Everyone says Marvin Gaye was but dig this song.



Yes not the most complex example, but the hook shows Stevie is multitracking. And correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Where I"m coming From Released before What's going on?

P.S. Timmy don't roast me

I'm guessing Little Richard was the first.

"Because" by the Beatles (Lennon) comes to mind.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

lol little richard is always the first to do everything. I think he was the first gay black american R&B?Rock N Roll musician to land on the moon

wasn't it ray charles. they document it in the movie ray. no one had ever done over dubs. ray sang all of the background harmonies on a few songs

It was Ray Charles, Sandino. He did it on "I Believe to My Soul" way back in 1959. The first Motown act to use multi-tracking was The Supremes with Diana Ross' vocals recorded twice. Marvin was using multi-tracking as early as 1968 ("You're a Son of a Gun", "It's a Desperate Situation"). Plus "What's Going On" the single was out in January 1971 (and recorded in June of 1970) so Stevie's song came right afterwards in both recording and release.

Why would I even roast you, man? I ain't that type of fan.

babybrutha said:

Ray got into a fight with Margie over him not leaving his wife for her and the fight escalated when they were in the studio recording the song. Ray sent them home and then told his producer he had an idea, so he brought in one woman to do the "oh Johnny" part while Ray did everything else (in the backgrounds). I'm sure some others used multi-tracking before this but this was an early indicator.

What Marvin did with his multi-tracking vocals was he did it in a way where, like Ray, he could create three or four part harmony. Ray would do this off and on during his career, he did it with his version of "Living for the City" (besides the Raelettes).

Anyway, for Sandino, here's Marvin doing it in 1968, two years before "What's Going On" and three years before "If You Really Love Me" and nine years after Ray:



Funky, huh?

Stevie was not the first.

The Bs did it since 1963 - the second Bs album.

Les Paul and Mary Ford had a song back in the 50's (?) called "How High The Moon"..That may have been the 1st multi-tracked song (guitar and vocal wise).

Les was considered the father of multitracking.

What is vocal multi tracking?

Sam Cooke did it on a few of his tunes too

Yup. Sam did it too.

Ray Charles did it before them in his song I Believe. Check the movie

funkpill said:

"Good Times" is a good example.

Harlepolis said:

http://www.imeem.com/arti...d-version/

Timmy84 said:

yup


ashame to say when i realize that he was singing background as well

funkpill said:

I had to make sure too. Sounds can be deceiving. Wasn't he singing in the background along with Lou Rawls on "Bring It On Home to Me"?
[Edited 7/12/09 14:55pm]

yup

funkpill said:

I figured that because the voices sounded familiar when Sam would sing his verses, you heard his leading high tenor with a lower tenor, lol.

what exactly is vocal multi-tracking?

when the same person records multiple vocal tracks for one song?

Or is it just having multiple vocal parts on a song?

coolcat said:

It's having multiple vocal parts for a song.

A singer will use two or three different background vocal parts that find them in different octaves, then either he or the producer mixes them together to make it part of the background melody. That's why Ray, Marvin, Stevie, MJ and Prince were so great with it.

Timmy84 said:

Thanks. Do you know what the first multitrack recording ever was?

coolcat said:

The earliest was Ray Charles' "I Believe to My Soul" as far as solo artists go but I saw a Carpenters documentary and it said some duo, I forget their name, you gonna have to go to YouTube and type in Carpenters biography or Carpenters documentary but anyway, Richard said the duo inspired them to do multi-track vocals. So that may be your answer, lol.

Timmy84 said:

Sorry... I meant any multitracking... not necessarily vocal... I was trying to look it up... I think Elvis was the first to use multitrack recording of any kind...

coolcat said:

Oh OK, lol.

I think Elvis invented the guitar too

Can someone list a good prince song that has multi tracking on it?

funkpill said:

The Beatles were doing it around their 3 or 4th album.