Particle Data Platform
You'll Hear It

I Want You – Marvin Gaye

4/13/20261 hr 7 min

Marvin Gaye's I Want You could be one of his greatest albums, and he didn't even write it. Producer Leon Ware wrote most of the songs for himself. Marvin Gaye was only supposed to record the title track. But he heard Leon playing a demo of the album one night and stayed up listening until morning. The next day, he asked Ware if he could have the whole thing.

In this episode, Peter and Adam break down why the title track, "I Want You", might be one of his best songs, and whether the rest of the...

Clips

Is This Marvin’s Best Song?
Grown Folks Thesis
Why The 90-Second Intro Works
The Sneaky Key Shift Magic
Do The Moans Go Too Far?
Marvin Wins The ’70s

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Adam Maness· Host0:00

    [funky music] Producer Leon Ware wrote this album for himself, but it took another man's genius to bring it to life. Marvin Gaye heard music bleeding through a wall at the studio one night. He came to find out what it was, and he stayed up listening to it over and over again. The next day, he approached Ware and said, "If you give me that album, I'll do the whole thing." It's I Want You, 1976, possibly one of the best Marvin Gaye albums, and he didn't even write it. [funky music] I'm Adam Mannis.

  2. Peter Martin· Host0:40

    And I'm Peter Martin.

  3. Adam Maness· Host0:41

    And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast.

  4. Peter Martin· Host0:43

    Music, explore.

  5. Adam Maness· Host0:45

    Explore, brought to you by Open Studio. Go to openstudiojazz.com for oh- Oh, go ahead.

  6. Peter Martin· Host0:52

    Go ahead ...

  7. Adam Maness· Host0:52

    a jazz lesson needs... Peter, we're just riffing.

  8. Peter Martin· Host0:55

    We're just riffing.

  9. Adam Maness· Host0:56

    We're just riffing.

  10. Peter Martin· Host0:56

    We thought more time before Martin came in as well, which is one of the most awesome things about a truly awesome record that we're gonna be exploring today.

  11. Adam Maness· Host1:03

    Buddy, this, this album is really keyed off of this opening track. We talk about it all the time, opening tracks, how important they are to albums.

  12. Peter Martin· Host1:10

    Yeah.

  13. Adam Maness· Host1:10

    This might be just, like, a number one, and I've got a hot take on this later, but I'll, I'll save it. I mean, we listen to I Want You here in a minute and- I want you ... kind of absorb the- Yeah ... greatness of the title track.

  14. Peter Martin· Host1:22

    It's a dope track. This is a great album. This was 1976, a great year. Uh, this was a bicentennial of our... Uh, this is one of those

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click "Accept All" to consent, or "Decline non-essential" to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.