Motown will mark the 50th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic Let’s Get It On with a deluxe digital edition packed with over a dozen unreleased recordings.
Out August 25th — just a few days shy 50 years from the original LP’s August 28, 1973 release — the new digital edition includes Let’s Get It On as well as alternate takes and mixes, single versions, new remixes, and demos, some of which previously featured on the album’ 2001 reissue.
Exclusive to the 50th-anniversary reissue, however, are more recordings from Gaye’s sessions with What’s Going On arranger David Van DePitte, as well as a batch of vocals-only recordings from 1973 that’s been dubbed Vulnerable.
(On streaming services, the 50th anniversary Let’s Get It On will replace the 2001 edition, as the unreleased tracks from that reissue have subsequently been released on the You’re the Man compilation.)
Let’s Get It On, like What’s Going On, released two years earlier, later landed on Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list: “‘I mumble things into the microphone,’ Gaye said. ‘I don’t even know what I’m saying, and I don’t even try to figure it out. If I try, it doesn’t work. If I relax, those mumbles will finally turn into words.” On this album, those words turn into meditations on the gap between sex and love and how to reconcile them. Songs like ‘Just to Keep You Satisfied’ and ‘You Sure Love to Ball’ are some of the most gorgeous music of his career.”
Additionally, on August 23, the Grammy Museum will host an event celebrating the landmark album that produced “Let’s Get It On,” “Distant Lover,” and “Come Get to This,” with Smokey Robinson, Jimmy Jam, and Gaye biographer David Ritz among those in attendance.
Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition Tracklisting
Original Album *
1. Let’s Get It On
2. Please Stay (Once You Go Away)
3. If I Should Die Tonight
4. Keep Gettin’ It On
5. Come Get To This
6. Distant Lover
7. You Sure Love To Ball
8. Just To Keep You Satisfied
Single Edits
9. Let’s Get It On (single version) *
10. You Sure Love To Ball (single version) *
11. If I Should Die Tonight (original LP edit) *
Album Bonus Tracks
12. Let’s Get It On – demo **
13. Let’s Get It On – Pt. II (a.k.a. Keep Gettin’ It On) **
14. I Knew One Day My Day Would Come (instrumental)
15. Interlude #1
16. Please Stay (Once You Go Away) – alternate mix 1 **
17. Lovely Lady (instrumental)
18. If I Should Die Tonight – demo **
19. I Don’t Have To Get High To Do It (instrumental)
20. Come Get To This – alternate mix 1 **
21. Distant Lover – alternate mix 1 **
22. You Sure Love To Ball – alternate mix 1 w/alternate vocal **
23. Just To Keep You Satisfied – alternate mix w/alternate vocal **
24. Interlude #2
25. If I Should Die Tonight – SaLaAM ReMi’s Piano Mix
26. Just To Keep You Satisfied – John Morales’s Stripped Mix
The David Van DePitte Sessions
27. Song #1 (instrumental)
28. Song #2 (instrumental)
29. Song #3 (instrumental) **
30. Song #4 (partial vocal)
31. Shake Well (instrumental)
32. Perfection (instrumental)
33. Cakes (instrumental) **
34. My Love Is Growing (Super Polished) **
Vulnerable: The 1973 vocals
35. She Needs Me
36. Why Did I Choose You
37. Funny, Not Much
38. This Will Make You Laugh
39. The Shadow Of Your Smile
40. I Wish I Didn’t Love You So
41. I Won’t Cry Anymore
* Previously released
** Previously released bonus songs with fresh mixes
All other tracks are previously unreleased.