When I'm Alone I Cry: Difference between revisions

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{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = When I'm Alone I Cry

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== Recording ==

The album includes ten [[traditional pop music|pop]] and jazz [[standard (music)|standards]]; at Gaye's request, two of the songs were taken from [[Billie Holiday]]'s album ''[[Lady in Satin]]''. The [[backing track]]s were recorded by [[record producer|producer]] [[Clarence Paul]] in [[New York City]] and [[Chicago]], using [[arrangement|arrangers]] [[Jerome Richardson]], [[Melba Liston]], and [[Ernie Wilkins]]. Gaye [[overdub]]bed the vocal tracks after returning to [[Detroit]] from touring.<ref name="ritz">{{cite book | last=Ritz | first=David | title=Divided Soul: The Life Ofof Marvin Gaye | publisher=Hachette Books | year=2009 | isbn=978-0-7867-3046-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAJLQW0oRlgC&pg=PA93 | access-date=2022-03-17 | page=93}}</ref>

== Critical reception ==

{{Music ratings

Critic [[Richie Unterberger]] describes the album as "competently done, but{{nbsp}}... supper-club fare, in which Gaye comes off as a sub-[[Nat King Cole]] rather than his own man."<ref>{{cite web |title=Review by Richie Unterberger |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/when-im-alone-i-cry-mw0000118514 |website=Allmusic.com |access-date=17 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Gaye's biographer [[David Ritz]] says: "His ballad style remained self-conscious and restrained... The results were flat, though on the up-tempo numbers he swung effortlessly, demonstrating his natural feel for jazz."<ref name=ritz /> After ''When I'm Alone I Cry'' was unsuccessful upon its release, Gaye finally gave way to pressure to record more [[rhythm and blues|R&B]] and [[soul music|soul]] material. By the end of the decade, he had become one of the best-selling and most revered soul artists of his generation.

|rev1 = [[AllmusicAllMusic]]

|rev1score = {{Rating|2|5}}<ref name=AM/>

{{Album reviews

|rev1 = [[Allmusic]]

|rev1score = {{Rating|2|5}} [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r8066|pure_url=yes}} link]

}}

Critic [[Richie Unterberger]] describes the album as "competently done, but{{nbsp}}... supper-club fare, in which Gaye comes off as a sub-[[Nat King Cole]] rather than his own man."<ref name=AM>{{cite web |title=Review by Richie Unterberger |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/when-im-alone-i-cry-mw0000118514 |website=Allmusic.comAllMusic |access-date=17 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Gaye's biographer [[David Ritz]] says: "His ballad style remained self-conscious and restrained... The results were flat, though on the up-tempo numbers he swung effortlessly, demonstrating his natural feel for jazz."<ref name=ritz /> After ''When I'm Alone I Cry'' was unsuccessful upon its release, Gaye finally gave way to pressure to record more [[rhythm and blues|R&B]] and [[soul music|soul]] material. By the end of the decade, he had become one of the best-selling and most revered soul artists of his generation.

== Track listing ==