M.P.G.

M.P.G. is the ninth studio album by Marvin Gaye, released in 1969 for the Tamla label. His best-selling album of the 1960s, it became Gaye's first solo album to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, peaking at #33, and also became his first #1 album on the Soul Albums Chart.^[2] Three top 40 hits were released from the album. The title matches the initials of Gaye's full name, Marvin Pentz Gay.

Production

Norman Whitfield provided the compositions "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" (originally recorded by labelmates The Temptations), "That's The Way Love Is" (originally recorded by The Isley Brothers) and a cover of Gladys Knight and the Pips' "The End of Our Road". The singles "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby", the longest-running #1 hit on the R&B charts in 1969 and a #4 Pop hit, and "That's The Way Love Is" (#2 and #7 on the soul and pop charts, respectively) became consecutive million-sellers. These records were among Whitfield's many psychedelic soul productions of the time, and recalled the arrangement of Gaye's #1 hit "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".

Release and reception

Released on April 30, 1969, the album became Gaye's first solo album to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, peaking at #33, and also became his first #1 album on the Soul Albums Chart.

The album was moderately received on release, and remains overlooked, though Ron Wynn in a retrospective review for AllMusic, felt the album contains "some outstanding songs".^[3] In a contemporary review (23 August 1969), Jack Egan in Rolling Stone felt that Gaye did not "aim for spectacular effects", but that the album "treats the listener to the same infectious music and subtly varied singing" of Gaye's previous successful singles.^[4]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"	Janie Bradford, Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong	2:56
2.	"This Magic Moment"	Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman	2:44
3.	"That's the Way Love Is"	Strong, Whitfield	3:35
4.	"The End of Our Road"	Rodger Penzabene, Strong, Whitfield	2:47
5.	"Seek and You Shall Find"	Ivy Jo Hunter, William "Mickey" Stevenson	3:40
6.	"Memories"	Lawrence Brown, Gaye, Anna Gordy, Allen Story	2:47
7.	"Only a Lonely Man Would Know"	Hunter, Beatrice Verdi	3:02
8.	"It's a Bitter Pill to Swallow"	Warren Moore, Smokey Robinson	3:15
9.	"More Than a Heart Can Stand"	Hunter, Stevenson	2:57
10.	"Try My True Love"	Henry Cosby, James Dean, Stevie Wonder	3:00
11.	"I Got to Get to California"	Shena DeMell, Hunter	2:53
12.	"It Don't Take Much to Keep Me"	Holland-Dozier-Holland	2:39

Personnel

References

↑ Egan, Jack (23 August 1969). "Records". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. (40): 37. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
↑ "Marvin Gaye". rbhalloffame.com.
↑ Ron Wynn. "M.P.G. hReview by Ron Wynn". Allmusic.
↑ Jack Egan (23 August 1969). "Album Review Marvin Gaye M.P.G.". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 2, 2007.

Marvin Gaye

Studio albums	The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye (1961) That Stubborn Kinda Fellow (1962) When I'm Alone I Cry (1964) Hello Broadway (1964) How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You (1965) A Tribute to the Great Nat "King" Cole (1965) Moods of Marvin Gaye (1966) In the Groove/I Heard It Through the Grapevine! (1968) M.P.G. (1969) That's the Way Love Is (1970) What's Going On (1971) Trouble Man (1972) Let's Get It On (1973) I Want You (1976) Here, My Dear (1978) In Our Lifetime (1981) Midnight Love (1982)

Posthumous albums	Dream of a Lifetime (1985) Romantically Yours (1986) Vulnerable (1997)

Duet albums	Together (with Mary Wells, 1964) Take Two (with Kim Weston, 1966) United (with Tammi Terrell, 1967) You're All I Need (with Tammi Terrell, 1968) Easy (with Tammi Terrell, 1969) Diana & Marvin (with Diana Ross, 1973)

Compilations	Greatest Hits (1964) Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1967) Marvin Gaye and His Girls (1969) Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's Greatest Hits (1970) Super Hits (1970) Anthology (1974) Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits (1976) Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye: Never Before Released Masters (1986) The Marvin Gaye Collection (1990) The Norman Whitfield Sessions (1994) Love Starved Heart: Rare and Unreleased (1994) The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (1994) The Master (1961–1984) (1995) Marvin Gaye: The Love Songs (2000) The Complete Duets (2001) The Very Best of Marvin Gaye (2001)

Live albums	Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage (1963) Marvin Gaye Live! (1974) Live at the London Palladium (1977) Marvin Gaye at the Copa (2005)

Video albums	Greatest Hits Live (Live in Holland 1976) (2000) Live In Montreux 1980 (2003) The Real Thing: In Performance (1964–1981) (2006) Live In Belgium 1981 (2006)

US/UK Top Ten singles	"Pride and Joy" "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" "I'll Be Doggone" "Ain't That Peculiar" "Your Precious Love" "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" "You're All I Need to Get By" "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" "That's the Way Love Is" "Abraham, Martin & John" "The Onion Song" "What's Going On" "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" "Trouble Man" "Let's Get It On" "You Are Everything" "Got to Give It Up" "Sexual Healing"

Family	Marvin Gay, Sr. (father) Alberta Gay (mother) Anna Gordy Gaye (first wife) Denise Gordy (son's birth mother) Nona Gaye (daughter) Frankie Gaye (brother) Gordon Banks (brother-in-law)

Related topics	Discography Songs Albums Songs by Marvin Gaye Albums produced by Marvin Gaye Songs in memory Songs produced by Marvin Gaye Personal life Murder Tributes Harvey Fuqua Tammi Terrell Leon Ware Marvin's Room Marvin Is 60: A Tribute Album

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