Prince – For You
Legendary Motown songwriter Leon Ware’s sensual masterpiece Musical Massage is a soul classic that should honestly be a lot more popular than it is. Some say its failure to chart was a bit of bad timing or perhaps the sequence of events that led to its release. The story goes that Ware was set to record Musical Massage when Marvin Gaye heard a mixtape of his material and begged him to lend him a few songs for his upcoming album I Want You. Ware would end up transforming the musical direction of that album, contributing arrangements and songwriting to nearly every song on that album, and become arguably more important to that album’s sensual magic than Gaye himself. After completing the album, Ware would go on to release his version of I Want You, Musical Massage, to little fanfare. Perhaps it was too similar to Gaye’s album and others Ware produced during that same time period, or maybe Motown didn’t want to promote two of the same album? Whatever the reason, the album failed to chart and for a while was lost to the archives… Luckily, the album has slowly gained fans through the years across generations of soul music lovers and is now considered a cult classic of the genre.
– Phil Cho
Recommended – Full Listen
Tags: Cult Classic / Motown / Sensual
Tracklist:
A1 Learning How To Love You
A2 Instant Love
A3 Body Heat
A4 Share Your Love
A5 Holiday
B1 Phantom Lover
B2 Journey Into You
B3 Musical Massage
B4 French Waltz
B5 Turn Out The Light
Credits:
Arranged By – Coleridge T. Perkinson* (tracks: B2, B5), David Blumberg (tracks: A1 to B1, B3, B4)
Art Direction – Frank Mulvey
Backing Vocals – Felicia Griner (tracks: A4), Jessie Smith* (tracks: A4), Merry Clayton (tracks: A4), Minnie Riperton (tracks: A1)
Bass – Chuck Rainey
Congas – Eddie “Bongo” Brown
Cover [Model] – Azizi Johari
Drums – James Gadson
Engineer [Recording] – Cal Harris
Engineer [Recording], Engineer [Re-Mix] – Art Stewart
Guitar – David T. Walker, Ray Parker Jr.
Keyboards – Jerry Peters, John Barnes, Sonny Burke (2)
Percussion – Bobbye Hall, Gary Coleman
Performer – Bobby Womack (tracks: A5,B3)
Photography By – Sam Emerson
Producer – Hal Davis (tracks: A2 to A4, )
Producer, Vocals – Leon Ware
Vocals [Vocal Accompaniment] – Marvin Gaye (tracks: A5)
Written-By – T-Boy Ross* (tracks: A4), Bruce Fisher (tracks: A3), Jackie Hilliard* (tracks: A2, B1), Leon Ware (tracks: All), Minnie Riperton (tracks: B5), Pam Sawyer (tracks: A4), Quincy Jones (tracks: A3), Richard Rudolph (tracks: B5), Stan Richardson (tracks: A3), Terri McFaddin (tracks: B2)
