Let's Get It On is the thirteenth studio album by the American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP.
Recording sessions for the album took place during June 1970 to July 1973 at Hitsville U.S.A. and Golden World Studio in Detroit, and at Hitsville West in Los Angeles. Serving as Gaye's first venture into the funk genre, Let's Get It On also incorporates smooth soul and doo-wop styles alongside sexually suggestive lyrics, leading to one writer's description of it as "one of the most sexually charged albums ever recorded". Gaye infused ideas of spiritual healing in songs about sex and romance, in part as a way of coping with childhood abuses from his father Marvin Gay Sr., which had stunted his sexuality.
Following the breakthrough success of his socially conscious album What's Going On (1971), Let's Get It On helped establish Gaye as a sex icon and broadened his mainstream appeal. It produced three singles—the title track, "Come Get to This", and "You Sure Love to Ball"—that achieved Billboard chart success. Let's Get It On became the most commercially successful album of Gaye's career at Motown, resulting in more creative control being given to him by the label. Its erotic balladry, multi-tracking of Gaye's vocals, and seductive funk sound also influenced later R&B recording artists and producers, with the title track specifically helping pioneer the slow jam and quiet storm formats.[2]
In retrospect, Let's Get It On has been regarded by writers and music critics as a landmark recording in soul. It increased the popularity of funk during the 1970s, while Gaye's smooth-soul sound marked a change from his record label's previous success with the "Motown Sound" formula. Among the most acclaimed LPs in history, it frequently appears on professional rankings of the greatest albums and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a historically important recording. In 2001, it was reissued by Motown as a two-CD deluxe edition release. In 2023, the album was reissued with added material for its 50th anniversary.
Background
In the spring of 1972, Marvin Gaye was suffering from writer's block.[3] Following the release of his most commercially successful album up to that point, What's Going On (1971), and the soundtrack album to the blaxploitation film Trouble Man (1972), Gaye had struggled to come up with new material after Motown Records had renegotiated a new contract with him. The contract provided him with more creative control over his recordings. The deal was worth $1 million, making him the highest-earning soul artist, as well as the highest-earning black artist, at the time.[4] He was also struggling with deciding whether or not to relocate to Los Angeles, following Motown-CEO Berry Gordy's move of the record label and replacement of the Detroit-based Hitsville U.S.A. (Motown Studio A) recording studio with the Hitsville West studio in Los Angeles. Amid relocation and his lack of material, Gaye was struggling with his conscience, as well as dealing with expectations from his wife, Gordy's sister Anna. Gaye's separation from Gordy pressured him emotionally. During this time, he had also been attempting to cope with past issues that had stemmed from his childhood.[3]
His view of sex was unsettled, tormented, riddled with pain.
During his childhood, Gaye had been physically abused by his preacher father Marvin Gay Sr., who disciplined his son under extremely moralistic and fundamentalist Christian teachings. As a result, the meaning and practice of sex had later become a disturbing question for Gaye. As an adult, he suffered from impotence and became plagued by sadomasochistic fantasies, which haunted him in his dreams and provoked intense feelings of guilt.[5] Gaye learned to cope with his personal issues with a newly found spirituality. He began incorporating his new outlook into his music, as initially expressed through the socially conscious album What's Going On, along with promotional photos of him wearing a kufi in honor of African traditional religions and his faith.[3]
By winning over record executives with the success of What's Going On, Gaye attained more creative control, which he would use, following his brief separation from wife Anna Gordy, to record an album that was meant to explore themes beyond sex.[5] As with What's Going On, Gaye wanted to have a deeper meaning than the general theme that was used to portray it; in the case of the former album, politics, and with its follow-up effort, love and romance, which would be used by Gaye as a metaphor for God's love.[5] In his book Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, Gaye biographer David Ritz wrote of the singer's inspiration behind Let's Get It On:
If the most profound soul songs are prayers in secular dress, Marvin's prayer is to reconcile the ecstasy of his early religious epiphany with a sexual epiphany. The hope for such a reconciliation, the search for sexual healing, is what drives his art... The paradox is this: The sexiest of Marvin Gaye's work is also his most spiritual. That's the paradox of Marvin himself. In his struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hungers—the hunger for God. In those songs of loss and lament—the sense of separation is heartbreaking. On one level, the separation is between man and woman. On a deeper level, the separation is between man and God.[6]
In the album's liner notes, Gaye explained his views on the themes of sex and love, stating "I can't see anything wrong with sex between consenting anybodies. I think we make far too much of it. After all, one's genitals are just one important part of the magnificent human body ... I contend that SEX IS SEX and LOVE IS LOVE. When combined, they work well together, if two people are of about the same mind. But they are really two discrete needs and should be treated as such. Time and space will not permit me to expound further, especially in the area of the psyche. I don't believe in overly moralistic philosophies. Have your sex, it can be exciting, if you're lucky. I hope the music that I present here makes you lucky."[7]
Recording
Gaye during the album's recording at Hitsville West in Los Angeles, 1973
Gaye proceeded to record some more politically conscious material at the Golden World Records studio, known as Motown's Studio B, as well as the preliminary vocals and instrumentation for some of the material to be featured on Let's Get It On.[1] Following the earlier sessions in Detroit at Golden World, Gaye recorded at Hitsville West in Los Angeles from February to July 1973.[1] Accompanied by an experienced group of session musicians called The Funk Brothers, who had contributed to Gaye's What's Going On, and received their first official credit, Gaye recorded the unreleased songs "The World is Rated X" and "Where Are We Going?" and the single "You're the Man" (1972) at Golden World.[1] "Where Are We Going?" was later covered by trumpeter Donald Byrd. Gaye had planned the release of an album titled You're the Man, but it was later shelved for unknown reasons. The songs that were to be included on it, along with other unreleased recordings from Hitsville West and Golden World, were later featured on the 2001 re-release of Let's Get It On.[8]
The album's first recording, "Let's Get It On", was composed by Gaye with friend and former Motown label mate Ed Townsend.[3] It was originally written by Gaye as a religious ode to life, but Motown singer-songwriter Kenneth Stover re-wrote it as a more political first draft.[3] Upon hearing Gaye's preliminary mix of Stover's draft, Townsend protested and claimed that the song would be better suited with sexual and romantic overtones, particularly "about making sweet love."[9] Gaye and Townsend rewrote the song's lyrics together with the original arrangements and musical accompaniment of the demo intact. The lyrics were inspired by Janis Hunter, whom Gaye had become infatuated with after meeting each other through Ed Townsend during the initial sessions.[3] Townsend has cited Hunter's presence during the album's recording as an inspiration for Gaye.[10] Gaye's intimate relationship with Hunter subsequently became the basis for his 1976 album I Want You.[11] While recording the title track, he was inspired to revive unfinished recordings from his 1970 sessions at the Hitsville U.S.A. Studio.[3]
Townsend assisted Gaye with producing the rest of the album, whose recording took place at several sessions throughout 1970 to 1973.[1] They worked on four songs together, including the ballad "If I Should Die Tonight", while Gaye composed most of the other songs, including those from past sessions.[8] "Just to Keep You Satisfied" was originally recorded by several Motown groups, including The Originals and The Monitors, as a song dedicated to long-standing love.[8] With re-recording the song, he had re-written the arrangement and lyrics to address the demise of his volatile marriage to Anna Gordy Gaye, who happened to be the original song's co-writer.[3] The background vocals for the album were sung by Gaye, with the exception of "Just to Keep You Satisfied", which were done by The Originals.[8] Most of the instrumentation for the album was done by members of The Funk Brothers, including bassist James Jamerson, guitarists Robert White and Eddie Willis, and percussionist Eddie "Bongo" Brown. Gaye also contributed on piano during the sessions.[8]
"Let's Get It On" features soulful, passionate lead vocals and multi-tracked background singing, both by Gaye.[12] It has a 1950s-styled melody and begins with three wah-wah guitar notes and centers on simple chord changes, while its arrangements are centered on an eccentric rhythm pattern.[12] Its signature guitar line is played by session musician Don Peake.[13] Music journalist Jon Landau dubs the song "a classic Motown single, endlessly repeatable and always enjoyable".[12] The song is reprised on the fourth track, "Keep Gettin' It On". It expands on the title track's sensual theme with political overtones: "won't you rather make love, children / as opposed to war, like you know you should."[12]
The third track, the ballad "If I Should Die Tonight" originally appeared on the vinyl LP in a shortened version lasting only 3:03. For the 1986 'twofer' (with "What's Going On") CD reissue of the album, Motown recording engineers for the first time restored the missing verse which had been omitted from the LP. The full length track, which has been used for all subsequent releases, runs to 4 full minutes.
"Distant Lover" has Gaye crooning over serene instrumentation, leading to soulful screams near the end; from a heartbroken croon to an impassioned wail.[14] The song's lyrics chronicled the yearning its narrator feels for a lover who is "so many miles away", as he pleads for her return and laments the emptiness he feels without her.[14] Music writer Donarld A. Guarisco later wrote of the song's sound, in that "Marvin Gaye's studio recording enhances the dreamy style of the song with stately horn and strings, tumbling drum fills that gently nudge the song along, and mellow, doo wop-styled background vocals that echo "love her, you love her" under his romantic pleas.[14] The song later became a concert favorite for Gaye and a live concert version, featuring female fans screaming in the background, was released as a single from his Marvin Gaye Live! album in 1974.[14]
"You Sure Love to Ball" is one of Gaye's most sexually overt and controversial singles, with its intro and outro featuring moaning sounds made by a man and woman engaged in sex.[15] The sexually-explicit and risqué nature of the album's content were, at the time, controversial, and the recording of such an album was deemed as a commercial risk by Motown A&R's (Artists and Repertoire) and label executives.[15]
Marketing and sales
Gaye in a trade ad, c. 1973
Released on August 28, 1973, Let's Get It On surpassed Gaye's previous studio effort, What's Going On, as the best-selling record of his tenure with Motown.[16] The album peaked at number two on the US Billboard Top LPs chart, behind The Rolling Stones's Goats Head Soup (1973),[17] while it also managed to reach number one in Cash Box for one week, as well as two weeks at the top of Record World's music charts.[18]Let's Get It On charted for 61 weeks on the Billboard charts,[19] and remained at the top of the Billboard Soul Albums for 11 weeks, becoming the best-selling soul album of 1973.[20]
Two of the album's singles reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including "Let's Get It On", which became Gaye's second number-one US single, and the top-30 hit "Come Get to This", which peaked at number 23 on the chart.[21] The album's third single, "You Sure Love to Ball", charted at number 50 on the Hot 100 and at number 13 on the Soul Singles chart.[21]
Along with the album's music and sexual content, Let's Get It On's commercial success and promotion helped establish Marvin Gaye as a sex icon, while helping further expand his artistic control during his tenure at Motown.[22] This commercial success also led to a much publicized tour for Gaye to promote Let's Get It On and expand on his repertoire as a live performer.[20] Successful concert performances of the album's material helped Gaye gain an increasing popularity and fan base in the pop market, while earning him a reputation as one of the top live performers of the time.[20] His performance at the Oakland Coliseum during the 1973-1974 tour was released on the 1974 LP Live!, which would serve as Gaye's only release during his sabbatical period in the mid-1970s.[23]
Let's Get It On received positive reviews from music critics. Billboard called it "fine in terms of vocal attack and material [...] touches on the excellent in terms of instrumental support", while citing the title track and "Distant Lover" as the album's best recordings.[19] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone found Gaye's performance on-par with that of What's Going On and wrote that "he continues to transmit that same degree of intensity, sending out near cosmic overtones while eloquently phrasing the sometimes simplistic lyrics".[12] Although he viewed that it "lacks that album's series of highpoints", Landau commented that "it ebbs and flows, occasionally threatening to spend itself on an insufficiency of ideas, but always retrieved, just in time, by Gaye's performance. From first note to last, he keeps pushing and shoving, and if he sometimes takes one step back for every two ahead, he gets there just the same — and with style and spirit to spare".[12] In Creem magazine, Robert Christgau called the record "post-Al GreenWhat's Going On, which means it's about fucking rather than the human condition, thank the wholly holey".[31]
Since its initial reception, Let's Get It On has been viewed by writers as a milestone in soul music.[28] In The Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time, Jimmy Guterman writes that the album was "a bit more conventional musically (soul crossing into mild funk) and much more focused lyrically than its predecessor, What's Going On".[19]Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot commended Gaye for using "the multi-tracked vocals perfected on 'What's Going On', this time to convey his most intimate desires", commenting that "while the album is replete with erotic imagery, both implied and explicit, it is also as much preoccupied with distance and unfulfilled need".[24] Jason Ankeny of Allmusic called it "a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy", writing that "Gaye's passions reach their boiling point [...] With each performance laced with innuendo, each lyric a come-on, and each rhythm throbbing with lust, perhaps no other record has ever achieved the kind of sheer erotic force of Let's Get It On".[16] Ankeny also dubbed it "one of the most sexually charged albums ever recorded."[22] Allmusic's Lindsay Planer cites it as a "hedonistic R&B masterpiece."[8]BBC Music's Daryl Easlea found Gaye "in supreme command of his material", and viewed it as "much more than an album about simple lust", but an "iconic, rapturous work".[32]
Accolades
Much like What's Going On, Let's Get It On has been included in professional lists of the best albums. It was ranked number 58 on The Times's 1993 publication of the 100 Best Albums of All Time.[33]Blender magazine ranked the album number 15 on its list of the 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time.[citation needed] In 2003, it was ranked number 165 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time publication;[34] the 2020 edition of the list ranked it 422nd.[35] Also in 2003, Let's Get It On was reissued by Universal Music; the re-release was later given a silver certification by the British Phonographic Industry.[36] In 2004, Let's Get It On was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and cited by The Recording Academy as a recording of "historical significance".[37]
Because of the album and its singles' initial sales and response, Let's Get It On marked a change and transition in sound and production for Motown, which had previously enjoyed success with its trademark "Motown Sound". The label's well-known sound, however, was beginning to fade in popularity among the majority of R&B and soul listeners, while experiencing commercial pressure from contemporary styles that incorporated more diverse elements, such as Philly soul and funk.[10] The Motown sound was typified by characteristics such as the use of tambourines to accent the back beat, prominent and often melodic electric bass guitar lines, distinctive melodic and chord structures, and a call and response singing style that originated in gospel music. In addition, pop production techniques were simpler than that of Gaye's 1970s concept albums. Complex arrangements and elaborate, melismatic vocal riffs were avoided by Motown musicians.[10] Following his breakthrough with What's Going On, an "experiment in collating a pseudo-classical suite of free-flowing songs",[38] Gaye used his artistic control to modify the sound and incorporate funky instrumentation, melismatic vocalization, and heavy vocalmulti-tracking, in much contrast to the established production style at the label. In contrast to Motown's previously successful process of emphasizing an artist's single releases rather than their album, Gaye and fellow producer Ed Townsend followed a similar formula previously used on What's Going On, in which the album's songs flow together in a suite-form arrangement,[39] opposing label CEO Berry Gordy's strong emphasis on hit single success.[38]
Gaye's change of musical style and production with the album made an immediate impact on the subsequently successful Motown artists, including Lionel Richie and Rick James.[10] The album's vocal multi-tracking and instrumentation also influenced the development of contemporary R&B and slow jams. Allmusic calls the album "the blueprint for all of the slow jams to follow decades later — much copied, but never imitated."[22] Renown engineer Russell Elevado's work in the neo soul genre, including his production for D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000) and Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), has been influenced by Gaye's and Townsend's production techniques and sound.[10][40]
The album's sexual content pushed creative barriers in the recording industry and led to an increased popularity of sexual themes in contemporary music.[10] Music writer Rob Bowman later cited Let's Get It On as "one of the most erotic recordings known to mankind."[19] The album's success helped spark a series of similarly styled releases by such smooth soul artists as Barry White (Can't Get Enough), Smokey Robinson (A Quiet Storm) and Earth, Wind & Fire (That's the Way of the World).[10] The commercial success of such artists led to a change of trend from socially conscious aesthetics to more mainstream, sensually themed music.[41] Gaye achieved further success with I Want You (1976), featuring more sexually explicit lyrics and expanded use of vocal multi-tracking, and with Here, My Dear (1978), which he based entirely on his tumultuous marriage to Anna Gordy.[10] In an interview with music author Michael Eric Dyson, hip hop artist Q-Tip discussed the album's influence and significance to its time period, stating:
Although there was a 'conscious' revolution, there was also a great sexual revolution ... I think Let's Get It On was Marvin wanting to make commentary on what was happening. I think there was a big 'love-in' that was going on. And with him quoting T.S. Elliot [in his liner notes, that life amounts to "Birth, copulation and death"], and the young lady moaning [on the album], we hadn't heard that before. That was another first, as well as him capturing erotica like that, and weaving it into the music the way he did; it was mind blowing. I think it was a natural progression, because we were having a revolution with our minds, and then with our bodies at that time.[41]
Following the success of Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On (1971) and James Brown's late 1960s and early 1970s singles, Gaye's Let's Get It On gave greater mainstream exposure to funk and broadened its influence on the music industry. Many later R&B musicians, such as Prince, D'Angelo, and R. Kelly, were greatly influenced by its vintage sound and seductive themes, incorporating much of Gaye's musical style into their music.[10]
On September 18, 2001, Let's Get It On was reissued by Motown as a two-disc deluxe edition release, featuring 24-bit digital remastering of the original album's recordings, previously unissued material and a 24-page booklet which contains the original LP liner notes by Marvin Gaye, as well as essays from Gaye biographers David Ritz and Ben Edmonds.[8]
Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American singer and songwriter. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, which earned him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by American soul singer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, and United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as producer and to credit Motown's in-house session musicians, known as the Funk Brothers.
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a single in September 1967. It went to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and shortly became the biggest selling Motown single up to that time.
Here, My Dear is the fifteenth studio album by music artist Marvin Gaye, released as a double album on December 15, 1978, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1977 and 1978 at Gaye's personal studios, Marvin Gaye Studios, in Los Angeles, California. The album was notable for its subject matter focusing largely on Gaye's acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye.
"What's Going On" is a song by American singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye, released in 1971 on the Motown subsidiary Tamla. It is the opening track of Gaye's studio album of the same name. Originally inspired by a police brutality incident witnessed by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, the song was composed by Benson, Al Cleveland, and Gaye and produced by Gaye himself. The song marked Gaye's departure from the Motown Sound towards more personal material. Later topping the Hot Soul Singles chart for five weeks and crossing over to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, it would sell over two million copies, becoming Gaye's second-most successful Motown song to date. It was ranked at number 4 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of all Time in 2004 and 2010.
"Let's Get It On" is a song by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released June 15, 1973, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. The song was recorded on March 22, 1973, at Hitsville West in Los Angeles, California. The song features romantic and sexual lyricism and funk instrumentation by The Funk Brothers. The title track of Gaye's album of the same name, it was written by Marvin Gaye and producer Ed Townsend. "Let's Get It On" became Gaye's most successful single for Motown and one of his most well-known songs. With the help of the song's sexually explicit content, "Let's Get It On" helped give Gaye a reputation as a sex symbol during its initial popularity. "Let's Get It On" is written and composed in the key of E-flat major and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 82 beats per minute.
"I Want You" is a song written by songwriters Leon Ware and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and performed by singer Marvin Gaye. It was released as a single in 1976 on his fourteenth studio album of the same name on the Tamla label. The song introduced a change in musical styles for Gaye, who before then had been recording songs with a funk edge. Songs such as this gave him a disco audience thanks to Ware, who produced the song alongside Gaye.
I Want You is the fourteenth studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released on March 16, 1976, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla.
"Distant Lover" is the sixth song issued on singer Marvin Gaye's 1973 album, Let's Get It On and the B-side of the second single from that album, "Come Get to This". A live recording was issued as a single in 1974. The live version of the song was Gaye's most successful single during the three-year gap between Let's Get It On and his following 1976 album, I Want You.
Midnight Love is the seventeenth studio album by Marvin Gaye and the final album to be released during his lifetime. He signed with the label Columbia in March 1982 following his exit from Motown.
United is a studio album by soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released August 29, 1967 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol produced all of the tracks on the album, with the exception of "You Got What It Takes" and "Oh How I'd Miss You". Fuqua and Bristol produced "Hold Me Oh My Darling" and "Two Can Have a Party" as Tammi Terrell solo tracks in 1965 and 1966, and had Gaye overdub his vocals to them in order to create duet versions of the songs.
In Our Lifetime? is the sixteenth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released January 15, 1981, on Motown label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Marvin's Room in Los Angeles, California, Seawest Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at Odyssey Studios in London, England, throughout 1979 and 1980. The album cover was designed by Neil Breeden. Gaye's final album for Motown before leaving for Columbia Records, the album was the follow-up to the commercial failure of Here, My Dear, a double album which chronicled the singer's divorce from Anna Gordy. Entirely written, produced, arranged, and mixed by Gaye, In Our Lifetime? was a departure for Gaye from the disco stylings of his previous two studio efforts and was seen as one of the best albums of the singer's late-Motown period.
Diana & Marvin is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Gaye and Ross were widely recognized at the time as two of the top pop music performers.
In the Groove is the eighth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on August 26, 1968 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. It was the first solo studio album Gaye released in two years, in which during that interim, the singer had emerged as a successful duet partner with female R&B singers such as Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. In the Groove was reissued and retitled as I Heard It Through the Grapevine after the unexpected success of Gaye's recording of the same name, which had been released as a single from the original album.
Live at the London Palladium is a live double album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released March 15, 1977, on Tamla Records. Recording sessions took place live at several concerts at the London Palladium in London, England, in October 1976, with the exception of the hit single "Got to Give It Up", which was recorded at Gaye's Los Angeles studio Marvin's Room on January 31, 1977. Live at the London Palladium features intimate performances by Gaye of many of his career highlights, including early hits for Motown and recent material from his previous three studio albums. As with his previous live album, Marvin Gaye Live!, production of the record was handled entirely by Gaye, except for the studio portion, "Got to Give It Up", which was managed by Art Stewart.
Dream of a Lifetime is the eighteenth and first posthumously released studio album by the American recording artist Marvin Gaye. It included the top five R&B single "Sanctified Lady".
Super Hits is a compilation album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released in 1970 by Motown's subsidiary Tamla Records and compiles Gaye's pop-R&B singles recorded from 1962 to 1969.
"Pops, We Love You " is a 1978 single recorded and released by Motown stars Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, as a tribute to Berry "Pops" Gordy Sr., father of Motown founder Berry Gordy, who had died that year from cancer.
Marvin Gaye was an American music artist and singer-songwriter who won acclaim for a series of recordings with Motown Records. Gaye's personal life, mainly documented in the biography, Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, included his faith; child abuse by his father; personal relationships with his two wives, friends, and girlfriends; and bouts of depression and drug abuse.
Anna Ruby Gaye was an American businesswoman, composer and songwriter. An elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, she became a record executive in the mid-to-late 1950s distributing records released on Checker and Gone Records before forming the Anna label with Billy Davis and her sister Gwen Gordy Fuqua. Gordy later became known as a songwriter for several hits including the Originals' "Baby, I'm for Real", and at least two songs on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album. The first wife of Gaye, their turbulent marriage later served as inspiration for Gaye's 15th studio album, Here, My Dear.
Marvin Gaye, David Ritz, Ed Townsend, Ben Edmonds, Harry Weinger (2001). Let's Get It On. booklet liner notes (Deluxeed.). Motown Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc. MOTD 4757.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Nick Johnstone (1999). Melody Maker History of 20th Century Popular Music. Bloomsbury, London, UK. ISBN0-7475-4190-6.
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