Diana and Marvin question

[rovereab]

Does anyone know if Diana and Marvin ever appeared on stage singing songs from their duet album?

It would be great if there is any video footage stored somewhere!

Thanks.

[Jimi LaLumia]

after one or two attempts, they didn't even appear in the same studio at the same time while making their duet album...

[Kamasu_Jr]

They appeared onstage together but they didn't sing any songs from their album.

[RossHolloway]

Imagine how much more successful the album and singles would have been if they had bother to promote the project together and at least made a handful of tv appearances together.

[rovereab]

Kamasu - did they sing anything together?

[BayouMotownMan]

The album had been shelved. Gordy ordered is re-mastered and issued only because Diana was hot with Touch Me In The Morning and Marvin with Let's Get It On. Neither singer was excited about this project and neither wanted it issued so it's no wonder neither promoted it.

When Diana did play LA in 1974, she had GC Cameron perform My Mistake with her.

[Kamasu_Jr]

I don't know what they sang, but some of the footage is in her Missing You video. She did hand Marvin the mic during one of her Vegas shows. It was during Reach Out & Touch.

[reese]

There was also a show [[I believe in the UK) where Diana and Marvin got on stage with Stevie Wonder.

[theboyfromxtown]

Reese

Well remembered. That was at a Stevie concert if I recall correctly.

[captainjames]

rovereab I think it is safe to answer your question with a NO

[ralpht]

This video may interest some of you if you haven't seen it. Russ and I discussing Marvin Gaye where the recording of the Marvin/Diana album is discussed. Some pretty funny stuff in it.

http://youtu.be/BMt18phyFZs

[Hotspurman]

Reese

Well remembered. That was at a Stevie concert if I recall correctly.

It was during Stevie's 'Hotter Than July' tour at Wembley Arena in 1980, when he brought out both Diana and Marvin, but neither sang.

[Jaap]

The footage from the Missing You video was shot during Diana Ross's 1982 Work That Body Tour at the concert in Brussels. And of course he sang a line in a Diana Ross sing-a-long twice [[as far as I know), both in Las Vegas -- both times bringing the house down: in 1970 during "Let The Sunshine In" and in 1979/80 during "Reach Out and Touch". Referring to the latter performance, Gaye told David Ritz that he had hope Diana had asked him to sing along with "All For One" instead...

I do think the whole Diana and Marvin weren't in the studio together for the duets is totally overblown... many if not most duets in pop music are recorded separately, including several Marvin and Tammi duets -- Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald didn't even meet each other after their duet was a big hit.

[RossHolloway]

This video may interest some of you if you haven't seen it. Russ and I discussing Marvin Gaye where the recording of the Marvin/Diana album is discussed. Some pretty funny stuff in it.

http://youtu.be/BMt18phyFZs

That is a great clip. I've seen it before but forgotten some of the details.

[ralpht]

It still makes me laugh when I watch it, Ross. My brother does a great impression of Berry.

[supremester]

You did a beautiful job on Diana & Marvin - I loved it the day it came out and still do.

[ralpht]

Russ did the album, not me.

[rovereab]

How good would it have been for them to have sung You Are Everything live on stage together!

I can dream lol.

[RossHolloway]

So my takeaway is that because they didn't record most of the songs in the studio together, they both individually sung the entire songs and then both vocals were mixed in together. Does anyone know if these seperate tracks still exist in the vaults? Those tracks would be something worth listening to.

[thisoldheart]

i thought i read that ross didn't like to be around gaye's reefer smoke. they only recorded their own parts of each song [[i think.)

[Jimi LaLumia]

Watch the fab video that Ralph posted above for the answer to that!...lol

[RossHolloway]

Yea, Ralph explained that they recorded just the first song together, and after that they both seperately recorded all the song in their entirety and then their parts were mixed in together to make the duets.

[rovereab]

I wonder which song they recorded first? - I would guess Love Twins given the spoken banter between them. "I love you baby, I love you too Marvin".

What do you think?

[ralpht]

I could ask Russ, Rover, but I doubt he would remember.

[rovereab]

Ralph, please ask Russ :)

[ralpht]

I will. But his body of work was so vast, don't hold your breath.

[ralpht]

Got Russ on the phone...he's checking titles

[ralpht]

Just got off the phone with Russ. He tried to remember and even went and looked at all the titles on the album but came up blank.

[midnight johnny]

This video may interest some of you if you haven't seen it. Russ and I discussing Marvin Gaye where the recording of the Marvin/Diana album is discussed. Some pretty funny stuff in it.

http://youtu.be/BMt18phyFZs

Thanks Ralph....great to revisit that clip with you and Russ...

[reese]

I wonder which song they recorded first? - I would guess Love Twins given the spoken banter between them. "I love you baby, I love you too Marvin".

What do you think?

I'm not sure how accurate this is. But I read that Ashford and Simpson were the original producers for the project, and there is a photo of them and Diana and Marvin in the studio. So I'm assuming their two songs were the first recorded.

When Hal Davis took over as producer, he recalls the first song attempted as DON'T KNOCK MY LOVE, and said it was during this session that Marvin refused to quit smoking even though Diana asked him to, as she was pregnant.

[midnightman]

Yeah, the whole thing was really over Marvin refusing to put his joint out because he felt he couldn't perform without it. :)

Of course Diana being pregnant would have nothing of it lol [[and that's quite understandable).

Marvin eventually did put it out and they recorded this song together. Diana allegedly told Marvin while recording "Don't Knock My Love" that she "hated" the song lol

Marvin & Diana were so busy between 1971 and 1972 that Motown struggled to complete the album so they had Marvin & Diana record the songs at separate times. The real story was less dramatic than the stories that came out about why they supposedly recorded separately.

Diana and Marvin got along real fine over the years. From what I gathered, "Diana & Marvin" was a Berry concept, though Diana always wanted to sing with Marvin anyway. I don't think neither of them liked the songs they were told to record and since Marvin recorded for Tamla, he did Diana a favor as this was on the Motown imprint to which she was signed, so he just punched in his vocals and Diana did hers after him.

Since they had other projects and didn't like the album as much, it's not difficult to see why they didn't promote it.