Marvin Gaye - When I'm Alone I Cry (Mono Edition)

Long before What's Going On, Marvin Gaye dreamed of being a jazz crooner, and When I'm Alone I Cry captures that ambition in a mono edition.

Released in 1964, his third studio album was one of several attempts by Gaye and Motown to present him as a sophisticated balladeer in the mould of the singers he idolised. Produced by Clarence Paul and William "Mickey" Stevenson, it gathers ten pop and jazz standards, two of them borrowed from Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin at Gaye's own request.

The arrangements, by Jerome Richardson, Melba Liston and Ernie Wilkins, are late-night and smoky. "You've Changed" opens the record in a mood of aching resignation, while "I Was Telling Her About You" and "When Your Lover Has Gone" show off the smooth control of his phrasing. The title song gives the whole set its bittersweet centre.

In mono, the voice sits right in the middle of the room, every breath and bend of the melody close enough to touch. It was no commercial smash, and Gaye soon turned toward the soul hits that made his name, making this road not taken all the more fascinating.

For anyone who knows him through Motown's biggest moments, it reveals a deeply charming side of one of soul's greatest singers.