"Let’s Get It On" - Marvin Gaye

LP version (about 4:51)

I have the LP version on just three discs.

Motown's 4-CD The Master 1961-1984 (1995) sounds quite nice. Good dynamic range, nice EQ, no noise reduction, decent source tapes.

Time-Life's 2-CD Body Talk Vol. 4 Together Forever (1996) uses a different analog transfer than The Master, but has sound comparable in quality to The Master. Time-Life's 2-CD Body And Soul Vol. 6 Love Under Cover (1999) is a differently-EQ'd digital clone of Body Talk.

Any of these three discs are good choices for the LP version. I chose The Master for my library, just because it's the oldest. (Pretty arbitrary, indeed.)

45 version (about 3:59)

To get the 45 from the LP version on The Master 1961-1984, delete the 48 beats from 3:05.4 to 3:39.5 (both edits falling a half-beat before a downbeat), and fade what you have left from 3:40 to 4:02. The faded portion is 4:14 to 4:36 in the LP version.

The first CD to include the 45 version was actually one of the very first CDs put out by Motown, or any other label for that matter - Motown's Compact Command Performances 15 Greatest Hits (1983). I'd rate the sound here as pretty good, but not quite as good as The Master. I'd expect the source tape for the 45 to be a higher generation than the LP version, since you need a generation to do the edit. And this is a very nice analog transfer of that tape, with a very long tail on the fade, and no noise reduction. The same analog transfer turns up on a whole bunch of CDs:

• Motown's 25 #1 Hits From 25 Years Vol. 2 (1985) - digitally exactly 0.98 dB louder
• Motown's Biggest Pop Hits All No. 1 On Billboard's Charts (1986) - differently-EQ'd digital clone
• Rhino's Billboard Top R&R Hits 1973 (1988) - yes, the Rhino disc is based on this disc!
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 6 1973 (1990) - digitally identical to the Rhino disc
• Razor & Tie's 2-CD Sweet '70s Soul (1991)
• Sony's 2-CD 35 Years Of Rock And Roll (1992)
• PolyGram's promo PGD Presents Sound Savers Vol. 2 (1992) - differently EQ'd digital clone
• PolyGram's promo PGD Presents Sound Savers Vol. 5 (1994) - digitally exactly 1 dB quieter
• Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul Vol. 8 1973 (1996) - digitally exactly 0.4 dB quieter than Rhino disc
• Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul #1 Love Songs Of The '70s (2000) - probably digitally identical to Solid Gold Soul Vol. 8 1973

If that had been all there was, we'd be pretty happy. All of the above sound pretty good.

But Bill Inglot must have found some magical source tapes for Motown's 4-CD Hitsville USA Vol. 2 (1993), because it sounds dazzling here - better than all of the above. As with all of the above, this version has good dynamic range, nice EQ, and no noise reduction. But it has so much presence, especially compared side-by-side with the above discs. These CDs use the same analog transfer as Hitsville:

• Motown's Motown Year By Year 1973 (1995) - digitally identical
• MCA's 3-CD Soul Train 25th Anniversary Hall Of Fame (1995) - differently-EQ'd digital clone

Some outliers that aren't based on the masterings from any of the above:

• Motown's 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection Vol. 2 The '70s (2000) - not as good as any of the above
• Time-Life's Legends Of Soul Vol. 2 Marvin Gaye (2001) - sounds is on par with Compact Command Performances 15 Greatest Hits
• Silver Eagle's 3-CD Motown 25th Anniversary Collection (copyright 1983) - horrendous sound, and fades a bit early; there's no reason to own this collection

My recommendation for the 45 edit is clear: Motown's 4-CD Hitsville USA Vol. 2 (1993)