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Marvin Gaye
Although he used his voice to put Motown on the map, Marvin Gaye’s artistic ambition was equally important in soul music’s history. Gaye’s quest for life beyond hit singles helped later artists like Stevie Wonder and Prince follow their muses, even when they led off the charts. Meanwhile, his weightless tenor stayed heavenly, even when it was describing the inner demons that would ultimately cost Gaye his life. Born in Washington D.C., Marvin got his musical start in the church -- a natural, since his father, Marvin Gay Sr. (his son added the “e”), was a minister. However, the church was the House of God, an ultra-strict fundamentalist sect, and Gaye later claimed his father had beaten him daily. After a post-high school stint in the Air Force, Gaye returned home, where he began singing with the Rainbows, a doo-wop group mentored by Bo Diddley. The group later transformed into a new edition of the Moonglows to back singer Harvey Fuqua, but when a tour took them to Detroit, a young impresario named Berry Gordy liked what he heard of Gaye and signed him to a new label called Motown. Despite his obvious gifts, it took Gaye a while to get his solo career off the ground; he didn’t get firmly established until the funky 1963 hit “Hitch Hike.” But after that, the hits came regularly for Gaye, both as a solo act (1965’s “Ain’t That Peculiar” and his signature smash, 1968’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” to name but a few) and with duet partners like Tammi Terrell, who joined him on singles like “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.” After battling with Motown for years over his choice of material, his vision was finally rewarded on What’s Going On, a 1971 set of sophisticated, jazzy soul and hard looks at issues like drug abuse, poverty and the environment. Yet Gaye scored his greatest commercial success singing about scoring, on 1973’s “Let’s Get It On.” The lustful thoughts continued on “I Want You” in 1975, but Gaye gave a glimpse of his troubled inner life on 1978’s Here, My Dear, a bizarre blow-by-blow account of his divorce from Gordy’s sister Anna, recorded to pay her back alimony. Drugs and more arguments with Motown derailed his next couple of projects, yet Gaye appeared to have scored a comeback in 1983 with the mega-hit “Sexual Healing” (for a new label, Columbia) and a legendarily soulful run-through of the National Anthem at that year’s NBA All-Star Game. Battling depression, the 44-year-old Gaye moved back home in an effort to straighten out his life, but lost it tragically instead, when his father shot him to death following an argument on April 1, 1984. Marvin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and today, the world continues to pay tribute to his genius by using his name as a signifier for “soul.”


Marvin Gaye	Trouble Man	WinMedia	R&B
What’s Going On? This jazzed-up blaxploitation tune from the original “Trouble Man,” that’s what! You won’t be shaft-ed on this slice of understated and underrated soul!