Trivia: “A Quiet Storm” is Smokey Robinson’s third solo studio album, if you count his albums with the Miracles than this is his 22nd studio album release. From conception the album was destined to be classic & historic.
This is one of the most highly acclaimed soul albums of the 1970s. A longtime innovator at Motown, Robinson responded to the Funk revolution in black music (Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green) with an effective counterpoint: the stylish and mature album A Quiet Storm. This landmark album spawned and lent its name to the "Quiet Storm" musical programming format, a format still adopted by radio stations across America 40 years later. Quiet storm is a radio format and a subgenre of contemporary R&B music that is characterized by understated, mellow dynamics, slow tempos, and relaxed rhythms.
The album generated 3 hit singles including Smokey’s first disco hit "Baby That's Backatcha" that went to #7 on the Billboard Disco chart ( as well as #1 R&B), it was Robinson's first number one single since leaving the Miracles. The album re-established Robinson's reputation as a master songwriter and producer and solidified his solo success after leaving his legendary group, The Miracles.
“Love Letters” is a high point in terms of tempo, and it displays how masterful Smokey is in leading an uptempo track. He never misses a beat, and his cadence is virtually unmatched. “Wedding Song," an album highlight, was written for Hazel and Jermaine Jackson's wedding.
As he sings in “The Agony And The Ecstasy”; “our two worlds intertwine”. It was a match made in musical heaven. That particular song also highlights the love metaphor very clearly. Trying to find a balance between two worlds, both of which are essential. “We got to have the agony, before we have the ecstasy”. Both are excessive, but somehow blend seamlessly.
The seven minute title track, "Quiet Storm" became the cornerstone of a more upscale and sophisticated Soul sound that captivated an older, mature and largely black middle class audience. Robinson helped bring Soul music to the forefront of adult contemporary and middle of the road audiences.
In a review for Rolling Stone Magazine Robert Palmer wrote: "The languid intimacy of "Quiet Storm," the intricate instrumental arrangements on "Backatcha" and "Love Letters," and the prominence given to Marvin Tarplin's classy guitar throughout the album are evidence that one of black music's brightest lights is still a dynamic creative force."
What's Going On is Marvin Gaye’s eleventh studio album, released May 21, 1971, on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1970 and March–May 1971 at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World and United Sound Studios in Detroit and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California. What's Going On was the first album on which Motown Records' main studio band, the group of session musicians known as the Funk Brothers, received an official credit.
The first Marvin Gaye album credited as being produced by the artist himself, What's Going On is a unified concept album consisting of nine songs, most of which lead into the next. It has also been categorized as a song cycle; the album ends on a reprise of the album's opening theme. The album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam War veteran returning to the country he had been fighting for, and seeing only hatred, suffering, and injustice. Gaye's introspective lyrics discuss themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War. He has also been credited with discussing global warming before it became a hot topic .
What's Going On was an immediate success upon release, both commercially and critically. Having endured as a classic of 1970s, a deluxe edition set was released on February 27, 2001, and featured a rare recording of a May 1972 concert shot at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. Worldwide surveys of critics, musicians, and the general public have shown that What's Going On is regarded as one of the landmark recordings in pop music history, and one of the greatest albums of the 20th century. The album was ranked number six both on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and in the magazine's update nine years later.
Selling more than 2 million copies “What’s Going On” was one of the first Motown albums to sell in large amounts. Previously most Motown artists had lots of hit singles but album sales were secondary. After Gaye artists such as Stevie Wonder, Temptations, Commodores and others released albums that were multi-million sellers.
While traveling on his tour bus with the Four Tops on May 15, 1969, Four Tops member Renaldo "Obie" Benson witnessed an act of police brutality and violence committed on anti-war protesters who had been protesting at Berkeley's People's Park in what was later termed as "Bloody Thursday". A disgusted Benson later told author Ben Edmonds, "I saw this and started wondering 'what was going on, what is happening here?' One question led to another. Why are they sending kids far away from their families overseas? Why are they attacking their own kids in the street?" Returning to Detroit, Motown songwriter Al Cleveland wrote and composed a song based on his conversations with Benson of what he had seen in Berkeley. Benson sent the unfinished song to his band mates but the other Four Tops turned the song down. Benson said, "My partners told me it was a protest song. I said 'no man it's a love song, about love and understanding. I'm not protesting. I want to know what's going on.'"
Benson and Cleveland offered the song to Marvin Gaye when they met him at a golf game. Returning to Gaye's home in Outer Drive, Benson played the song to Gaye on his guitar. Gaye felt the song's moody flow would be perfect for The Originals. Benson, however, felt Gaye could sing it himself. Gaye responded to that suggestion by asking Benson for songwriting credit of the song. Benson and Cleveland allowed it and Gaye edited the song, adding a new melody, revising the song to his own liking, and changing some of the lyrics, reflective of Gaye's own disgust. Gaye finished the song by adding its title, "What's Going On". Benson said later that Gaye tweaked and enriched the song, "added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem like a story and not a song... we measured him for the suit and he tailored the hell out of it." During this time, Gaye had been deeply affected by letters shared between him and his brother after he had returned from service over the treatment of Vietnam veterans.
Gaye had also been deeply affected by the social ills that were then plaguing the United States at the time, even covering the track, "Abraham, Martin & John", in 1969, which became a UK hit for Gaye in 1970. Gaye cited the 1965 Watts riots as a pivotal moment in his life in which he asked himself, "with the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?" One night, Gaye called Berry Gordy about doing a protest record while Gordy vacationed at the Bahamas, to which Gordy chastised him, "Marvin, don't be ridiculous. That's taking things too far."
Reuniting at their parents' suburban D.C. home, Marvin's brother Frankie discussed the events of his tenure at Vietnam, detailing experiences that sometimes left the two brothers consoling each other in tears. After Frankie explained witnessing violence and murder before he was to depart back to the states, he recalled Marvin sitting propped up in a bed with his hands in his face. Afterwards Marvin told his brother, "I didn't know how to fight before, but now I think I do. I just have to do it my way. I'm not a painter. I'm not a poet. But I can do it with music."
In an interview for Rolling Stone magazine, Marvin Gaye discussed what had shaped his view on more socially conscious themes in music and the conception of his eleventh studio album:
“In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say.... I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world.”
— Marvin Gaye
The song “What’s Going On” was released as a single in January 1971, several months before the album, and immediately zoomed up the charts. The song topped the US soul singles for five weeks. Gaye entered the recording studio, Hitsville USA, on June 1, 1970 to record "What's Going On". Instead of relying on other producers to help him with the song, Gaye, inspired by recent successes of his productions for the vocal act, The Originals, decided to produce the song himself. “What’s Going On” marked Gaye's departure from the Motown Sound towards more personal material. This was one of the first Motown songs to make a powerful political statement. Stevie Wonder and the Temptations were also recording more serious and challenging material, which was a radical departure from the Motown hits of the '60s. "What's Going On" (the song) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. "Mercy, Mercy Me" was inducted in 2002.
"What's Going On" (1971)
The second single “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” was the second single release from the album and followed the success of “What’s Going On” made it to #4 on the US chart. Many years before global warming became a hot topic, Marvin Gaye wrote this song about the environment and how we have an obligation to care for the Earth.
The third and final single “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” continued Gaye’s chart success reaching #9 in the US. Written by Gaye and James Nyx Jr., the song depicts ghetto life and bleak economic situations of inner-city America, and the emotional effects these have on inhabitants. The song helped Gaye make history by being one of the few artists to have three or more Top 10 songs on Billboard's Pop Singles chart peaking at #9 and one of the first to have three consecutive #1 hits on Billboard's R&B Singles chart where it stayed for two weeks. Although not certified by the RIAA at that time, all three releases from the What's Going On album gained Gold status by selling over 1,000,000 copies each in the US.
Album highlight “God Is Love” is a stirring ballad which was a return of sorts to Gaye's religious background dedicating this song to God and his father, Marvin Gay, Sr. The song was originally recorded as the B-side to "What's Going On" shortly after that song was recorded.
“What’s Happening Brother?” continues the song cycle, that begins with the song “What’s Going On,” about a man returning home from fighting in the Vietnam War only to discover that his world is abstractly different from what it used to be before he left for duty. In Marvin's case, the song was dedicated to his younger brother, Frankie, who was returning from a three-year duty in Vietnam. Musically the song follows the same path as "What's Going On" and features The Andantes as background vocalists.
“Flying High (In The Sky)” continued a song cycle begun with the previous track, "What's Happening Brother" after that song ended with the lyric, "Cause I'm slightly behind the time", creating a moody and ominous sound punctuated by the singer's falsetto. Co-written with wife Anna Gordy and confidant Elgie Stover, the song talked about drug addiction, particularly heroin, as heard in the lyric, "I know I'm hooked my friend/to the boy who makes slaves out of men".
Release Date: October 28, 1976 Produced by Hal Davis, Michael L. Smith, Michael Sutton, Harold Johnson, Joe Porter, Clayton Ivey, Terry Woodford, Michael Masser, Ronald Miller, William Goldstein Chart Positions: #11 (US), #21 Sweden, #25 Denmark Certifications: N/A Singles: “I Don’t Know Why I Love You,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way” #1 (US, South Africa), #4 (Canada, Netherlands, Sweden), #5 (Germany), #6 (Australia), #7 (Belgium), #11 (Spain), #13 (France, UK), #15 (Italy), #17 (New Zealand), #18 (Austria), “Anyway You Like It,” (no chart data), “If It’s The Last Thing I Do” #46 (US), #81 (Canada)
Any Way You Like It is the fourth album by Thelma Houston, released late October 1976 on Tamla Records. The album features energetic disco songs with fierce vocal performances by Houston on side 1, while side 2 focuses on ballads.
In 1976, Motown gave the go ahead on a second album for Thelma, assembling it from the various sessions she had undertaken since her first LP with producers including the teams of Hal Davis and Michael Sutton, and Clayton Ivey and Terry Woodford. The album includes the major hit single, "Don't Leave Me This Way", Houston's remake of the Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes 1975 song, zoomed to No. 1 in the US charts. In the US, "If It's the Last Thing I Do", a track originally recorded in 1972, was chosen for the second single release on MoWest, while Europe had an edited version of the Stevie Wonder cover, "I Don't Know Why I Love You".
A re-recorded version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" was #19 on the dance charts in December 1994.
Arthur G. Wright, Michael L. Smith, Harold Johnson, Paul Riser, Clayton Ivey, Ted Stovall and Terry Woodford arranged the album.
“Don’t Leave Me This Way,” a song which first appeared on Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes 1975 album “Wake Up Everybody” was released as a single by them in 1977 shortly after Thelma Houston’s disco version hit the charts. The Blue Notes' original version of the song, featuring Teddy Pendergrass' lead vocal was not issued as a single in the United States at the time, the Blue Notes' recording reached #3 on the US Billboard Disco Chart in the wake of Thelma Houston's version. The song proved to be the group's biggest hit in the UK, #5 on the UK singles chart, when released there as a single in 1977. Motown covered “Don’t Leave Me This Way” in 1976. Originally assigned to Diana Ross, it was intended to be the follow-up to her hit "Love Hangover" but was reassigned and given to the upcoming Motown artist Thelma Houston instead. Studio musicians on the track included James Gadson on drums, Henry E. Davis (of the band L.T.D.) on bass, and John Barnes on keyboards.
Houston's version became a massive international hit, topping the soul singles and disco charts as well as reaching #1 on the US singles chart for one week in April 1977. The song peaked at #13 in the UK. Later in the year, it was featured on the soundtrack of the movie, Looking for Mr. Goodbar. In 1978, "Don't Leave Me This Way" won the award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female at the 20th Annual Grammy Awards.
"Don't Leave Me This Way"
The album’s next single “Any Way You Like It” was co-written by Thelma Houston but failed to chart. Soon after the fourth single, “If It’s The Last Thing I Do,” a song that Thelma Houston first recorded in 1972 for Motown offshoot label Mowest. The song was never released but Houston gave it another try for her 1976 album and as a single was a moderate success reaching #46 in the US and #81 in Canada. The song also reached #12 on the US R&B chart. The song was recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1957 for his album “Close To You” but was not included on the album. His version was finally released in 2002 as a bonus track on the expanded edition of the album.
One of the album’s more soulful and funky cuts the Stevie Wonder-penned “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” displays Houston’s Gospel vocal abilities. The song was the first single to be released from “Any Way You Like It,” but was only released throughout Europe. Wonder’s version simply titled “I Don’t Know Why” was recorded and released in 1968 on his album “for Once In My Life.” Wonder released it as a single and experienced minor success with the song reaching #39 in the US, #41 in Canada and #14 in the UK.
“Come To Me,” a shimmering ballad and album highlight was co-written by Jermaine Jackson.
Release Date: August 3, 1973
Produced by Stevie Wonder, Robert Margouleff, Malcolm Cecil
Chart Positions: #4 (US), #8 (UK), #11 (Canada), #26 (Australia), #264 (Japan)
Certifications: Gold (UK, Canada)
Singles: “Higher Ground” (US #4, US R&B #1, UK #29, Canada #9, Netherlands #28)
“Living For The City” (US #8, US R&B #1, UK #15, Canada #17, Germany #20)
“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” (US #16, US R&B #2, Canada #13, Netherlands #19)
He’s Misstra Know It All (UK #10)
Stevie Wonder is one of the most popular and prolific musicians in the history of recorded music, having sold well over 100 million records worldwide. He has had ten #1 singes and ten top five albums.
Just a year earlier Stevie added a rock sound to his music with the single “Superstition,” suddenly he was being played on FM classic rock stations as well as the R&B/Soul stations. With 1973’s “Innervisions” Stevie capitalized on that rock style and incorporated heavier guitars and propulsive drum work into songs such as “Higher Ground” and “Living For The City.” 1973 brought on a new direction for Stevie Wonder, rock and funk were now part of his sound. He was recording a heavier FM radio sound getting away from the AM radio format.
Innervisions is Stevie’s 16th studio album, released August 3, 1973, on the Tamla label for Motown Records, a landmark recording of his "classic period". The nine tracks of Innervisions encompass a wide range of themes and issues: from drug abuse in "Too High", through inequality and systemic racism in "Living for the City", to love in the ballads "All in Love Is Fair" and "Golden Lady".
As with many of Stevie Wonder's albums, the lyrics, composition and production are almost entirely his own work, with the ARP synthesizer used prominently throughout the album. The instrument was a common motif among musicians of the time because of its ability to construct a complete sound environment. Wonder was the first black artist to experiment with this technology on a mass scale, and Innervisions was hugely influential on the subsequent future of commercial black music. He also played all or virtually all instruments on six of the album's nine tracks, making most of Innervisions a representative one-man band. Critics received this album with overwhelming positive response.
“Innervisions” was Stevie Wonder’s second of eight consecutive top five albums. The album also won the Grammy Award for “Album of the Year,” this was his first of three albums to win the award, “Fulfillingness’ First Finale” and “Songs In The Key Of Life” are the other two. Wonder has won a total of 22 Grammy awards.
The first single release “Higher Ground” was released a month before the album and quickly sailed up to #4 on the US chart as well as reaching #1 on the US R&B chart, this was Wonder’s 7th out of 19 songs to top the R&B chart. Wonder wrote and recorded the song in a three-hour burst of creativity in May 1973. The album version of the song contains an extra verse and runs 30 seconds longer than the single version. The unique wah-clavinet sound in the song was achieved with a Mu-Tron III envelope filter pedal. The bass line is provided by a Moog synthesizer and using overdubs, Wonder played all instruments on the track, including drums and percussion.
The lyrics in “Higher Ground” deal with getting a second chance ("So darn glad he let me try it again") and making the most of it. Strangely, Wonder recorded it three months before he was almost killed on his way to a benefit concert in Durham, North Carolina. The car he was riding in was behind a truck carrying a load of logs, which stopped suddenly, sending a log through the windshield and hitting Wonder in the head. The accident put Wonder in a coma for four days. His road manager and good friend, Ira Tucker Jr., knew that Stevie liked to listen to music at high volume, so he tried singing this song directly into his ear. At first he got no response, but the next day, he tried again and Wonder's fingers started moving in time with the song - the first sign that he was going to recover. Recalling his time in the coma, Wonder said, "For a few days I was definitely in a much better spiritual place that made me aware of a lot of things that concern my life and my future and what I have to do to reach another higher ground. This is like my second chance for life, to do something or to do more and to face the fact that I am alive."
Wonder was a huge influence on The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who remade “Higher Ground” with a more up-tempo beat on their Mother's Milk album. They even thank him in the lyrics by adding the phrase "You know what Stevie says."
"Higher Ground"
The second single “Living For The City” was another smash hit receiving a huge amount of airplay on both AM and FM radio stations. It was one of the first soul songs to deal directly with systematic racism and use everyday sounds of the street like traffic, voices and sirens, which were combined with the music recorded in the studio. Wonder played all the instruments on the song and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording engineering and synthesizer programming. The song reached US #8 and US R&B #1 and also won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song. This was the second year in a row he won this award. In the previous year his hit “Superstition” won the award.
The album’s closer, “He’s Misstra Know It All,” was the fourth single release and possibly the most controversial song from the album. The song is a scathing attack on then-US President Richard Nixon, similar to Wonder's song a year later, "You Haven't Done Nothin'". The mellow ballad with a steady beat charted only in the UK and made it to #10. In the US the song did not receive airplay most likely due to the nature of its rebellious lyrics.
