Marvin Gaye’s 1973 album Let’s Get It On is being reissued by Motown/UMe in honor of its 50-year anniversary. The expanded project will be available digitally on August 25th, featuring 18 unreleased recordings, as well as content from the album’s current deluxe version.
The new Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition will contain five distinct sections: the original album, the three single edits, fourteen bonus tracks, the David Van DePitte Sessions, and Vulnerable: the 1973 vocals. While many of the bonus tracks are remixed versions of previously released recordings, this section contains three brand new instrumental tracks, one brand new interlude, and two previously unheard arrangements of album cuts. The David Van DePitte Sessions is nearly all unreleased content. Following DePette’s help arranging on 1971’s What’s Going On, he and Gaye would go on to record sessions with multiple instrumentalists, including Herbie Hancock on piano, along with a band of other notable musicians. The final section of the reissue is completely unreleased, boasting the original vocal takes for the seven-track album Vulnerable, which was later rerecorded and posthumously released in 1997.
Let’s Get It On was Gaye’s highest peaking album on the Billboard 200 albums chart, reaching #2 on Oct. 20th during the year of its release. To further celebrate the album’s golden anniversary, a live event will be held at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, CA on Aug. 23rd. The night will feature performances from Smokey Robinson and Jimmy Jam, plus words from David Ritz, the author of the 1985 biography Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye.
Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition will be released digitally on Aug. 25th, and can be pre-ordered and pre-saved here. Tickets to the Let’s Get It On live event in LA are available here.