100 Best Albums
- MAY 21, 1971
- 9 Songs
- United · 1967
- Midnight Love & The Sexual Healing Sessions · 1982
- Let's Get It On (Remastered 2003) · 1973
- What's Going On · 1971
- In the Groove · 1968
- Throwback Tunes: 70s · 1977
- What's Going On · 1971
- How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You · 1965
- The Ultimate Motown Christmas Collection · 1973
- You're All I Need · 1968
Essential Albums
- Updating his highly percussive but string-laden groove for the disco set, Gaye clearly devised 1976’s I Want You as a makeout album. But the space-age synthesizers in the instrumental version of “After the Dance” rocket him straight into the stratosphere. And the Afro-Caribbean congas of “I Want You” and bossa nova lilt of “Since I Had You” support a mix of rhythm and beauty that refuses to box itself in—punctuated by Gaye’s own murmuring, the sound flows like a sweet, seductive stream.
- What do you do for an encore after you’ve just released a certified, game-changing masterpiece? That was the challenge facing Motown maestro Marvin Gaye after his What’s Going On opus was released in 1971. After 1972’s Trouble Man soundtrack, Let’s Get It On was the proper follow-up to one of the greatest albums of all time. But instead of suffering a seemingly inevitable letdown under the weight of all that pressure, Gaye leveled up again to make back-to-back classics. Indeed, Let’s Get It On defined the R&B concept album every bit as much as What’s Going On did, trading social consciousness for sexual healing in turbulent, soul-testing times. It was a different kind of wokeness—raising your libido between the sheets instead of your fist out in the streets—but no less revolutionary. There is no foreplay along this journey to erotic enlightenment. The album makes its intimate intentions clear from the first notes of the testosterone-charged title track, as Gaye comes on strong with a swag and swerve unheard in his earlier Motown material. But while there is a gritty sexuality that doesn’t leave much to the imagination, there is also a gospel spirituality climaxing with a “sanctified” rapture that blurs the lines between raunch and religion in a way that would inspire generations of other soul studs, from Prince to D’Angelo. But just like What’s Going On, Let’s Get It On—over its concise, cohesive 32 minutes—was a soul symphony bigger than any one song, as Gaye had evolved from a singles machine at Motown’s hit factory to a visionary album artist producing his own work (here, with Ed Townsend). When “Keep Gettin’ It On” takes you back to the title tune in a quasi-reprise midway through the LP, it’s like an unexpected arousal from a post-coital crash for another steamy session. Likewise, “You Sure Love to Ball” leaves no doubt that it’s all about humping, not hoops. And the album’s signature ballad, “Distant Lover,” is one of the OG quiet-storm slow jams that was the prototype for many a bump and grind. But as much as Let’s Get It On is about, well, getting it on, tracks such as “If I Should Die Tonight” and the closer “Just to Keep You Satisfied” reveal a raw romanticism and naked vulnerability that would make Gaye the voice of “sensitive people with so much to give.”
- 100 Best Albums When Marvin Gaye brought the title track of 1971’s What’s Going On to Motown founder Berry Gordy, Gordy reportedly said it was the worst thing he’d ever heard. The music was too loose, the lyrics too political. Too political? Gaye countered. This is the 1970s: You’ve got the Vietnam War; you’ve got growing poverty and systemic racism; you’ve got an environment under threat. Even Elvis was singing protest songs (1969’s “In the Ghetto”)—why couldn’t Marvin Gaye? The album’s genius is in its lightness. Songs drift and breathe; performances feel natural, even offhand—Eli Fontaine's saxophone part on the title track, for example, was recorded when Fontaine thought he was just warming up. As Sly & The Family Stone channeled their anger into into bitter funk (1971’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On), Gaye sublimated his in lush string sections and Latin percussion—signals not just of musical gentleness, but cultural sophistication. Even in the face of bleakness (the addiction portrait of “Flyin’ High [In the Friendly Sky],” “Inner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler]”), he floats. The revelation is that political music doesn’t have to be confrontational—it can be mellow and inviting too, the province not just of radicals, but the same mixed, middle-class audiences that had been buying Gaye’s albums all along. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and as Gaye seems to say on What’s Going On, you don’t have to be a hippie to be worried by what you see—you just have to be human.
- 1997
Artist Playlists
- Soul music charmer, funk pioneer, slow jam king: The Prince of Motown could do it all.
- Passion and pain from The Prince of Motown.
- Their original tunes have been the source material for some of modern music’s biggest hits.
- His impact can be heard in almost every genre.
- His legacy traveled far beyond the world of funk and soul.
- Dive into the vaults of the soul man who redefined American pop.
Live Albums
- 2009
- 2008
- The greatest evolutionary leap in the history of soul.
- Marvin Gaye samples from Nas, Tweet, and D.O.C.
- Marvin paid tribute to Martin’s martyrdom with this beautiful song.
- Magic Johnson called Marvin’s rendition “history, but also hood.”
- Estelle celebrates the life and legacy of Marvin Gaye.
- Josiah Bell is in the mix celebrating the iconic Marvin Gaye.
- DJ Spinna celebrates the 50th Anniversary of ‘What's Going On?’
About Marvin Gaye
Without Marvin Gaye, both R&B as we know it and American pop in general would have sounded rather different. His gifts as a musician, songwriter, and singer helped put the Motown sound on the map. And his innovative, eclectic vision found him continually pushing beyond the borders of R&B. Born in Washington, DC, in 1939, Gaye had a tough childhood before forming the vocal group The Marquees in 1957. They became a backing group for former Moonglows singer Harvey Fuqua, and by 1961 Gaye had moved to Detroit, where he became a session drummer for Motown, playing on milestones like The Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman” and Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips.” He then began penning songs for Motown artists, co-writing hits like The Marvelettes’ “Beechwood 4-5789” and Martha & The Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street.” When he started making records under his own name for the label, he was a jazz balladeer; it was only when he turned his fluid tenor to R&B on 1962’s “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” that he found success. The mercurial Gaye spent the next few years recording show tunes and a Nat “King” Cole tribute album amid his more soulful sides. He hit his stride with crossover hits like “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and “Ain’t That Peculiar” and a series of Tammi Terrell duets epitomized by “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.” But Gaye began edging toward a more emotionally and musically sophisticated place with 1968’s immortal “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and in 1971 he helped alter the course of soul with the socially conscious, complexly textured What’s Going On. Gaye never stopped innovating—his smoldering, disco-friendly 1977 smash “Got to Give It Up” was a crucial influence on Michael Jackson’s adult career, and the synths and drum machine of 1982’s electro-soul burner “Sexual Healing” once again led R&B someplace new. But his career was cut tragically short when he was shot dead by his father during a fight at the family home on April 1, 1984.
- HOMETOWN
- United States of America
- BORN
- April 2, 1939
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul