''Trouble Man'' is a

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

and the twelfth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

singer

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 ...

, released on December 8, 1972, on Motown-subsidiary label

Tamla Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...

. As the soundtrack to the 1972

Blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

film of the same name, the ''Trouble Man'' soundtrack was a more contemporary move for Gaye, following his politically charged album '' What's Going On''. This was the first album to be written and produced solely by Gaye. The only other album recorded under his full creative control was '' In Our Lifetime'', released in 1981.

Recording

Following the success of '' What's Going On'', Marvin Gaye had not only won creative control, but a renewed $1 million contract with

Motown Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...

subsidiary Tamla had made the musician the most profitable R&B artist of all time. Signing the contract in early 1972, Gaye sought to take advantage of his opportunities. Bolstered by the successes of film soundtracks such as '' Shaft'' and '' Superfly'', Motown offered the musician a chance to compose his own film soundtrack after winning rights to produce the crime thriller, '' Trouble Man''. Unlike

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwri ...

and

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.

, who mixed social commentary with sexual songs in their respective soundtracks, Gaye chose to focus primarily on the film's character, "Mister T", producing and composing both the film's score while entirely producing the film's soundtrack, which was recorded at Motown Studios (or "Hitsville West") in Hollywood. Following the closing of Detroit's

Hitsville USA "Hitsville U.S.A." is the nickname given to Motown's first headquarters and recording studio. The house (formerly a photographers' studio) is located at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, near the New Center area. The house was purch ...

studios in 1972, Motown had primarily moved its location to Los Angeles, where Gaye also relocated while he recorded the ''Trouble Man'' album. Gaye invited several musicians, including some from the

Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...

and musicians from

Hamilton Bohannon Hamilton Frederick Bohannon (March 7, 1942 – April 24, 2020), often credited and known professionally simply as Bohannon, was an American percussionist, band leader, songwriter, arranger, and record producer, who was one of the leading figures ...

's band. Gaye would compose five different versions of the title track, including an alternate vocal version, which was used primarily for the film's intro. The alternate version featured Gaye

double-tracking Double tracking or doubling is an audio recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or bigger sound than can be obtained with a single voice or instrument. ...

two lead vocal parts into one, overlaying his

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

vocals with his

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

. The single version, which was also featured on the soundtrack, would feature a single lead vocal take. The other three versions were put on the album as

instrumentals A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live music ...

with Gaye providing

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

keyboards while

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

solos (and occasionally guitar) accompany him. The only other songs in which Gaye vocalized harmonies or performed lead vocals included "Poor Abbey Walsh", "Cleo's Apartment", "Life is a Gamble", "Don't Mess with Mister T" and "There Goes Mister T".

Critical reception

Bolstered by the hit success of the title track, which returned Gaye to a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

format reaching number 4 on the Soul Chart and number 7 on the Pop Charts, respectively, the album followed in December where it reached the top 20 of the ''Billboard'' 200, peaking at number 12. On Cashbox and Record World Magazines Charts the album even reached the Top 5, hitting almost as high as its monumental predecessor ''What‘s Going On'', eighteen months earlier. It would become Gaye's only soundtrack and film score. Critics gave the album favorable reviews while sometimes comparing Gaye's soundtrack efforts to that of Hayes' and Mayfield's. Following this, other R&B musicians would produce soundtracks of their own, including

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

Barry White Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came ...

and fellow Motown acts,

Willie Hutch William McKinley Hutchison (December 6, 1944 – September 19, 2005), better known as Willie Hutch, was an American singer, songwriter as well as a record producer and recording artist for the Motown record label during the 1970s and 1980s. Biog ...

and

Edwin Starr Charles Edwin Hatcher (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003), known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. Starr was famous for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the number-on ...

In popular culture

In the 2014 film '' Captain America: The Winter Soldier'', Sam Wilson recommends the album as essential listening to Steve Rogers, who had until recently been frozen in ice since the Second World War: Wilson says it's "everything you missed jammed into one album". Towards the end of the film the titular track is playing on an iPhone. In the episode " Power Broker" of the 2021

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

series ''

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ''The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'' is an American television miniseries created by Malcolm Spellman for the streaming service Disney+, based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Sam Wilson / Falcon and Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier. ...

'', Wilson notices that

Bucky Barnes James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Originally introduced as a sidekick to Captain America, the character was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and first appeared ...

has the same pocket notebook and mentions that he had recommended the album to Rogers. When Barnes does not seem to share the same level of enthusiasm for the album, Baron

Helmut Zemo Helmut Zemo is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly as an adversary of the superhero Captain America and the Avengers. He is the son of Baron Heinrich Zemo and the thirteenth Baron Ze ...

enthuses flamboyantly about the album, telling Barnes that it is "...a masterpiece. Complete. Comprehensive. It captures the African-American experience", much to Wilson's amazement. The episode aired on Marvin Gaye's birthday.

Track listing

All songs written by

Original LP

Side One #"Main Theme from ''Trouble Man'' (2)" – 2:30 #"'T' Plays It Cool" – 4:27 #"Poor Abbey Walsh" – 4:13 #"The Break In (Police Shoot Big)" – 1:57 #"Cleo's Apartment" – 2:10 #" Trouble Man" – 3:49 #"Theme from ''Trouble Man''" – 2:01 Side Two #"'T' Stands for Trouble" – 4:48 #"Main Theme from ''Trouble Man'' (1)" – 3:52 #"Life Is a Gamble" – 2:32 #"Deep-in-It" – 1:25 #"Don't Mess with Mister 'T'" – 3:04 #"There Goes Mister 'T'" – 1:37

2012 Reissue

Disc one (bonus tracks) #Main Theme From Trouble Man (2) (Alternate Take With Strings) #"T" Plays It Cool (Unedited) #Poor Abbey Walsh, Part 2 (Take 1) #Poor Abbey Walsh, Part 2 (Take 2) #Trouble Man (Extended Version) #Theme From Trouble Man (Vocal Version) #"T" Stands For Trouble (Unedited Vocal Version) #"T" Stands For Trouble (Alternate Version) #Main Theme From Trouble Man (Vocal Version) Disc two (Original Film Score) #Trouble Man #Poor Hall #"T" Plays It Cool #Cadillac Interlude / Cleo's Apartment #Man Tied Up / Jimmy's West / Conversation With Cleo #Crap Game (A.K.A. The Break In) / Getting Rid Of Body / Talking To Angel #Outside Police Station #Bowling Alley / Parking Lot #Stick Up #Cleaners / Cleo #Closing Jimmy's #Police Break In #"T" Cleans Up / Police Station #Packing Up / Jimmy Gets Worked / Saying Goodbye / "T" Breaks In / Movie Theater #Car Ride / Looking For Pete #Parking Garage / Elevator #Penthouse #Getting Pete #My Name Is "T" / End Credits #"T" At The Cross (film band bonus)

Personnel

Musicians

*Marvin Gaye – vocals, drums, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, producer, arranger (9) *Trevor Lawrence – alto, tenor and baritone saxophones *

Dale Oehler Dale Dixon Oehler (October 1, 1941 – November 5, 2018) was an American arranger, producer and pianist. Oehler's work fuses various elements to enhance several genre of music he worked on, including jazz, pop, country, R&B or easy listening. ...

– horn & rhythm arrangements (track 9) *Eli Fountain – alto saxophone *Marty Montgomery – soprano saxophone *

Gene Page Eugene Edgar Page Jr. (September 13, 1939 – August 24, 1998) was an American conductor, composer, arranger and record producer, most active from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. His sound can be heard in the arrangements he did for Jeffer ...

– strings (track 9) * Robert O. Ragland – piano, string arrangements (track 7) *

James Anthony Carmichael James Anthony Carmichael (born September 14, 1941) is an American Grammy-winning musician, arranger, and record producer. At first he started off in Los Angeles as an arranger and producer for Motown acts like The Temptations and the Jackson 5. C ...

– horn arrangements (track 7) * Nesbert Stick Hooper - drums * Leon Ndugu Chancler - drums * Ray Parker Jr - guitar * David T.Walker - guitar

Production

– arranger (tracks 1, 6) *

– arranger (9) * Jack Hayes – arranger (3, 10–13) *

J.J. Johnson J.J. Johnson (January 22, 1924 – February 4, 2001), born James Louis Johnson and also known as Jay Jay Johnson, was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop. Biography ...

– arranger (8) * Robert O. Ragland – arranger (4–5) *

Leo Shuken Leo Shuken (born December 8, 1906, Los Angeles, California - d. July 24, 1976, Santa Monica, California) was an American film music composer, arranger, and musical director. Shuken composed for the music industry from the end of the 1930s until ...

– arranger (3, 10–13) *Jerry Long – arranger (2)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Albums produced by Marvin Gaye Albums arranged by Gene Page 1972 soundtrack albums Jazz-funk albums Marvin Gaye soundtracks Tamla Records soundtracks Albums recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. Thriller film soundtracks