Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” released

Thinking Out Loud Ed Sheeran

Writer(s): Ed Sheeran, Amy Wadge, Julian Williams (see lyrics here) Released: September 24, 2014 First Charted: October 25, 2014 Peak: 2 US, 11 DG, 11 RR, 119 AC, 16 A40, 26 AA, 11 UK, 2 CN, 15 AU, 13 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 12.0 US, 3.0 UK, 19.5 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 3518.7 video, 2274.38 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Thinking Out Loud” was the third single from Sheeran’s second studio album, X (or Multiply). The song took 19 weeks to climb to #1 in the UK WK and went on to become the first single to spend a full year in the UK top 40. WK In the U.S., it peaked at #2 for eight weeks behind “Uptown Funk!” It became the first song to be streamed over 500 million times on Spotify. WK Sheeran wrote the song with Amy Wadge, a Wales-based singer/songwriter whom Sheeran met when he was seventeen years old. When she visited him in February 2014, he was nearly finished with his album. Sheeran heard her playing guitar and the tune caught his attention. He wrote the song in 20 minutes and then recorded it on his phone. The next day he recorded it in the studio. WK Sheeran later explained he wrote the song about his then-girlfriend Athina Andrelos and about “everlasting love” at “a really, really happy point.” WK It became a popular first-dance wedding number, topping Spotify’s 2017 list of the most popular wedding songs in America. SF The romantic ballad had blue-eyed soul influences. Sheeran composed the melody on guitar which he considered in the style of Irish musician Van Morrison. WK He told Q magazine, “Everyone always channels Michael Jackson and the Beatles and Bob Dylan…I feel like Van Morrison is a key figure in the music that I make.” SF Some noted the song had similarities to Marvin Gaye’s 1973 song “Let’s Get It On.” Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz even called it a “sleek update” of the classic. WK The heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote and co-produced “Let’s Get It On,” sued Sheeran for plagiarizing the song. SF The lawsuit was dismissed because the complaint wasn’t served before the deadline of January 20, 2017. SF Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: Last updated 7/24/2023.

Marvin Gaye's Top 50 Songs

image from ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com

April 2, 1939: Marvin Gaye was born. According to the DMDB, he ranks #3 on the list of top 100 R&B acts. He also rates as one of the top 100 singers of all time and one of the top 100 songwriters of the rock era. He got his start singing in his father’s Apostolic church in vocal groups the Rainbows and Marquees. He joined Harvey Fuqua in the re-formed Moonglows. He moved to Detroit in 1960 and got session work as a drummer at Motown. He first recorded under his own name in 1961. That same year he married Anna Gordy, the sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy. They divorced in 1975. On the eve of his 45th birthday – April 1, 1984 – he was tragically shot and killed by his own father after a quarrel.

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

1. I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1968)
2. What’s Going On (1971)
3. Let’s Get It On (1973)
4. Sexual Healing (1982)
5. How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You (1964)

What’s Going On

6. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (with Tammi Terrell, 1967)
7. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology Song) (1971)
8. It Takes Two (with Kim Weston, 1966)
9. Got to Give It Up (1977)
10. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (1971)

Let’s Get It On

11. Your Precious Love (with Tammi Terrell, 1967)
12. Too Busy Thinking About My Baby (1969)
13. Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing (with Tammi Terrell, 1968)
14. You’re All I Need to Get By (with Tammi Terrell, 1968)
15. Ain’t That Peculiar (1965)

Sexual Healing

16. I’ll Be Doggone (1965)
17. I Want You (1976)
18. Can I Get a Witness (1963)
19. You’re a Wonderful One (1964)
20. If I Could Build My Whole World Around You (with Tammi Terrell, 1967)

How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You

21. Pride and Joy (1963)
22. That’s the Way Love Is (1969)
23. Hitch Hike (1963)
24. My Mistake Was to Love You (with Diana Ross, 1974)
25. Trouble Man (1972)

26. You’re a Special Part of Me (1973)
27. One More Heartache (1966)
28. Stubborn Kind of Fellow (1962)
29. Once Upon a Time (with Mary Wells, 1964)
30. Come Get to This (1973)

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

31. Try It Baby (1964)
32. Baby Don’t You Do It (1964)
33. What’s the Matter with You (with Mary Wells, 1964)
34. Keep on Lovin’ Me Honey (with Tammi Terrell, 1968)
35. Pretty Little Baby (1965)

Mercy Mercy Me

36. Music (with Erick Sermon, 2001)
37. Distant Lover (1974)
38. You (1968)
39. Chained (1968)
40. Your Unchanging Love (1967)

It Takes Two

41. Little Darling, I Need You (1966)
42. The End of Our Road (1970)
43. Good Lovin’ Ain’t Easy to Come By (with Valerie Simpson, 1969)
44. How Can I Forget (1970)
45. Take This Heart of Mine (1966)

Got to Give It Up

46. You’re the Man (1972)
47. You Sure Love to Ball (1974)
48. What You Gave Me (with Valerie Simpson, 1969)
49. Don’t Knock My Love (with Diana Ross, 1974)
50. Pops, We Love You (A Tribute) (with Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, & Stevie Wonder, 1978)

Inner City Blues

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Awards:

• one of the top 100 acts of all time
• one of my personal favorite top 100 acts of all time
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
• Hollywood Walk of Fame stars for people in the recording industry
• R&B Foundation
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
• one of the top 100 R&B acts
• one of the top 100 singers of all time
• top 100 songwriters of the rock era

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Resources and Related Links:

• Marvin Gaye’s DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry
• DMDB blog entry: Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” hit the charts: November 16, 1968 (11/16/11)
• DMDB blog entry: Marvin Gaye “Let’s Get It On”: Even Jack Black Can’t Deny Its Charms (6/15/11)

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Marvin Gaye hit #1 with “Let’s Get It On”

Let’s Get It On Marvin Gaye

Writer(s): Marvin Gaye, Ed Townsend (see lyrics here) First Charted: June 15, 1973 Peak: 12 US, 11 CB, 12 HR, 4 RR, 16 RB, 31 UK, 6 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.4 UK, 3.4 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 189.5 video, 240.22 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Billboard magazine called this song “one of the greatest sexual liberation anthems of all time.” BB “The unabashedly erotic ‘Let’s Get It On’” RH topped the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts in the U.S., but is often overshadowed by his definitive version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and his politically poignant “What’s Going On.” When it comes to sensuality and sexual explicitness, “Sexual Healing” steals some of the thunder from “Let’s Get It On” because it marked a comeback for Gaye before he was tragically shot by his father. Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the song, had originally conceived it with a religious theme. WK It then became a political song before evolving into what Rolling Stone called “a masterpiece of erotic persuasion.” RS500 In the liner notes for the parent album, Gaye said, “I can’t see anything wrong with sex between consenting anybodies. I think we make far too much of it.” FB An acquaintance of Gaye’s brought Janis Hunter to the recording session and, according to writer Ben Edmonds, she “compelled him to perform the song to her, and in so doing, it was transformed into the masterpiece of raw emotion we know so well.” TC Gaye married her after his divorce from his first wife. The song features prominently in the movie High Fidelity. John Cusack’s character runs a record store, giving him access to more obscure music than the general population. Nonetheless, he and his girlfriend proclaim the widely popular “Let’s Get It On” as their song. When Cusack hosts a party at the movie’s conclusion, he is understandably nervous about letting co-worker Jack Black perform, convinced he’ll offend everyone. After all, Black doesn’t hold back in his opinions, such as the famous scene in which he mercilessly berates a customer for asking for Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” Instead, Black surprises Cusack with a soulful version of “Let’s Get It On,” proving that even the most cynical music fans can’t deny what Gaye called the “aphrodisiac power” RS500 of the song. Resources: BB Billboard (9/08). “All-Time Hot 100” FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 342. TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 670. RH Marvin Gaye’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bio RS500 Rolling Stone (2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“ WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 6/15/2011; last updated 10/28/2022.