Marvin Gaye - In the Groove

Marvin Gaye's In the Groove is the 1968 album with a secret weapon hidden inside, the original home of his towering version of I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

Released on Tamla, the record caught Gaye at a pivotal moment, edging toward the deeper, more intense soul that would define his next decade. Grapevine first appeared here as an album track, and it was only after radio DJs started spinning it that Motown released it as a single. Once the song exploded, the album was reissued under its name.

Grapevine itself is a masterpiece of slow-burning paranoia, producer Norman Whitfield's dark, brooding arrangement giving Gaye room to sound genuinely haunted. Chained is a tough, gospel-fired stomper, You opens the album with urgent, dramatic intensity, and At Last (I Found a Love) is pure warm-hearted devotion.

Backed by Motown's peerless house musicians, Gaye moves between grit and silk with ease, his voice by turns pleading, playful and commanding across all twelve songs.

For soul collectors, it is a chance to hear Grapevine in its original context, surrounded by the album that almost let it slip by unnoticed, and the record still sounds wonderful on a slow Sunday afternoon with the volume turned up a little louder than usual.