A Bite of Marvin Gaye 🍪

The radical and romantic sex symbol who wrote “the greatest album of all time”

Grace Lilly

Aug 11, 2025

Monday Bites are bite-sized musician spotlights & playlists by Grace Lilly.

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• 3 min read •

“I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time.”

Marvin Gaye wanted to make people feel better. A survivor of brutal childhood physical abuse, he pursued music as a form of survival. According to him, music saved his life.

In his early twenties, he was greatly affected by social events like the 1965 Watts riots and the Vietnam War. He wanted to make music about it, but Motown record label executives were worried that any political commentary would ruin his sex appeal and alienate pop audiences. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

His socially conscious album What’s Going On (1971) catapulted him into a new stratosphere of fame and reverence. A massive audience appreciated that it tackled serious issues like war, poverty, and environmental concerns. It truly changed music history — in fact, Rolling Stone has ranked it as “the greatest album of all time.”

And two years later, he solidified his eternal status as a sex icon with the release of Let’s Get It On, “a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy.”

Whether he was singing about war or romance, Marvin Gaye was a musical alchemist who could turn the mundane into the transcendent.

“One of the things that makes him such an incredibly attractive artist is that he takes that which is raw and painful, and transforms it into something absolutely gorgeous.”

He made music to help people, and he really did.

Marvin Gaye

The basics

🤝 American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer

🤝 b. 1939 (Washington, D.C.) - d. 1984 (Los Angeles, CA)

🤝 “The Prince of Motown” and “The Prince of Soul”

Why you should know him: Considered one of the greatest singers of all time, Marvin Gaye’s work expanded soul music’s impact as an instrument for social change and drew attention to personal & sexual politics; three of his albums have been ranked by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time — What’s Going On (1971), Let's Get It On (1973), and Here, My Dear (1978)

If you like

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✨ Stevie Wonder

✨ SZA

✨ Aretha Franklin

✨ Minnie Riperton

Known for

🏆 Helping shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s & 1970s; one of the first Motown artists to break from the reins of its production system

🏆 His impressive four-octave vocal range and “unreal falsetto;” his duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross

🏆 His landmark album What’s Going On, preserved by the Library of Congress as part of its National Recording Registry

🏆 Playing drums, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, glockenspiel, and organ

🏆 His socially conscious writing; promoting nonviolence, discussing issues like racism, the environment, and black power issues

🏆 Receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, plus 2 wins and 12 nominations

🏆 Founding Marvin’s Room, his custom-made recording studio in L.A.

🏆 His style, popularizing the “American heritage” look — denim on denim, knitted hats, shearling-lined leather jackets

Bite-sized facts

🍪 Grew up in a public housing project in SW Washington D.C. where most buildings were overcrowded and lacked electricity & running water

🍪 Started singing in church at age 4 and was encouraged to pursue a music career by age 11

🍪 Suffered frequent “brutal whippings” by his minister father who kicked him out of the house often; Gaye felt that his mother’s encouragement of his singing saved his life

🍪 As a teen, started taking singing more seriously; joined the Glee Club in junior high and multiple doo-wop groups in high school

🍪 At 17, dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Air Force; after leaving, formed a vocal quartet “the Marquees” and released one single

🍪 Began composing music and working with R&B group, The Moonglows; also worked as a session singer in Chicago and a session musician in Detroit

🍪 At 21, got his first solo record deal with Tamla (a Motown subsidiary), initially pursuing jazz instead of R&B; released his first single in 1961

🍪 Married Anna Gordy (sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy) at 24 and adopted his first child, Marvin III

🍪 Got his big break at 23 with his song “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” and became even more famous at 25 with the hit “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”

Marvin Gaye’s first hit album, *Together* (1964)

🍪 At 28, got his first Grammy nomination for his duet with Tami Terrell, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough;” at 29, got his first No. 1 hit “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” which got him his second Grammy nomination

🍪 Was named “Trendsetter of the Year” by Billboard following the success of his first million-selling album, What’s Going On (1971) — a concept album that Rolling Stone ranks as “the greatest album of all time;” received 2 Grammy nominations and several NAACP Image Awards

*What’s Going On* (1971) was one of Motown's first autonomous works

🍪 Made history in 1971 by getting the most lucrative deal by a black recording artist at the time — $1 million ($7.7M in 2024) with Motown; by 1975 was making $100,000 a night ($637,584/night in 2024)

🍪 Remarried at 38 to Janis Hunter and had two children together, Nona and Frankie

🍪 Moved to Belgium in 1981 after struggling with cocaine addiction, got sober with the goal of making a musical comeback; a period described as “the best thing that ever happened to Marvin”

🍪 In 1983, won his first two Grammy Awards for his song “Sexual Healing” — his biggest career success, became the No. 1 top R&B hit of the ‘80s and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100

Marvin Gaye and close friend Stevie Wonder

🍪 On the eve of his 45th birthday, Gaye intervened during a fight between his parents at their home when his father shot and killed him

🍪 Gaye was a cousin of Wu-Tang Clan member Masta Killa

In film & TV

📺 Trouble Man (1972): Marvin wrote, produced, and sang the soundtrack to this crime thriller, the only film soundtrack he ever created; the title track, “Trouble Man,” peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100

📺 The Big Chill (1983): “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” is featured in the opening credits of this American comedy-drama

Songs & dates

♫ 1963 “Hitch Hike” becomes his first song to reach the Billboard Pop Top 40; “Pride and Joy” becomes his first Top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100

♫ 1964 “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” becomes his most successful single up to that point; peaks at No. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100

♫ 1969 “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” and “That’s the Way Love Is” both reach the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100; from his album M.P.G. which becomes his first No. 1 album on the R&B album chart and his first solo album to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart

♫ 1971 “What’s Going On” reaches No. 2 on the Hot 100; “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “Inner City Blues” also become Top 10 singles from the best-selling album, What’s Going On

♫ 1973 “Let’s Get It On” becomes his second No. 1 single on the Hot 100, from the album of the same name; “a record unparalleled in its sheer sensuality and carnal energy”

♫ 1982 His single “Sexual Healing” becomes a No. 3 hit, from the certified platinum album Midnight Love, his first post-Motown album — wins him his first two Grammy Awards

He said

⭐ “It’s what makes you happy in life, and to pursue it, I think, is brave and a wonderful thing.”

⭐ “If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.”

⭐ “Music is one of the closest link-ups with God that we can probably experience. I think it’s a common vibrating tone of the musical notes that holds all life together.”

⭐ “To be an artist is a blessing and a privilege. Artists must never betray their true hearts. Artists must look beneath the surface and show that there is more to this world than what meets the eye.”

Marvin Gaye Playlist

I gathered my fav Marvin songs, from me to you with love. Like & save on Spotify and listen all week 🎧

Listen

Where to start

26-year-old Marvin

A dynamic Marvin Gaye singing his No. 1 hit “Ain’t That Peculiar” on NBC’s Hullabaloo in 1965

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Discussing What's Going On

Marvin talks about the making of his 1971 landmark album, What’s Going On

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“I hope this is one of your favorites.”

Watch Marvin Gaye in Atlanta performing his single “Come Get To This” in 1974

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The first video ever aired on VH1

VH1 launched on January 1, 1985 and the first video they aired was Marvin singing the national anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game in Inglewood, California — what would be one of his last televised appearances.

Down the rabbit hole

If you wanna dive even deeper:

What’s Going On (2008)

Part of the PBS American Masters series, this documentary explores the life and career of Marvin Gaye, with a focus on his iconic album What’s Going On. The film includes interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as archival footage.

Watch for free on Youtube.