance", the different vocal cuts of that record, and of course the album cuts like:

"Soon I'll Be Loving You"
"Feel All My Love Inside"
"All The Way Round"
"I Wanna Be Where You Are" (the second side show a more funkier and longer cut that will have u dancing and of course his own vocal rap in the alternate cut)
"Come Live With Me Angel"

Matter of fact, IWY, ATD and CLWMA have been sampled by rap artists over and over with the last of the three recently was sampled for 50 Cent/G-Unit's "Wanna Get 2 Know U". "I Want You" and "After the Dance" has been sampled and covered over and over again over the years.

This wonderful album helped set a precedent for the artists who came after Marvin:

Prince
R. Kelly
D'Angelo
Maxwell
The DeBarge family
Avant
Montell Jordan
Joe
...(AND LOTS MORE)

This album is particularly the bomb!

And of course the unheard-of last two instrumentals are beautiful!

Now bring on the deluxe editions of Trouble Man, Marvin Gaye Live, Here, My Dear, In Our Lifetime and even Midnight Love RIGHT NOW! LOL

I bought "I Want You" on vinyl when it first came out in 1976. It quickly became one of my favorites--and the favorite of many others as well. I found a site on the web that said "I Want You" has been covered by 33 artists. My favorite is Gato Barbieri's burning sax version, also from 1976.

In the transition to CD, Motown released their back catalog in a bunch of cheesy two-fers, with "I Want You" backed with "I Heard it Through the Grapevine". Fearing that "I Want You" might disappear from sight, I bought it. So I was more than pleased to get a first rate version of one of my favorite albums with a very cool bonus in this package. The bonus album is kind of a "shadow" version of "I Want You" with alternate extended takes of every song on the album in the original order. Honestly, I haven't taken it off my CD changer since I bought it and haven't listened to the original album either. It's pretty amazing--like discovering you have a non-identical twin brother after 28 years.

Frankly, the alternate take on the "I Want You" vocal is not my favorite, but all the other shadow versions are improvemements in the sense that they're looser and jazzier than the originals. Highly recommended for "I Want You" addicts.

As a huge Marvin Gaye fan, I have virtually everything he released. And although I have the original versions of "I Want You" and "What's Going On", I didn't have the deluxe editions. After reading Michael Eric Dyson's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Art and Demons of Marvin Gaye)", (in part of which he gives an in depth look at how these deluxe editions came about), I decided that I needed to have them. After learning the history behind the releases of these editions, I am awestruck. Both are truly timeless classics, works of art that cannot be dismissed. Now that these have been published, I hope that a whole new generation of folks are enlightened to Mr. Gaye's genius.

This is about as seminal as you can get to hearing the genius in Marvin's music. I Want You may be the ultimate foreplay (both aural and, as Marvin indicates in one song, oral), when you listen to the original album on disk 1. But it's on disk two when you really see a lot about how Marvin's head heard all of the songs. The main reason however, is because the songs on disk 2 are for the most part not as easy to listen to as the original album on disk 1. Now, I love hearing the music on disc 2, but even in the liner notes they say that the second disk sounds disorganized. And boy are they right. Dont get me wrong - Marvin is a GOD to me. But you end up listening to disk 2 almost as a music historian studying Marvin's genius along with his flaws. For me, that's something I could do forever - but for those who want to just enjoy the final fruits of Marvin's labor without worrying about learning about how important a good producer and mixer are to a record - you might want to just buy the regular album, especially with the price difference.

I Want You came out when I was 15 and I fell in love with it right away! Even today it's my favorite of all of Marvin's CD's so when I saw this expanded edition I couldn't wait to hear it. I don't know that I can fully discribe the joy and wonder of being able to hear my favorite songs in a whole new way. This CD is a priceless gift to his fans because it is the only hope we have of hearing "something new" from Marvin. If you love the original I Want You, this is a must have. His vocals come out stronger and more sweet, dripping like honey in your ear. My favorite thing about this CD is the background vocals, make sure to listen to it with your headphones on and be ready to be transported to heaven! Not only do you hear Marvin's voice singing the lead but you will hear layer upon layer of him singing back up, it's 360 degrees of Marvin, what more could you ask for?