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''Midnight Love'' is the seventeenth and final studio album by Marvin Gaye. He signed on with the label Columbia in March 1982 following his exit from Motown. The final album to be released before his death, it ultimately became the most successful album of Marvin's entire career. The disc was certified triple platinum in the United States, selling well over six million copies worldwide. It was nominated for a 1984 Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, spawning the two-time Grammy Award-winning smash, "Sexual Healing". It was ranked number 37 on the ''Rolling Stone'' list of the best albums of the 1980s decade〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=100 Best Albums of the Eighties: Marvin Gaye, Midnight Love )〕 and the NME named the album as its Album of the Year in 1983.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Acclaimed Music - Midnight Love )〕 ==Background== In January 1981, Gaye's final Motown album, ''In Our Lifetime'', was issued on Motown's Tamla label. Gaye was angry over its release and Motown's edit of the album, comparing it to an unfinished Picasso painting and having others finish the painting for him. Gaye vowed afterwards to never record for Motown again. The following month, a Belgian concert promoter and a longtime fan of Gaye's music, Freddy Couseart, visited a visibly shaken and depressed Gaye, who was struggling with drug addiction, in London, following the end of a European tour. Concerned for Gaye's health and state, Couseart offered Gaye a place in his pension in Ostend. Gaye, who was traveling with his son Frankie and then-girlfriend, Dutch model Eugenie Vis, agreed to go on the trip though he admitted to his brother Frankie later that he didn't know where Belgium was and that he "left that to the hands of God." Gaye arrived to Ostend on February 14. That same month, Gaye's marriage to second wife Janis Hunter ended in divorce two years after Hunter filed. Gaye cut down on his drug use while in Ostend and began exercising and attending the local church. Gaye recovered well enough to begin talks of a musical comeback. Disappointed in the results of his last two albums and in his relationship with Motown, as well as disappointing fans during his oft-chaotic concert tours, Gaye, with Couseart's help, began rehearsing a new band for the short ''Heavy Love Affair Tour'', named after Gaye's song from the ''In Our Lifetime'' album in Ostend. Some of the rehearsal footage aired on the Belgian TV documentary, ''Transit Ostend''. The tour took place mainly in London, Bristol and Manchester, England, before Gaye performed the final two dates in Ostend. Gaye ended the tour after the Ostend performances and remained in Ostend, along with two of his touring musicians, Gordon Banks and Odell Brown. Within the final months of 1981, with word of Gaye plotting a musical comeback and an exit from Motown, several labels offered record deals. Gaye eventually accepted CBS Records, which in turn gave him a three-album contract with Columbia. Details of how much the singer was paid when Gaye signed on March 23, 1982 was not made public due to possible interference with Gaye's payment to creditors to receive back taxes, which had prompted Gaye to permanently settle in Europe. It was later determined that it took $1.5 million (US$ in dollars) to buy Gaye's contract out of Motown, with an additional $600,000 advance money (US$ in dollars) awarded to the singer.〔 Gaye had begun recording on elements of his new album starting in December 1981 in Brussels before the deal was set. Figuring he had alienated record buyers and his legion of fans for writing interpersonal albums, Gaye sought to record more mainstream music to win them back. In explaining why he decided to go for the commercial sounds instead of looking inward as he had with his last album, ''In Our Lifetime'', Gaye explained, "I'm worried that I'm getting so introspective, no one will listen. I can't afford to miss this time. I need a hit." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Midnight Love」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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