Marvin Gaye...He's a big deal.

via soulrnb.com

Okay, I know you’re silently judging me. I know you’re thinking, “Surely this cannot be the first time she's listened to Marvin Gaye!” Well…

It’s not the first time but I’ve only heard his big hits such as Sexual Healing or the songs that were sampled in recent Hip Hop hits. I am slightly ashamed of this but I have a good reason why I waited so long! I already knew Marvin Gaye was on legendary status and I wanted to honor that by buying his actual vinyl records. The only problem with this is…

I have no record player. 

So, I finally broke down and listened to his album I Want You because it was suggested to me on my Apple Music profile and I wanted something new to listen to. I fell in love IMMEDIATELY. I’ve listened to just about all his albums at this point but I Want You still remains my favorite album other than Here, My Dear. Just in case any of you were in the same boat I was, I had to make sure I wrote this post!

I won’t lie to you all. I’ve become completely obsessed with Marvin Gaye! After learning more about him, I really relate to him as an artist. I’ve watched interviews, live performances, and rehearsal footage. But, my recent discovery of Janis Hunter took me over the edge! 

If you’ve listened to I Want You, you can hear that Gaye is constantly declaring his love for “Janis.” I naively assumed that he just made the name up while in the studio. I was WRONG. After some investigation, I found out that Janis was Gaye’s girlfriend and they got married a year after I Want You was released. I also found out that Janis just wrote and published a book about her time with Marvin. It’s called After The Dance. 

Of course I bought it and finished it within two days.

It is quite interesting and I definitely recommend it! Did you know that Marvin Gaye was 33 years old and Janis was only 17 when they started dating? Crazy right? Well, it was very cool to learn more about Gaye. Now I know most of the backstories to his songs and albums. I’ll probably continue to learn more about him. 

So to close out this post, I made a playlist of some of my favorite songs featuring Mr. Gaye. You can listen below: