I Want You (album)

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I Want You

Studio album by Marvin Gaye
Released	March 16, 1976
Recorded	Marvin's Room, Los Angeles 1975
Genre	Soul/Funk/Disco
Length	37:43
Label	Tamla
Producer(s)	Leon Ware, Marvin Gaye
All Music Guide link
Marvin Gaye chronology
Marvin Gaye Live! (1974)	I Want You (1976)	Live at the London Palladium (1977)

I Want You was a hit 1976 album for American soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla (Motown) label.

The album's songs were composed mostly by Leon Ware with collaborations from Gaye, Diana Ross' brother Arthur "T-Boy" Ross, and Jacqueline Hillard. (A brief version of "I Want to Be Where You Are", a Ware composition that had been a hit in 1972 for Michael Jackson, is also included.) While not as successful sales-wise as Gaye's previous landmark albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On, it sold in excess of 1 million copies in the U.S. I Want You has also been noted by musicians such as from Todd Rundgren, Robert Palmer, Madonna, and, most recently, G-Unit. The careers of neo soul musicians such as D'Angelo, Musiq Soulchild, R. Kelly, Maxwell, Sade, and Prince show influence from the soulful sound and equally romantic and erotic lyrics of I Want You.

Two singles were taken from the album during 1976. The title song became Gaye's eleventh No. 1 on the soul charts on May 29, 1976, and for the first time the single got its release after the album was published. "After the Dance (Vocal)" was the follow-up to "I Want You"; although only a modest hit on the Billboard charts in August 1976 (#14 R&B and #74 Pop, respectively), it became one of his late 1970s signature songs and emblematic for the final chapter of his career. The album was his fourth Top Ten album, peaking at #4 on the Billboard pop album charts, and was his fifth #1 album on the R&B charts.