Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love (1982) [2011, Japanese Paper Sleeve Mini-LP CD]

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Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love (1982) [2011, Japanese Paper Sleeve Mini-LP CD]

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"Midnight Love" is the 17th studio album by Marvin Gaye. He signed with the label Columbia in March 1982 following his exit from Motown. The final album to be released before his death, it ultimately became the most successful album of Gaye's entire career. The disc was certified triple Platinum in the United States, selling well over six million copies worldwide. It was nominated for a 1984 Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, spawning the two-time Grammy Award-winning smash, "Sexual Healing". It was ranked #37 on the Rolling Stone list of the best albums of the 1980s decade and the NME named the album as its Album of the Year in 1983. "Midnight Love" was released to record retail stores on October 1, 1982, just a day after "Sexual Healing" was released as a single. In response to "Sexual Healing", the album was bought out in droves. By that December, the album had already hit #1 on the Top Black Albums chart and the Top 10 of the Pop albums chart, making it Gaye's eighth album to accomplish this. "Sexual Healing" crossed over to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. By the end of 1982, it had already sold over a million copies. Upon Gaye's return to the United States, Gaye attended a party in celebration of the album's accomplishment with a new polished look, reuniting with his ex-wife Anna Gordy Gaye and their son, Marvin III. Eventually, the album would reach sales of 3.9 million copies in the United States alone, becoming Gaye's most successful career album. Worldwide, the album also performed extremely well, hitting #1 in Canada and #7 in the United Kingdom. Overall global sales surpassed six million. The album's biggest hit single, "Sexual Healing", sold over two million US copies and earned an RIAA Platinum certification. It hit the top of the charts in several countries and stayed at #1 on the Top Black Singles chart for ten consecutive weeks, making it the most successful R&B single of the 1980s.

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Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love (1982) [2011, Japanese Paper Sleeve Mini-LP CD]

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Larkin Arnold, former CBS Records (Sony Music) senior executive VP, convinced Marvin Gaye to leave his flat in Belgium and sign with Columbia Records; the result would become the soul singer's last album before his untimely death. Of all his number one songs, this album's first release, "Sexual Healing," became his longest running number one single on the Billboard R&B charts (ten straight weeks). With the exception of the guitar, the Washington, D.C. native performed every instrument on this classic hit. Gaye concocted a pioneering percussive sound that was balladic in taste but stimulating in feel. As this project may not be an absolute erotic expression or a socially challenging plea from Gaye like on some of his previous albums, nonetheless, Midnight Love is a classic Marvin Gaye effort. In addition to this project thriving with Gaye's enthusiastic spirit, it has his harmonious background vocals, his stunning vocal arrangements and his creative penmanship, as he wrote all the selections.

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Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love (1982) [2011, Japanese Paper Sleeve Mini-LP CD]

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Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love (1982) [2011, Japanese Paper Sleeve Mini-LP CD]

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