What caught my eye first was the packaging! Pictures of various promotional posters and such line the inner cover and the liner booklet is most informative and extensive! A Forward written by Otis Williams of the Temptations is Otis' fond memories of Marvin. He mentions sitting at the piano with Marvin while Marvin plays with some jazz chords, asking Otis what the root note of each one is. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to catch that memory!

Watching Marvin's performances from the 60s to the early 80s gave me a new light on the hits! Most was lip-synched, but still just to see him on stage is a treat! There is a video of Marvin singing GRAPEVINE, playing piano at one point, and towards the end he was given a false ending, but he WORKED IT! Marvin and Tammi's duet AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH I have never seen in its entirety and just watching that chemistry was awesome!

Now as for the 70s Marvin, two videos were included: WHAT'S GOING ON/WHAT'S HAPPENING BROTHER, which were taken from the SAVE THE CHILDREN movie. You can see Earl Van Dyke, James Jamerson, and Eddie Bongo jammin'! There is also a promotional video from Motown for A FUNKY SPACE REINCARNATION...very space age! Imagine Marvin in a glitter outfit with his band, smoke and female dancers flocking all around him! There is also COME GET TO THIS/LET'S GET IT ON where he does his famous "turn of the lights" monologue. His guitarist was shown and I believe he played on the 1980 LIVE IN MONTREUX DVD as well! Then there's the EGO TRIPPIN' OUT video he did on Dinah Shore's show with yet another female dancer. The single was included on 81's IN OUR LIFETIME LP, but apparently it was being promoted in 1979 for the LOVE MAN album, which never saw the light.

1981's highlight for me was HEAVY LOVE AFFAIR on FOLLLIES, a show out of Belgium where Marvin was living at the time. I had to pull out my LP after listening to it as I had forgotten how funky this song is! HEAVY (once again talks about him and Jan) has always reminded me of Rick James, everything from the music down to the phrasing of the lyrics!

Even added treats: in between songs, Marvin spoke about his life and his music, even at one point describing seeing his daughter Nona being born! There is also an acapella section where you watch the videos while listening only to his vocal track of 7 of his 60s hits!

Still a great DVD to own, although the IMPORT version has the entire Belgium concert (why must we Americans SUFFER!?!?!?!?!?)!

Reelin' and Universal...can't wait for the Temptations DVD! And PLEASE release the Belgium concert for us!!

Marvin Gaye is one of the most legendary Soul singers of all time. Yet up on till now he didn't have a proper DVD release. A mistake that "The Real Thing" Justly corrects. The DVD paints a picture of how Marvin's career looked like on stage. Motown chose for a clips approach, which is probably best in Marvin's case. Marvin Gaye never liked to be on stage, never liked to be out there shaking his ass. It is known that Marvin only toured when he really had to. Gaye hit rock bottom financially a couple of times during his career and usually around those times he would be persuaded to tour in order to pay of his debts. This unwillingness to perform often showed on his live albums. In concert Marvin only reached the stellar heights he did in the studio, periodically. By taking the clip approach this DVD avoids that problem and manages to give us an insight in how his music developed over the years.

"The Real Thing" is pretty much a greatest hits overview. It starts out with young Marvin performing his first hit, Hitch Hike, and then continues thru the stellar Tammi Terrell duets to his later work. The clips stop where Marvin left Motown at Heavy Love Affair. All the way you can't help but marvel over the flexibility of his voice and the diversity of the material he's tackled over the years.

For those curious how an entire show of Marvin looked like, the DVD features a lot of great bonus material. Included is the full performance used in the Belgium documentary "Save the Children". We can only hope that Motown will one day decide to release this film entirely. As I recall its one of the better documentaries on Marvin Gaye around. Other bonus material is a nice and sometimes insightful interview and some a cappella versions of his biggest hits. Nothing essential but proper bonus material.

The sum in total makes a fun and great DVD. Let's hope Motown will make this a first in a series.

This truly is a well done effort, capturing as it does the development of an American musical icon. From earliest lyp-synched, black and white TV appearances to later color and then color live performances (a great 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' from 1969, and fantastic, chilling 'What's Going On/What's Happening Brother' from the 'Save the Children' film footage of 1972), through disco-influenced mid-70's live and promotional footage, this really does a legend justice. The decision to use the original master tape recordings to replace the early TV performance recordings is a great idea, working very well. This collection of film materials is also a fascinating look at changes in the popular culture of the USA, what with the gradual de-segregation of audiences, and thematic changes in Gaye's lyrics and music, and more. Short interviews from various TV shows like 'Dinah Shore' are sandwiched between several of the performances, and are interesting and enjoyable. A bonus feature is all the songs' vocal tracks, available to hear a capella, as you watch the videos. You can also apparently switch to full band as an option, although my home equipment doesn't permit this.

My 'international' DVD edition, available from the mega-corporate music monster Universal company, says '25 full-length performances' on the cover, rather than the 16 of the US edition. The extra nine songs are the live 1981 Ostende, Belgium concert, featured as an extra on the same disc as the other 16 performances of my 'international' (for lack of another term) edition.

My edition also features a second disc, a CD of an excellent live show in Europe in 1976 (also in Belgium, apparently), and which features "Flo" (Florence Ballard?) joining MG for a medley of songs toward the end of the live set.

Why does the US edition have fewer songs? Probably so that customers in a supposedly 'wealthier country' shell out the extra money for a separate DVD, I imagine.

Anyway, do yourself and future generations a favor by getting the US or foreign editions of this DVD document of great, inspired performances by an outstanding talent of American popular music.

If you love sixties soul music, you love Marvin Gaye: handsome, with an exquisite voice and feel for a song. But the vast majority of these clips are more for sentimental value than exemplars of his genius. Obviously, watching MG lip-synch is of limited appeal, made none the more enticing because of the mediocre video quality. And some of the live performances are simply frustrating. He performs Heard It Through the Grapevine without back up singers or musicians so he can't perform much of the song. (Although it is hilarious watching him perform in front of a crowd of old white folk who sit and watch as if they are listening to a lecture on cleaning products. How those people were able to avoid moving to the music at least a little bit . . . well, it's quite disturbing.)

Thinking about all of the great performers from the sixties like Marvin, Sam Cooke or Jackie Wilson for who there is so little quality performance footage is heartbreaking. If you'd like a scrapbook to prompt thoughts of the magic that Marvin offered, this dvd is fine. But don't expect to see something resembling the "live" Marvin experience.

I learned about Marvin when I was a little girl and my Mother would have me keep starting the record over LOL so baby when I tell you I was hooked on Marvin from childhood I aint lying and as I grew Marvin became my 'man in my head' cause he was cool as ice and sexy as hell even though he did not dance LOL.I enjoy going back if only in my mind to the good old days when black people did not act like crabs in a barrel but reached out to help neighbors in the 'village'