In The Groove

Even before he started writing and producing his own albums, Marvin made deeply autobiographical music. The anguish and desperation he brings to \"Chained,\" \"You,\" and \"I Heard It Through The Grapevine\" aren\'t coincidental: It\'s what happens when a master channels his pain through songs that speak to the anguish in his life. This is Gaye at the height of his powers as a pure soul singer, and he\'s wielding it over some of the best and most overlooked songs in the Motown catalog. On the old R&B chestnuts \"There Goes My Baby\" and \"Some Kind Of Wonderful,\" he kicks back and delivers them with restrained confidence as only a true master can. Gaye went on to push soul music in amazing new directions as a writer and producer, but *In The Groove* is evidence that even if he\'d have stayed a cog in the Motown machine he would still be an artist without equal.

Never overly reliant on the Holland-Dozier-Holland machine, Marvin Gaye weathered their departure pretty well, turning to Norman Whitfield (for the epochal "I Heard It Through the Grapevine") as well as Ivory Joe Hunter, Ashford & Simpson, Frank Wilson, and, for two songs, his own pen.