Marvin Gaye Live! Expanded For Icon's 86th Birthday
Fans will soon be able to hear Marvin Gaye's iconic 1974 Oakland-Alameda Coliseum performance as the classic "Marvin Gaye Live!" album is being expanded for a brand new deluxe edition this spring.
Juggernaut Sound sent over these details: On January 4, 1974, Marvin Gaye stepped on to the stage at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum to deliver his first proper live show in years. With 14,000-plus fans in front of him, he performed a rapturous set. With the release to all streaming partners of Marvin Gaye Live!: Deluxe Edition on Motown/UMe, the full show will finally be available for the first time on March 28, 2025, just a few days ahead of what would have been Gaye's 86th birthday (April 2).
The original, 9-track Marvin Gaye Live! LP first arrived on June 19, 1974, following Marvin's previous smash album, Let's Get It On. Driven by the ecstatically received performance of "Distant Lover," the elaborately packaged live album hit #1 on the Soul/R&B Album Chart for two weeks in addition to climbing to #8 on the Pop Album Chart. It also garnered a GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. This new Deluxe Edition paints the full picture of the evening, boasting the addition of four rare cuts: "Flying High (In the Friendly Sky)," "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," "Come Get To This," and "Keep Gettin' It On," plus a spoken word interlude where Marvin sweetly acknowledges the band - consisting of stellar studio players including Motown legend James Jamerson on bass and a full 30+-piece orchestra - and his "Let's Get It On" creative partner, Ed Townsend.
"Marvin Gaye's return was not a concert, it was an event," wrote a reviewer in the San Francisco Chronicle,"a gathering of Black pride and stargazers."
Also on March 28, the standard audio presentation of the original 9-track version will land on digital platforms for the first time. Both the original album and the new Deluxe Edition are newly remastered and available in Dolby ATMOS for the full immersive concert appearance.
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