The title track is one of Gayes greatest tracks, although few have heard it.
The title track is one of Gaye's greatest performances, although few have heard it.

What with all the recent hubbub about the lawsuit and whatnot, rather than focusing on the post-settlement opinions, I took a trip deep into Marvin Gaye's catalog and ended up stuck on a 1994 collection of Gaye's rare and unreleased recordings—Love Starved Heart: Rare and Unreleased! This album is quite fantastic start to finish, but its title track, "This Love Starved Heart Of Mine," I can't escape. God damn. The song, written by Kay and Helen Lewis, is a heaving testimony to Motown's pop production AND sophistication; I'm (almost) pained to say it, considering Gaye's extensive catalog, but this may be the strongest of Gaye's sides. C'mon, MAYBE! Still, how in the hell the song didn't get a period release, even as an LP-only track, is beyond me. I do know there were a couple acetates of the track cut sometime in the early '80s off reference cassette dubs and DJed as "cover ups"—the cover-up singer was JJ Barnes!

Yuh-huh! "This Love Starved Heart Of Mine" is a fucking killer dancer!