Marvin+Gaye

Adisa Malik & David Desberg Mr. Burkhart Honors American History May 16, 2011 =﻿Overview= Marvin Gaye was a trailblazing R&B musician, well known for his large vocal range, the social and sexual themes in his music, and his many hit records, such as "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" and "What's Going On". His music helped greatly influence and redefine the R&B and soul genres, and inspired many contemporary R&B artists. =When?= Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. was born on April 2, 1939 in Washington D.C. He would later add an "e" to the end of his last name for his stage name. On April 1, 1984, during an argument with his father, he was shot twice with a revolver and died soon after. =Where?= Marvin Gaye spent most of his career under Motown, and released a stream of successful hits and albums.
 * Motown Records**

=Career=

Early
Marvin's father was a minister at a local church, and would bring Marvin with him to church to sing with the congregation. At an early age, he learned how to play the piano and drums. During high school, he joined a variety of music groups, and later joined the Air Force as a result of his strained relationship with his father. After quitting the Air Force, he returned to his hometown and became a dishwasher to make ends meet. After meeting up with one of his close friends, they formed a four person group called The Rainbows. The group was later discovered by the blues singer Bo Diddley, who signed them to Okeh Records. After a few moderately successful singles, the group was signed by record executive and singer Harvey Fuqua to Chess Records in 1958, and renamed to "The Moonglows".

The founder of Motown Records, Benny Gordy, then noticed Marvin Gaye singing at one of the studio's parties, and decided to sign him to Motown. Gaye initially did session work as a drummer for Motown, and released his first single in 1961. One month later, his first album "The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye" was released, consisting of mostly jazz records and a couple of R&B songs, and had mediocre sales. He then recorded a number of duets with Tammi Terrell. Their first major hit together was "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", followed by a string of successful singles, such as "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You", "If This World Were Mine", and "You're All I Need to Get By". media type="youtube" key="OZNbfKibFLE" height="349" width="425" This success soon ended in 1967when Tammi suddenly collapsed on stage during a performance. It was discovered that she had a brain tumor, which finally killed her three years later. This event caused a lot of emotional unrest and depression for Marvin, and he swore never to do a duet with another female singer again.

Middle
Inspired by his brother's accounts of the Vietnam War, and hearing stories of police brutality against anti-war protesters, Marvin Gaye began recording the anti-war song "What's Going On" in mid-1970. The song ended up selling more than two million copies. media type="youtube" key="y-5c5o85SGo" height="349" width="425" As a result of many requests, a full album was later produced. This album was drastically different from Marvin's previous work, targeting many social issues such as poverty, drug abuse, and taxes. Many of the songs on the album, including the hits "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)" had a variety of different elements of funk, jazz, classical and soul, and helped expand his audience. In addition, the album was created without any influence from Motown's producers, helping bring about an era of artists having complete creative control over their work.

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End of Career and Death
Gaye stopped recording albums for fun and decided to record albums with a meaning to the general public towards the end of his career (early 1980s). He left Motown and released the remainder of his music under the Columbia label. On April 1st, 1984, during a heated domestic dispute with his father, Gaye turned violent and his father reciprocated by pulling out a gun, shooting and killing him. His father was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to five years of probation (he received no jail time because Marvin was also violent).

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Gaye was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, three years after his death. In 2005, he was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.