''Romantically Yours'' is the second posthumous release by American recording artist

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

, also released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in 1985.

Background

When Marvin Gaye was killed in April 1984, he still had two albums left to complete on his contract with Columbia Records. In May 1985, Columbia issued the album, '' Dream of a Lifetime'', which performed modestly on the chart. A little over six months later, Columbia assembled tracks from Gaye's Motown period, mostly of

traditional pop Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western culture, Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known ...

and

vocal jazz Vocal jazz or jazz singing is an approach to jazz using the voice. Vocal jazz emerged in the early twentieth century, with its roots in Blues. Popular blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey had a great deal of influence of jazz vocalis ...

tunes that Gaye had recorded in the 1960s and 1970s and named it "Romantically Yours".

Recording

Starting in 1968, Gaye had begun working on a pop vocal album with producer and arranger Bobby Scott. Among the songs they recorded were "Why Did I Choose You", "More", "

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

", "

Fly Me To The Moon "Fly Me to the Moon", originally titled "In Other Words", is a song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. The first recording of the song was made in 1954 by Kaye Ballard. Frank Sinatra's 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions ...

" and "I Won't Cry Anymore". Midway through recording, Gaye, depressed over personal issues and upset over his career, stopped recording sessions with Scott and wouldn't revisit the work with Scott for over a decade. During the 1970s, Gaye revisited the studio and composed songs over a jazz setting, including "Just Like", "Walkin' in the Rain" and "Stranger in My Life". The song "I Live For You" was originally recorded during sessions for ''

Let's Get It On ''Let's Get It On'' is the thirteenth studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP. Recording sessions for the album took pla ...

''. Having revisited his Scott productions in the late 1970s, Gaye recorded several different versions of the song "The Shadow of Your Smile". In the version featured on ''Romantically Yours'', Gaye sings in both tenor and falsetto. In addition to these songs, a song composed in the early 1960s by

Eddie Holland Edward Holland Jr. (born October 30, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Holland was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Although he was an early Motown artist who recorded minor hit singles such as "Jamie", ...

and

Norman Whitfield Norman Jesse Whitfield (May 12, 1940 – September 16, 2008) was an American songwriter and producer, who worked with Berry Gordy's Motown labels during the 1960s.allmusic Biography/ref> He has been credited as one of the creators of the Motow ...

, "Happy Go Lucky", was also included. Most of the songs were reworked by Harvey Fuqua, who took credit for producing the album. The album was released in November 1985, intended for Gaye's fans, rather than for commercial assumption, which was the case of ''In Our Lifetime''. With the release of ''Romantically Yours'', Columbia completed Gaye's contract. In 1997, several of the songs featured in a different sound culled from the 1979 sessions of an album titled ''The Ballads'', were included in the Motown compilation, '' Vulnerable''.

Track listing

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" (

Norman Newell Norman Newell (25 January 1919 – 1 December 2004) was an English record producer, who was mainly active in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the songwriter, co-writer of many notable songs. As an A&R manager for EMI, he worked with musicians su ...

Nino Oliviero Nino Oliviero (13 February 1918 – 29 February 1980) was an Italian composer. Born in Naples, Oliviero began his career as composer after the Second World War, composing a series of successful Neapolitan melodies such as "'Nu quarto 'e luna" a ...

Riz Ortolani Riziero Ortolani (; 25 March 192623 January 2014) was an Italian composer, conductor, and orchestrator, predominantly of film scores. He scored over 200 films and television programs between 1955 and 2014, with a career spanning over fifty year ...

) – 2:40 #"Why Did I Choose You" (Michael Leonard, Herbert Martin) – 2:36 #"

" (

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...

) – 3:06 #"

The Shadow of Your Smile "The Shadow of Your Smile", also known as "Love Theme from ''The Sandpiper''", is a popular song. The music was written by Johnny Mandel with the lyrics written by Paul Francis Webster. The song was introduced in the 1965 film ''The Sandpiper'' ...

" (

Johnny Mandel John Alfred Mandel (November 23, 1925June 29, 2020) was an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. The musicians he worked with include Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Benn ...

Paul Francis Webster Paul Francis Webster (December 20, 1907 – March 18, 1984) was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and was nominated sixteen times for the award. Life and career Webster was born in New York City, United St ...

) – 3:03 #"

Fly Me to the Moon "Fly Me to the Moon", originally titled "In Other Words", is a song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. The first recording of the song was made in 1954 by Kaye Ballard. Frank Sinatra's 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions ...

" (

Bart Howard Bart Howard (born Howard Joseph Gustafson, June 1, 1915 – February 21, 2004) was an American composer and songwriter, most notably of the jazz standard "Fly Me to the Moon", which has been performed by Kaye Ballard, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, ...

) – 3:19 #"I Won't Cry Anymore" (Al Frisch, Fred Wise) – 2:40 #" Just Like" (Gaye) – 4:08 #"Walkin' in the Rain" (Gaye) – 2:54 #"I Live for You" (Gaye) – 2:40 #"Stranger in My Life" (Gaye) – 3:41 #"Happy Go Lucky" (

) – 2:35

References

{{Authority control 1985 albums Marvin Gaye albums Albums published posthumously Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Harvey Fuqua Marvin Gaye compilation albums Compilation albums published posthumously Columbia Records compilation albums Albums produced by Marvin Gaye