Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye in 1973 Marvin Gaye in 1973
Background information
Birth name	Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.
Also known as	Prince of Soul Prince of Motown
Born	(1939-04-02)April 2, 1939 Washington, D.C.
Died	April 1, 1984(1984-04-01) (aged 44) Los Angeles, California
Genres	R&B, soul, jazz, smooth soul, doo-wop, funk, quiet storm
Occupation(s)	Singer Songwriter composer musician record producer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, piano, keyboards, drums, percussion, synthesizers
Years active	1957–1984
Labels	Motown (Tamla-Motown), Columbia

Marvin Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., was an American singer-songwriter and musician whose career spanned more than two decades. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., he was the son of a storefront minister of a local Pentecostal church sect and grew up singing gospel in church revivals as a young child. Gaye branched out into secular music as a teenager, joining the doo-wop group The Marquees, after returning from an honorable discharge from the United States Air Force, before the group was hired by Harvey Fuqua to be Harvey & The Moonglows. Following the band's separation in 1960, Gaye began working as a session drummer for the Detroit music label, Anna, before signing with Motown Records in 1961, adding an "e" to his surname.

Gaye was one of many who shaped the sound and success of Motown Records in the 1960s, becoming that label's top-selling solo artist of that decade with a string of hits including "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell. Because of this, Gaye was given the titles, "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". Following the death of Tammi Terrell in 1970, Gaye went into seclusion, emerging the following year with "What's Going On" and its subsequent album, which helped to make him one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of Motown's production company to be his own artist.

What's Going On and its 1973 follow-up, Let's Get It On became among the first concept albums in R&B music. Gaye's later music influenced the quiet storm, urban contemporary, slow jam and neo-soul music genres. After spending years as a European tax exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy Award-winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album. After a violent argument with his father, he was shot dead by him on April 1, 1984.

Gaye was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Gaye also ranked high on music magazines' lists, ranking at number 18 on the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time on the American music magazine, Rolling Stone, and he ranked number 20 on VH-1's list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Gaye, who composed a three-octave vocal range, was subsequently ranked at number 6 on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Singers of All Time in 2008.

Life and career

Early life

Washington, D.C.'s Columbia Heights where Marvin Gaye attended Cardozo High School and not too far from the Deanwood neighborhood where Marvin grew up.

Marvin's parents, Marvin Gay, Sr. and Alberta Cooper, married on July 2, 1935. The couple settled at southwest Washington, D.C. at 1617 First Street SW, only a few blocks from the Anacostia River. The Gay family called their First Street neighborhood "Simple City", due to it being "half-city, half-country". Marvin Gay had moved from Lexington, Kentucky to join a Pentecostal church sect known as the House of God, which had been based at Lexington where Gay joined as a child, where he ministered over a small church. The House of God took its learnings from Hebrew Pentecostalism, advocated strict conduct and taught and believed in both the Old and New Testaments. Due to Alberta having another child out of wedlock, Marvin's father sent the child to live with Alberta's sister Pearl, who also lived in Washington. Two years after their marriage, their first child, Jeanne, was born in 1937. Their son, Marvin, Jr., was born two years after that, on April 2, 1939. The family eventually grew to include younger son Frankie and Zeola, named after her maternal aunt.

Gaye began singing at his father's church and in church revivals starting around the age of five, with his first public performance being a version of "Journey to the Sky" at a Kentucky church revival with his father accompanying him on piano. His brother Frankie later recounted how Gaye's public performance at a school play when he was 11 encouraged him to pursue a singing career. His early home life, his sister Jeanne Gay confided later, however, consisted of "brutal whippings" at the hands of his father, who struck him for any shortcoming. Gaye described living under his father's house "was like living with a king, a very peculiar, changeable, cruel and all-powerful king." He further stated "if it wasn't for Mother, who was always there to console me and praise me for my singing, I think I would have been one of those child suicide cases you read about in the papers." Gaye's sister Jeanne said Gaye was beaten often between age seven well into his teenage years. Gaye and his three siblings were frequent bed-wetters as children, which became the source of more whippings. Gaye and his siblings would often be told to observe extended Sabbath, which started every Saturday, and to recite Biblical passages he taught them, striking them if they answered the passages wrong. By the late forties, Gaye's father split from the House of God and joined the newly-formed House of the Living God, but later rejoined the original House of God and headed its Board of Apostles by the early fifties. Gaye's father eventually quit the House of God in the mid-fifties, after he wasn't named Chief Apostle of the church. Gaye's father never kept a job, working for a total of three years, working at the Western Union and the post office. He withdrew from social life after dropping out of the ministry, later developing alcoholism and spent his seclusion cross-dressing, wearing his wife's clothes and wigs, which embarrassed his son. Gaye's mother supported the family as a domestic worker.

Gaye became a fan of secular music styles, including R&B and doo-wop. Before entering Cardozo High School and shortly after the Gay family relocated to D.C.'s Deanwood neighborhood in northeastern Washington, he had joined several doo-wop groups in the D.C. area, including the Dippers, which featured his friend Johnny Stewart, brother of R&B singer Billy Stewart. He also sung with another future Motown vocalist, Bobby Taylor, and later joined the D.C. Tones, in which he played drums and included another close friend Reese Palmer, and Sondra Lattisaw, mother of R&B singer Stacy Lattisaw. During his teen years, Gaye's relationship with his father further deteriorated and he often was kicked out of the house by his father for what he perceived was misbehavior. Fancying himself a flyer, Gaye, at seventeen, decided to enlist in the United States Air Force as a Basic Airman. Disappointed in having to do menial tasks, such as peeling potatoes, Gaye rebelled against the orders. Faking mental illness, he was discharged. His sergeant stated that Gaye refused to follow orders.

Early career

Main article: The Moonglows

File:41GimE+AHbL. SL600 .jpg

A 1959 promotional picture of Harvey and the Moonglows. Gaye is located fourth on the right from a seated Fuqua.

Returning to D.C., Gaye reconnected with Reese Palmer and formed the doo-wop quartet, the Marquees, which included singers James Nolan and Chester Simmons. The group was discovered shortly after forming by Bo Diddley, who had relocated briefly to Washington from Chicago. After Diddley failed to get the group signed to his label, Chess Records, he assigned the band to OKeh Records, a subsidiary for Columbia, releasing only two singles, including "Wyatt Earp". The song failed to chart. Gaye began composing around this time, co-writing the song, "Barbara", with Palmer. Following the failure of "Wyatt Earp", Gaye began working, first as a stock boy, and then as a dishwasher, jobs Gaye found demeaning. After Diddley introduced the Marquees to Harvey Fuqua, co-founder of The Moonglows, Fuqua decided to take the group under his wing, renaming them "Harvey and the Moonglows" after Fuqua's original group walked out on him after numerous disputes between Fuqua and Bobby Lester. The recruitment of Chuck Barksdale of The Dells, following the band's move to Chicago, made the group a sextet.

In 1959, the group signed with Chess and recorded several sides for the label, including the Fuqua-led "Twelve Months of the Year", to which Gaye opened the song on spoken word, and the Gaye-led "Mama Loochie". Neither of their singles reached mainstream success and the group eventually settled as background session vocalists for the label's star acts, including Chuck Berry, Etta James and Diddley. In 1960, the group disbanded after Harvey Fuqua moved from Chicago to Detroit after starting a musical partnership with Gwen Gordy of the Gordy family. Fuqua sent for Gaye to move with him to Detroit to work for the established label, Anna Records, whose records were nationally distributed by Chess. During their early years, David Ruffin, who later found fame as lead singer of The Temptations, noted that he and Gaye spent time stockpiling records at Anna's building. In early 1961, Gaye played drums on The Spinners' Tri-Phi single, "That's What Girls Are Made For", which became the group's first national hit that year. Following these moves, Berry Gordy sought him out after having spotted him singing with the Moonglows in Detroit and seeking interest in absorbing the artists and other musicians from the Anna label. Gaye had performed by himself at a Christmas party in Gordy's home after Gwen Gordy and Harvey Fuqua invited him. After asking Fuqua to make a deal to get Gaye out of Fuqua's contract, Fuqua sold 50% of his interest in the singer's contract to Gordy, who assigned Gaye to Motown's Tamla label shortly afterwards.

Early recordings and initial success

Following his signing to Motown's Tamla label, Gaye having been inspired by such singers like Nat King Cole, Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra to perform standards, figuring the move would make him a crossover success, rather than perform the usual R&B performed on Motown, bringing him to conflict with the label. Gaye's first album, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, released in June 1961, failed to chart, however. Gaye's first single, "Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide", found regional success but also failed to chart, as would two more of Gaye's recordings by 1962. Gaye had aspired to be a Perry Como-styled performer that did not have to resort to "shaking ass onstage", rather, just sit on a stool and croon.

Gaye and his label added the "e" to his surname prior to the release of his first single. David Ritz later stated the reason for the name change was mainly to quiet rumors of his sexuality, along with him distancing himself from his father's name. Gaye spent most of 1961 afterwards being paid for $5 (US$1,020 in 2024 dollars) a week playing drums for The Miracles and blues artist Jimmy Reed. While Gaye refused to attend grooming school courses at the John Roberts Powers School for Social Grace in downtown Detroit due to his failure of complying by its orders, he took advice on performing with his eyes open rather closed after Maxine Powell told him that it "looked like [he] was sleeping when [he was] performing". Marvin drummed on The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" and several of their other recordings, including "Beechwood 4-5789", which Gaye co-wrote.

Later in 1962, Gaye released his first charted hit, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", which peaked in the low top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top ten on the R&B side. Gaye's first top 40 pop song, "Hitch Hike", was soon followed by his first top-10 hit single, "Pride & Joy". Other hit singles during this period including "Can I Get a Witness", "You Are a Wonderful One" and "Try It Baby". In 1964, he scored his first hit duets with singer Mary Wells including "Once Upon a Time", which was later featured on the duo's album, Together, which became Gaye's first charted album. Gaye's success grew the following year after three of his singles, "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Peculiar", reached the top-10 and sold a million copies. Gaye notched his next duet success late the following year with Kim Weston, on the song, "It Takes Two".

Success with Tammi Terrell and I Heard It Through the Grapevine

Main articles: Tammi Terrell and I Heard It Through the Grapevine

File:Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell2.jpg

A screenshot of a 1967 performance by Gaye and Terrell during taping of the Today Show.

In 1967, Gaye began working on duets with singer Tammi Terrell. The duo's hits included "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Your Precious Love", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By". Most of their hit recordings were composed by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. Despite the romantic tension in their recordings, Gaye and Terrell's relationship was platonic. In October of the year, Terrell's knees buckled during a performance with Gaye in Farmville, Virginia, Gaye held her and sent her backstage where she was rushed to Farmville's Southside Community Hospital. Doctors there discovered that Terrell had a tumor in her brain.

The cancer ended Terrell's career as a live performer and she recorded under careful supervision. Terrell's illness later led to issues in recording further following Terrell's repeated operations to remiss the tumor. Gaye was reportedly devastated by Terrell's sickness and became disillusioned from the record business. In October 1968, Gaye's recording of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was released and became Gaye's first to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and also reached the top of the charts in other countries, selling well over a million copies. However, Gaye felt the success was something he "didn't deserve" and that he "felt like a puppet -- Berry's puppet, Anna's puppet..." Gaye followed it with songs such as "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" and "That's the Way Love Is", which reached the top-ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969. That year, his album, M.P.G., became his first top-40 pop album as well as his first number-one R&B album. Gaye, who was one of the few Motown artists to write his own material, produced and co-wrote two hits for The Originals including "Baby I'm For Real" and "The Bells".

On March 16, 1970, Tammi Terrell succumbed from brain cancer. Gaye, who wept openly at her funeral, responded to her death by going into a prolonged seclusion from the music business. After a period of depression, Gaye sought out a position in the professional football team, the Detroit Lions where he later befriended Mel Farr and Lem Barney. It was eventually decided that Gaye wouldn't be allowed to perform a tryout due to fears of injuries could have on his music career.

What's Going On and subsequent success

Main articles: What's Going On and Let's Get It On

Hitsville U.S.A., where Marvin and The Funk Brothers recorded much of What's Going On at, the first album in which the Funk Brothers earned credit on a Motown album.

On June 10, 1970, Gaye returned to the Hitsville U.S.A. studios where he recorded his new composition, "What's Going On", inspired by an idea from Renaldo "Obie" Benson of the Four Tops after he witnessed an act of police brutality at an anti-war rally in Berkeley. Gaye later played the song to Berry Gordy, who refused to release it due mainly to its jazz-oriented sound, which Gordy labeled "outdated". Gaye refused to record unless Motown released the song. The song was released on January 17, 1971 and quickly shot to number-one on the R&B charts within a month staying there for five weeks, also reaching number-two on the Billboard pop chart and number-one on Cashbox's pop chart for a week, selling over two million copies.

Emboldened by its success, Gaye spent ten days recording the What's Going On album after Gordy gave him an ultimatum of completing the album by the end of that March. Though the album's subject matter again led to Gordy advising to Gaye of its potential of damaging his core fan base, Motown issued the album that May. The album became Gaye's first million-selling album and featured two more top-ten hits, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues". The album became one of Motown's first autonomous works, without the help of Motown's staff producers. Its themes and segue flow brought the concept album format to rhythm and blues music. The album was later hailed as "the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of its finest voices". Gaye won several music industry awards following the album's success including Billboard's Trendsetter of the Year while Rolling Stone named it the "Album of the Year". He won several NAACP Image Awards including Producer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year while the album won Album of the Year. The "What's Going On" song was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Following a couple of performances, one at the Kennedy Center in his native Washington, and for a non-profit organization dedicated to end the plight of urban poverty, Gaye signed a $1 million (US$7,284,010 in 2024 dollars) new deal with Motown, making it the most lucrative deal by a black recording artist at the time. Gaye first responded to the new contract with the soundtrack and subsequent score, Trouble Man, released in late 1972.

The following year, Gaye released the Let's Get It On album. Its title track became Gaye's second number-one single on the Billboard pop chart. The album subsequently stayed on the charts for two years and sold over three million copies. The album was later hailed as "a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy." Other singles from the album included "Come Get to This", which recalled Gaye's early Motown soul sound of the previous decade, while the suggestive "You Sure Love to Ball" reached modest success but was kept from being promoted by Motown due to its sexually explicit nature. Despite his promise not to tour following Tammi Terrell's death, due to pressure from fans and Motown, Gaye agreed to his first tour in four years, starting off at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on January 4, 1974. The concert was later recorded for the live album, Marvin Gaye Live!. The strong reaction to the live version of "Distant Lover", an album track from Let's Get It On, prompted Motown to remix the song and release it as a single in 1974 to keep up the demand for Marvin product. Marvin's final duet project, Diana & Marvin, with Diana Ross, garnered international success.

File:Gaye live1974.jpg

Gaye performing live at the Oakland Coliseum on January 4, 1974 during his comeback 1974–75 tour.

The tour helped to increase Gaye's reputation as a live performer. For a time, he was earning $10,000 a night (US$61,781 in 2024 dollars) for performances. Gaye continued to tour into 1975 following Gaye's success in sold-out concert dates. A renewed contract with Motown that year allowed the musician to build his own custom-made recording studio. In October 1975, Gaye gave a performance at a UNESCO benefit concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall to support UNESCO's African literacy drive, resulting in him to be commended at the United Nations by then-Ambassador of Ghana Shirley Temple Black and Kurt Waldheim. Gaye's next studio album, I Want You, followed in 1976 with the title track becoming a top-20 smash. That summer, Gaye embarked on his first European tour in a decade, starting off in England, where he recorded a concert tour at the London Palladium, resulting in the release of Live at the London Palladium, released in 1977. The album's sole studio song, "Got to Give It Up", became a simultaneous number-one hit on the pop, R&B and dance charts. Live at the London Palladium eventually sold over two million copies in 1977 and was one of its top-ten best-selling albums in the US according to Billboard figures that year.

Final recordings with Motown and European exile

Main articles: Here, My Dear and In Our Lifetime (Marvin Gaye album)

In December 1978, after over two years without a studio release, Gaye issued the personal Here, My Dear album, inspired by the fallout of his first marriage to Anna Gordy. The album, that had been recorded as an intent for Gaye to remit a portion of its royalties to her to receive alimony payments, flopped on the charts. By this time, Gaye had developed a serious dependence and addiction to cocaine and was dealing with several financial issues with the IRS. These issues led for him to move to Maui, where he struggled to record a so-called disco album. After the end of his 1980 European tour, Gaye relocated to London where he feared imprisonment for failure to pay back taxes.

After a master tape of a rough draft of Gaye's In Our Lifetime? album was stolen and taken to Motown's Los Angeles headquarters in 1980, Motown remixed the album and released it on January 15, 1981. When he learned of its release, Gaye accused Motown of editing and remixing the album without his consent, allowing the issue of an unfinished production ("Far Cry"), altering the album art of his request and removing the album title's question mark, muting its irony. Gaye then promised not to record any more music for Motown.

In February 1981, under the advice of music promoter Freddy Couseart, Gaye relocated to Couseart's apartment in Ostend, Belgium where he briefly was able to back away from drug usage and got his confidence back. He spent a month on a short tour of England and two performances in Ostend later that year. His attorney until his death, Curtis Shaw, said Gaye's Ostend period was "the best thing that ever happened to Marvin". In March 1982, Motown and CBS Records negotiated for Gaye to be released from Motown, but didn't release the contents of their contract fearing a negative effect on Gaye's settlement to pay his creditors.

Midnight Love and final performances

Main articles: Midnight Love and Sexual Healing

Assigned to CBS' Columbia subsidiary, Gaye worked on his first post-Motown album titled Midnight Love. The first single, "Sexual Healing", was released in September 1982, and became a huge hit, reaching number-one on the R&B chart, where it stayed for ten weeks. The success later translated to the top ten on the pop chart in January 1983, while the record reached international success, reaching the top spot in New Zealand and Canada and reaching the top-10 in the United Kingdom, later selling over two million copies, becoming Gaye's most successful single to date. The video for the song was shot at Ostend's Casino-Kursaal. "Sexual Healing" won Gaye his first two Grammy Awards including Best Male Vocal Performance, in February 1983, and also won Gaye an American Music Award in the soul/R&B category. It was called by People magazine "America's hottest musical turn-on since Olivia Newton John demanded we get "Physical".

I don't make records for pleasure. I did when I was a younger artist, but I don't today. I record so that I can feed people what they need, what they feel. Hopefully, I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time.

NME – December 1982

In February 1983, Gaye performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the NBA All-Star Game, held at The Forum in Inglewood, California, accompanied by Gordon Banks who played the studio tape from stands. The following month, Gaye performed at the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special. This and a May appearance on Soul Train, his third appearance overall on the show, became Gaye's final television performances. Gaye embarked on his first US tour in years on April 18, 1983 in San Diego, California. The tour ended on August 14, 1983 at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California but was plagued by cocaine-triggered paranoia and illness. Following the concert's end, he retreated to his parents' house in Los Angeles. In early 1984, Midnight Love was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, his fourteenth and final nomination.

Death

Main article: Death of Marvin Gaye

On March 31, 1984, Gaye and his parents were involved in an argument over misplaced business documents, which occurred in Gaye's bedroom. After Gaye ordered his father out of the room, his father retreated. The next day, April 1, Gaye's parents started arguing again, with Gaye's father yelling from downstairs. After he refused his son's request to directly talk to his mother, Gaye advised his father to not enter his room. When Gaye's father marched upstairs to argue with Gaye's mother, Gaye began physically dominating his father, shoving him, knocking him down and kicking him. Only after Gaye's mother intervened and separated the two did Gaye retreat back to his room.

At approximately 11:38 am, Gaye's father entered Gaye's room and shot at Gaye twice with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. The first shot, which proved to be fatal, according to his later autopsy, was said to have entered the right side of Marvin's chest, perforating his right lung, heart, diaphragm, liver, stomach and left kidney before coming to rest against his left flank. Gaye's father stepped closer and shot Gaye again at point blank range at his shoulder before leaving the room. Upon arrival at California Hospital Medical Center, Gaye was pronounced dead on arrival at 1:01 pm PST. Gaye didn't leave behind a will or an insurance policy at the time of his death.

It was later determined during Gaye's autopsy that the singer had cocaine and PCP, or "angel dust" in his system at the time of his death. It was also later determined that the revolver used in the murder was the same revolver Gaye had given to his father during the Christmas holidays for protection. Friends and some of Gaye's family members later contended that the gun was an act of "premeditated suicide" by Gaye, who had suffered from depression in the months leading up to his death. Gaye's father later served five years probation for the crime after agreeing to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Gaye died a day before turning 45. Gaye's funeral was held on April 5 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park by over 10,000 mourners. Following the funeral, Gaye was cremated with his ashes spread near the Pacific Ocean. Following his death, CBS released two albums to complete Gaye's contract including Dream of a Lifetime and Romantically Yours. In 1997, Motown issued a shelved late 1970s Gaye ballads album, titling it Vulnerable. Since Gaye's death, fans of the singer will crowd around Gaye's final residence where he was murdered to hold vigils on the day of his birthday.

Personal life

On April 8, 1964, Gaye married Anna Gordy, the first marriage for both, following a three-year courtship. Their son, Marvin Gaye III, was born on November 17, 1965. The son was actually born from an arrangement set up by the Gordy family between Gaye and Anna's niece Denise Gordy, after it was determined that Anna and her sisters weren't able to naturally conceive. The marriage was turbulent, with both sides accusing the other for infidelity and other infractions. The couple filed for legal separation in 1973, with Gordy filing for divorce two years later. The resulting divorce trial ended after Gaye agreed to remit a portion of royalties from his album, Here, My Dear, to her to receive alimony payments. Here, My Dear was inspired by their volatile marriage. Their divorce was finalized in March 1977. Despite this, however, Gaye and Gordy maintained a relationship until Gaye's death in 1984.

In March 1973, Gaye met teenager Janis Hunter, then 17 years old at the time. Their relationship consummated a year later and resulted in the births of two children, Nona Marvisa and Frankie Christian Gaye, in 1974 and 1975 respectively. They married two years later in New Orleans in October 1977. Gaye's 1976 album, I Want You, was inspired by this relationship. In his book, Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye, author and music writer Michael Eric Dyson elaborated that the album was "unmistakably a work of romantic and erotic tribute" to Hunter and that the singer's obsession with Hunter was "nearly palpable in the sensual textures that are the album's aural and lyrical signature". Dyson further stated because their relationship was "relentlessly passionate and emotionally rough-hewn" that they "played up each other strengths, and played off each other's weaknesses." Gaye and Hunter's relationship and subsequent marriage was tampered by the couple's ongoing drug and alcohol addictions. In 1979, Hunter filed for legal separation nearly two years after their marriage. After attempts to reconcile, Hunter filed for divorce in 1980, which was finalized in February 1981.

Gaye then embarked on relationships with Dutch model Eugenie Vis and British socialite Lady Edith Foxwell. In an GQ article about Foxwell, author Bernard J. Taylor was quoted as saying he was told by Foxwell that she and Gaye had discussed marriage. Gaye's last girlfriend at the time of his death was London native Deborah Decker. Months following his death, Decker told Parade magazine that she had carried Gaye's unborn child and that she lived with Gaye at his parents' house until, she said, family resentment caused Gaye to move her to an apartment in West Hollywood. Decker later miscarried their child. Marvin is the grandfather of three boys including Marvin IV (born April 1, 1995) and Nolan Pentz (c. 1996).

Gaye struggled with depression for years. One night, during the late 1960s, Gaye attempted suicide with a handgun presumably from a bad acid trip, and was stopped from this attempt by Berry Gordy's father. In 1979, Gaye attempted suicide a second time by ingesting an ounce of cocaine while in Hawaii, later stating, "I just wanted to be left alone and blow my brains on high-octane toot. It would be a slow but relatively pleasant death, certainly less messy than a gun." Gaye would tell an interviewer in 1983 that during his exile that he was a "manic depressive, I was at my lowest ebb. I really didn't feel like I was loved. Because I didn't feel love, I felt useless." Gaye attempted suicide again four days before his death, by jumping out of a speeding car, only suffering bruises. According to Marvin's sister Jeanne, "there was no doubt he wanted to die."

Gaye was introduced to cocaine in the late 1960s. Gaye often used cocaine by either rubbing it on his gums or eating it because he had a hard time snorting. By the late 1970s, it had become an addiction. Following his attempted suicide by ingesting a full ounce of cocaine in 1979, Gaye turned to freebasing. Gaye's addiction subsided after moving to Belgium in 1981, under the advice of concert promoter Freddy Couseart. He remained sober until his return to the United States in late 1982. His addiction led to several issues in his final concert tour and cocaine increased a paranoia in which he felt he was being watched and that someone wanted to kill him.

Legacy

File:Marvin Gaye wax statue.jpg

Marvin Gaye at Madame Tussauds in Washington, D.C.

A year following his death, Marion Barry, the then-mayor of Washington, D.C. declared April 2 (Marvin's birthday) as "Marvin Gaye Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund Day" in the city on a day after the anniversary of Gaye's death. Since then, a non-profit organization has helped to organize annual Marvin Gaye Day Celebrations in the city of Washington. A year later, Gaye's mother founded the Marvin P. Gaye Jr. Memorial Foundation in dedication to her son to help those suffering from drug abuse and alcoholism; however she died a day before the memorial was set to open in 1987. Gaye's sister Jeanne once served as the foundation's chairperson. During Gaye's 1971-1972 What's Going On period, Jet magazine once named him the "inner city's musical poet". In 2006, an old park that Gaye frequented as a teenager called Watts Branch Park in Washington was renamed Marvin Gaye Park. Three years later, the 5200 block of Foote Street NE in Deanwood, Washington, DC, was renamed Marvin Gaye Way.

Gaye had a total of 13 number-one hits on the Billboard charts in his career ("I'll Be Doggone", "Ain't That Peculiar", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", "You're All I Need to Get By", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby", "What's Going On", "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)", "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", "Let's Get It On", "I Want You", "Got to Give It Up" and "Sexual Healing") as well as many other top ten hits. Of his thirteen number-one singles, all of which reached that position on Billboard's R&B charts, "Sexual Healing" was his longest-running, at ten weeks, which then set a record as the most weeks spent at number-one for an R&B single of all time after the R&B chart was reinstated in November 1965 and was later overtaken by 1990s singles such as Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" and R. Kelly's "Bump n' Grind". Three of the songs ("I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Let's Get It On" and "Got to Give It Up") reached number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, while eighteen songs in general made the top-ten of the Hot 100.

In 1987, Gaye was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His ex-wife Anna Gordy and their son accepted on his behalf. Three years later, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after several letters of support were sent in request for a star, a process that lasted over two years and was supported by celebrities such as Eddie Murphy. Of Gaye, Murphy said in his letter sending his support to honor Gaye with a star, "Marvin is one of the few who neither grows smaller nor larger in death, but maintains a constant, almost life-like presence", and cited Gaye as a "heroic and mystical figure among the elite of our business." In 1996, he was posthumously given the Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. In 2003, he was listed at No. 18 on the Rolling Stone list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Five years later, in 2008, he was listed at No. 6 on its 100 Greatest Singers list. He also listed at No. 20 on VH-1's Greatest Artists in Rock & Roll.

In his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame biography, Gaye is described as having "made a huge contribution to soul music in general and the Motown Sound in particular." The page stated that Gaye "possessed a classic R&B voice that was edged with grit yet tempered with sweetness". The page further states that Gaye "projected an air soulful authority driven by fervid conviction and heartbroken vulnerability" throughout his career. In his Marvin book Mercy Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye, Michael Eric Dyson described Gaye as someone "who transcended the boundaries of rhythm and blues as no other performer had done before".

The Rock & Roll Hall has listed at least three of Gaye's songs in its list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "What's Going On" and "Sexual Healing". Three of Gaye's albums are listed on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time including What's Going On (#6), Let's Get It On (#165) and Here, My Dear (#456) while four of his hit singles made it to the magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time including "Sexual Healing" (#233), "Let's Get It On" (#168), "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (#81) and "What's Going On" (#4). "What's Going On" was listed on Detroit's Metro Times list at #1 on its list of 100 Greatest Detroit Songs of All Time. In a MusicRadar poll, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", one of his most famous songs, was voted No.1 and greatest Motown song and his "What's Going On" made the top five.

According to several music critics and historians, Marvin Gaye's career "spanned the entire history of rhythm and blues from fifties doo-wop to eighties contemporary soul." Critics stated that Gaye's music "signified the development of black music from raw rhythm and blues, through sophisticated soul to the political awareness of the 1970s and increased concentration on personal and sexual politics thereafter." Due to his influence in R&B and soul music, Gaye has been cited as "the number-one purveyor of soul". Gaye's music has been covered a variety of different artists including James Taylor, Brian McKnight, Chico DeBarge, Michael McDonald, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Aaliyah, A Perfect Circle, The Strokes and Gil Scott-Heron. Other artists such as Maxwell, Nas and Common adapted his early 1970s fashion style of wearing kufis and beanie skull caps and jean outfits which was also later appropriated by Eddie Murphy in his role as James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls, while Michael Jackson, who admitted Gaye was an influence on his music and once described his music as "ridiculous" in a good way, in 2001, allegedly was also influenced by Gaye's fashion style in the 1980s adapting the military-styled suits Gaye wore on his final concert tour. According to David Ritz in his 1991 edition of Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, Billboard magazine reported that "since 1983 Marvin's name has been mentioned - in reverential tones - on no less than seven top-ten hit records."

Usage of his music and documentaries

His 1983 NBA All-Star performance of the national anthem was used in a Nike commercial featuring the 2008 US Olympic basketball team. Also, on CBS Sports' final NBA telecast to date (before the contract moved to NBC) at the conclusion of Game 5 of the 1990 Finals, they used Gaye's 1983 All-Star Game performance over the closing credits. When VH1 launched on January 1, 1985, Gaye's 1983 rendition of the national anthem was the very first video to be aired. Most recently, it was used in the intro to Ken Burns' Tenth Inning documentary on the game of baseball. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was played in a Levi's ad in 1986. The result of the commercial's success led to the original song finding renewed success in Europe. Gaye's music has also been used in numerous film soundtracks including Four Brothers, which frequently played Gaye's music from his Trouble Man soundtrack. Gaye's music has also been the result of samples in hip-hop recordings. In 2007, his song, "A Funky Space Reincarnation", was used in the Charlize Theron-starred ad for Dior J'Adore perfume. A documentary about Gaye – What's Going On: The Marvin Gaye Story – was a UK/PBS co-production, directed by Jeremy Marre and was first broadcast in 2006; two years later, the special re-aired with a different production and newer interviews after it was re-broadcast as an American Masters special. Another documentary, focusing on his 1981 documentary, Transit Ostend, titled Remember Marvin, was seen in 2006. Discovery Channel's Final 24 show featured an episode focusing on Gaye's final 24 hours of life prior to his death.

Earnings

In 2008, Gaye earned $3.5 million (US$4,953,014 in 2024 dollars), and took 13th place in 'Top-Earning Dead Celebrities' in Forbes Magazine.

Tributes

Main article: List of tributes to Marvin Gaye

Musical style

Influences

Growing up, as a child, Gaye's main influence was that of his minister father, something he would later acknowledge to biographer David Ritz and also in interviews he gave, often mentioning that his father's sermons left a big impression on him. His first major musical influences came in the form of doo-wop groups such as The Moonglows and The Capris. Gaye's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame page lists the Capris' song, "God Only Knows" as "critical to his musical awakening". Of the Capris' song, Gaye said "It fell from the heavens and hit me between the eyes. So much soul, so much hurt. I related to the story, to the way that no one except the Lord really can read the heart of lonely kids in love." Gaye's main musical influences were Rudy West of The Five Keys, Clyde McPhatter, Ray Charles and Little Willie John. Gaye considered Frank Sinatra to be a real major influence in what he wanted to be. He also was influenced by the vocal styles of Billy Eckstine and Nat King Cole.

Later on as his Motown career developed, Gaye would seek inspiration in fellow label mates such as David Ruffin of The Temptations and Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops as their grittier voices led to Gaye and his producer seeking a similar sound in recordings such as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "That's the Way Love Is". Later in his life, Gaye reflected on the influence of Ruffin and Stubbs stating, "[he] had heard something in their voices something [his] own voice lacked". He further explained, "the Tempts and Tops' music made me remember that when a lot of women listen to music, they want to feel the power of a real man."

Vocal range

Gaye encompassed a three-octave vocal range. From his earlier recordings as member of the Marquees and Harvey and the Moonglows and in his first several recordings with Motown, Gaye recorded mainly in the baritone and tenor ranges. Gaye changed his range to a raspier tenor for his gospel-inspired early hits such as "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" and "Hitch Hike". As writer Eddie Holland explained: "He was the only singer I have ever heard known to take a song of that nature, that was so far removed from his natural voice where he liked singing, and do whatever it took to sell that song." In songs such as "Pride & Joy", Gaye used three different vocal ranges for the song, singing in his baritone range at the beginning, bringing a lighter tenor in the verses before reaching a gospel mode in the chorus. Holland further stated of Gaye's voice was "one of the sweetest and prettiest voices you ever wanted to hear." And while he noted that ballads and jazz was "his basic soul", he stated Gaye "had the ability to take a roughhouse, rock and roll, blues, R&B, any kind of song and make it his own", later citing that Gaye was the most versatile vocalist he ever worked with.

Gaye's vocal style changed in the late 1960s in which he was told to incorporate a sharper raspy voice especially in Norman Whitfield's recordings, which Gaye initially profoundly disliked, considered it out of his range, but said he was "into being produce-able". After listening to David Ruffin and Levi Stubbs, Gaye said he started to develop what he called his "tough man voice" stating "I developed a growl". According to the liner notes of his DVD set, Marvin Gaye: The Real Thing in Performance 1964-1981, Rob Bowman stated that by the early 1970s, Gaye had essentially developed "three distinct voices; his smooth, sweet tenor, a growling rasp and an unreal falsetto". Bowman further wrote that the recording of the "What's Going On" single was "the first single to utilize all three as Marvin developed a radical approach to constructing his recordings by layering a series of contraptunal background vocal lines on different tracks, each one conceived and sung in isolation by Marvin himself." Bowman cites Gaye's multi-tracking of his tenor voice and other vocal styles "summon[ed] up what might be termed the ancient art of weaving".

Social commentary and concept albums

Gaye's first recordings involving social commentary occurred a couple years before working on What's Going On, including "Abraham, Martin & John" and "The Onion Song", two songs of which gave Gaye hit success in Europe where it charted mainly in the United Kingdom pop chart. When Gaye began working on What's Going On, only a few R&B artists and pop artists in general had ever composed a full album of social issues on one record. Though social issues had been discussed by R&B artists ranging from groups such as The Impressions and The Temptations, talk of political and social commentary on an album was uncommon in Motown, which advised its artists not to delve fully into discussing serious topics. Early in his career, Gaye had been affected by events such as the 1965 Watts riots and asked himself once, "with the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?" When Gaye called Gordy in the Bahamas about wanting to do a protest record, Gordy cautioned him, "Marvin, don't be ridiculous. That's taking things too far." Once Gaye presented Gordy with the album, Gordy accused him of risking ruination of his image as a sex symbol. The album became a success, however, and Gaye tried working on a follow-up but stopped work on it after Motown failed to promote the satiricial political song, "You're the Man". Following Gaye's death, several of Gaye's social commentary songs that had been unreleased including "The World Is Rated X" and "Where Are We Going" started showing up in compilation albums. What's Going On would later be described by an Allmusic writer as an album that "not only redefined soul music as a creative force but also expanded its impact as an agent for social change".

What's Going On also provided another first in Motown and R&B music: Gaye and his engineers had composed the album in a song cycle, segueing previous songs into other songs giving the album a more cohesive feel as opposed to R&B albums that traditionally included filler tracks to complete the album. While Motown staff balked at this unusual style fearing a lack of a hit record, Berry Gordy was impressed by the album's style, agreeing to release the album in this format. This style would influence the recordings of other artists such as Stevie Wonder and Barry White making the concept album format a part of 1970s R&B music. Gaye provided this same format on his later albums such as Let's Get It On, I Want You, Here, My Dear and In Our Lifetime. Concept albums are usually based on either one theme or a series of themes in connection to the original thesis of the album's concept. With Let's Get It On, most of its focus was merging the worlds of love and sex, which Gaye contended was "opposite". In I Want You, a more personal focus had been given to the majority of the tracks, with Gaye making the album primarily about his personal relationship with his girlfriend. The topic of divorce became a major topic that centered around the Here, My Dear album, while Gaye's concerns of the world in the context of his religious beliefs and his conflict with "good" and "evil" formed the basis of the In Our Lifetime album.

Discography

Main article: Marvin Gaye discography

Filmography

• 1965: T.A.M.I. Show (documentary)
• 1969: The Ballad of Andy Crocker (television movie)
• 1971: Chrome & Hot Leather (television movie)
• 1973: Save the Children (documentary)

Videography

• Marvin Gaye: Live in Montreux 1980 (2003)
• The Real Thing: In Performance (1964–1981) (2006)

Further reading

• Davis, Sharon (1991). Marvin Gaye: I Heard It Through The Grapevine. Croydon, Surrey: Bookmarque Ltd. ISBN 1-84018-320-9
• Dyson, Michael Eric (2004). Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves, and Demons of Marvin Gaye. New York/Philadelphia: Basic Civitas. ISBN 0-465-01769-X.
• Gambaccini, Paul (1987). The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time. New York: Harmony Books.
• Garofalo, Reebee (1997). Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA. Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 0-205-13703-2.
• Gaye, Frankie with Basten, Fred E. (2003). Marvin Gaye: My Brother. Backbeat Books, ISBN 0-87930-742-0
• Heron, W. Kim (April 8, 1984). Marvin Gaye: A Life Marked by Complexity. Detroit Free Press.
• Posner, Gerald (2002). Motown : Music, Money, Sex, and Power. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50062-6.
• Ritz, David (1986). Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye. Cambridge, Mass: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81191-X
• Turner, Steve (1998). Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-4112-1
• Ward, Ed, Geoffrey Stokes and Ken Tucker (1986). Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. Rolling Stone Press. ISBN 0-671-54438-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• White, Adam (1985). The Motown Story. London: Orbis. ISBN 0-85613-626-3

External links

• Marvin Gaye at AllMovie
• Marvin Gaye at AllMusic
• Marvin Gaye at IMDb
• Marvin Gaye Biography
• Marvin Gaye Life & Legacy
• Additional archives