The Very Best of Marvin Gaye

Two-CD set. Includes 34 classic tracks plus an unreleased track and rarities all newly digitally remasted. Track listing includes "How Sweet It is," "It Takes Two," "What's Going On," plus many more favorites.

Another Marvin Gaye overview/introduction? Why not? Pulling together the usual hits from "I'll Be Doggone" to "Grapevine," "What's Going On" to "Let's Get It On" to "Sexual Healing"--all musts for any R&B or pop fan--this two-CD set also offers treats for the Marvin connoisseur. Foremost are the previously unreleased "Where Are We Going?" which marries Nixon-era (and beyond) social concerns to a lilting groove that brings to mind Spinners records of the period, and an alternate mix of Gaye's rare version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." Very Best also pays proper tribute to Gaye's final years at Motown with the full 11-plus minutes of the intensely, casually funky "Got to Give It Up," Here, My Dear's smoldering "Anger," and several tracks from the under-heard Love Man/In Our Lifetime sessions. More than just a profit-generating package from the parent company, it's a loving, rounded selection that's sure to widen newcomers' perceptions of a great artist's creativity and spirit. --Rickey Wright