Marvin Gaye - Marvin Gaye Early Classics (1996)

An 18-song collection that Marvin Gaye's earliest fans will cherish. It's a nonstop cool-groove that reference from Gaye's first Tamla single "I'm Yours, You're Mine" (1/62) to "Little Darling (I Need You)" (7/66). Some choice A-, B-sides, and album cuts are missing from that four-and-a-half year span, but you can't please everybody. Plum obscurities include "Got to Get My Hands on Some Lovin'," from his first album (and later done by the Artistics); "She's Got to Be Real," the B-side of "Ain't That Peculiar"; and "Whenever I Lay My Hat." Six bonafide hits ("Ain't That Peculiar," "Little Darling," "How Sweet It Is," "You're a Wonderful One," "Stubborn Kinda Fellow," and "Can I Get a Witness") keep you locked in. Advanced technology makes every track and their intricacies ("you can hear not yet famous singers on backing vocals") sound better than remembered.~Early Classics Review by Andrew Hamilton