Marvin Gaye, officially Marvin Pentz Gay, was born on 2 April 1939 as the son of a preacher in a ghetto in Washington DC. After a failed training as an air force pilot, he joined the vocal group The Moonglows in the early 60s. In ’62 the Moonglows played at a party in Detroit where Gaye was noticed by Motown boss Berry Gordy. He had his first hit in 1962 with Stubborn Kind of Fellow. Gaye grew in the following years into the most popular singer from the Motown stable, with solo hits like How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), Can I Get A Witness, Ain't That Peculiar, I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Abraham, Martin and John. In addition, he recorded successful duets with the top female singers of the label, Mary Wells and Kim Weston (It Takes Two), but especially Tammi Terrell (Ain't no mountain high enough, Your precious love, You're all I need to get by).
When Tammi Terrell died in 1970, after two years of many operations, from a brain tumour, this led to a depression in Gaye. He completely changed his approach and renewed his themes on the 1971 LP What's Going On, produced by himself. Away from the chart hits, this album contains socially critical songs like Save the Children, Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), Inner City Blues and the title track, which flow smoothly into each other. This record, on which he also incorporated jazz and classical elements, was initially not wanted to be released by Berry Gordy. He expected no commercial success and feared that Gaye's image would suffer. What's Going On is now considered Gaye's masterpiece and one of the most influential records in black American music.
Gaye's career increasingly went downhill. On 8 July 1980, when he was to perform in London for Princess Margaret and had been invited by her to a charity dinner beforehand, he only showed up when almost all visitors, the princess first, had left. After reflecting with the LP In Our Lifetime from 1981, he unexpectedly stayed in Belgium for over a year, in Ostend and Moere in West Flanders. In 1982 he recorded the LP Midnight Love for the CBS label with the hit Sexual Healing. The video clip was recorded in the Casino-Kursaal of Ostend. That year Gaye received a Grammy Award, which seemed to herald his comeback.
In March 1984 Gaye returned to his family in the United States. He had a fierce argument with his father, who strongly disapproved of his lifestyle. The day before his forty-fifth birthday he was shot dead by his father Marvin senior during such a heated quarrel. The cause of the argument was said to be the financing of his birthday party. He left behind three children.
Top 2000
In the 23rd edition of the Top 2000, Marvin Gaye is listed 5 times:
Sunday Morning Classic: What's Going On
On 10 January 2021 Marvin was our Sunday Morning Classic with the album "What's Going On".
Okay, let's just get this out of the way. Marvin Gaye's What's Going On LP is a masterpiece. If it’s not in your top five or at least within the realm of your top 10 albums of all time, then I seriously think you need to reevaluate your list. Not many albums give you a snapshot of the world at the time of release.
By the late sixties, Marvin Gaye had fallen into a deep depression. His singing partner Tammi Terrell was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour and his marriage to Anna Gordy, sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, was rapidly falling apart. Gaye's self-medication through increasing cocaine dependence caused his depression to go into overdrive. Despite the success of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", he did not believe his success was real. He often said he was just a puppet of Berry & Anna Gordy and that he did not deserve the praise he received.
On 1 June 1971, Gaye began recording the single "What's Going On" with some members of Motown's house band, the Funk Brothers. Gaye made extensive use of his distinctive four-octave range. He recorded two different lead vocals for the song. Engineers accidentally mixed the two versions together. Gaye loved the sound so much that he decided to keep it and use this technique for the entire album.
When the song was finished, Gaye took it to Berry Gordy. Gordy hated the song and called it the worst thing he had ever heard in his life. Without Gordy's knowledge, Barney Ales, Motown's sales director, sent 200,000 copies to record stores. Within weeks, "What's Going On" became Motown's fastest-selling song.
During the final mix of the album in April, Gordy gave it one last chance to convince Gaye he was making a mistake with this record. Gaye stood his ground and disagreed, rightly so. Another sticking point for Gordy was the fact that the songs flowed into each other on one side without stops.
The entire album is a brilliant and beautiful opus that gives the listener a clear definition of what was happening in America in 1971. "What's Going On" is universally loved and highly praised in all circles. This album began a new chapter in Marvin Gaye's career. There was no turning back. There were no sweet love songs. From now on, it was just the honest, unvarnished truth, seen through the eyes of a sensitive, tormented genius.
source: Jan Liebregts, NPO and Wikipedia photo: public domain
