1976 Marvin Gaye – I Want You

I Want You is the fourteenth studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released on March 16, 1976, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla.

Gaye recorded the album during 1975 and 1976 at his studio Marvin’s Room in Los Angeles and at Motown’s Detroit-based Hitsville West studio. The album has often been noted by critics for producer Leon Ware’s cinematic, downtempo sound, the erotic themes in his and Gaye’s songwriting, and the singer’s prominent use of the synthesizer. The album’s cover artwork adapts neo-mannerist artist Ernie Barnes’s famous painting The Sugar Shack (1971).

I Want You consisted of Gaye’s first recorded studio material since his highly successful and well-received album Let’s Get It On (1973). While it marked a change in musical direction for Gaye, departing from his trademark Motown and doo-wop-influenced sound for funky, light-disco soul, the album maintained and expanded on his previous work’s sexual themes. Following a mixed response from critics at the time of its release, I Want You has earned retrospective recognition from writers and music critics as one of Gaye’s most controversial works and influential to such musical styles as disco, quiet storm, R&B, and neo soul.