Soldier's Plea
1962 · Tamla 54063 · Detroit, Michigan
- Artist
- Marvin Gaye
- Title
- Soldier's Plea
- Release
- Soldier's Plea / Taking My Time
- Year
- 1962
- Label
- Tamla # 54063
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation
Marvin Gaye, born in Washington D.C. (2 April 1939), helped shape the sound of the Detroit-based Motown Records in the 1960s, and thus he became one of the most influential soul singers of the era. In the early 1970s with the album What's Going On, which contained several Vietnam War and Civil Rights references, he worked on his own production, breaking away from the Motown team. It introduced the concept album to R&B, while it contained innovative music, using gospel, jazz, soul, and classical orchestration, as the songs flowed seamlessly together. Also note that in 1972 Gaye recorded the song "I Want to Come Home for Christmas" about a Vietnam P.O.W., which took an anti-war perspective. Released on 8 May 1962, the song "Soldier's Plea" (Tamla Records # 54063) featured as the first single taken from Gaye's second album That Stubborn Kinda' Fellow. Coming so soon after the major chart success of The Shirelles' "Soldier Boy", this has largely been considered either an answer record - from the perspective of the soldier, rather than the sweetheart back home - or an attempt to cash in and reach the charts on the back of The Shirelles' hit. If so, it failed, as this single did not…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Born 2 April 1939, Washington, DC, USA. Died 1 April 1984, Los Angeles, California, USA