Alyssa Wahrman
Professor Kunzer
History of Rock and Roll
January 4, 2016
Marvin Pentz Gaye, Jr. was born in Washington D.C. on April 2, 1939. His parents are Marvin Gaye, Sr., and Alberta Gay. His father was a preacher and his mother was a housewife and schoolteacher. Marvin was the middle of three children, and was first introduced to music at the age of three when he sang in his father’s church choir. Form there, he learned to play the drums and piano. After leaving home due to intense physical abuse from his father, Marvin enlisted in the Air Force and joined a band. He eventually began a career as a Motown artist, and is known to be one of the pioneers of Motown and one of the greatest artists of all time (Kimberley & Lopez). Marvin has had many impacts on music, and in this essay we will discuss his career beginnings, significant events that impacted him, significant accomplishments, and the impact that he had on others. Marvin Gaye’s educational career was short lived, and ended after attending Cardozo High School. During his time in high school, he began performing with local bands. While Marvin was at home, he experienced frequent physical abuse from his father. Marvin dreamed of being a pilot. Because of the constant abuse received from his father, Marvin dropped out of high school at the young age of 17. From there, he joined the United States Air Force in hopes of living out his dream of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, Marvin found the jobs he was given while in the Air Force to be tedious and boring, so he faked an illness to get honorably discharged (“Marvin Gaye Biography”). Much of what Marvin learned in music did not come from actual teachers but from his background and the people that surrounded him. The earliest traces of influence in Marvin’s music come from the time when he sang in his father’s Apostolic church. His time spent in the church had a great impact of the formative years of his musical career. From the 70’s on, the topics of Marvin’s songwriting switched between religious and mainstream topics (“Marvin Gaye Page”). After being honorably discharged from the Air Force, Marvin began singing in doo-wop groups, one of which was a Washington D.C. group that recorded “Wyatt Earp” with Okeh Records. This eventually led to an invitation for Marvin to join The Moonglows, which was one of Harvey Fuqua’s groups. Fuqua took this group under his wing and mentored them in doo-wop music. (Kimberley & Lopez). In 1958, the group moved to Chicago. At this point, they started recording for Chess Records. Marvin eventually caught the attention of Barry Gordy Jr. while he was playing at a Christmas party, and Gordy signed him to Motown Records (Kimberley & Lopez). This ultimately sparked the beginning of Marvin’s Motown career. As stated before, Marvin was known to be one of the pioneers of Motown. Another great influencer on Marvin’s life was Tammi Terrell. Marvin began performing duets while his solo career was still forming, and his greatest duets were with Tammi Terrell. They performed “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” together. Unfortunately, Terrell collapsed while performing with Marvin onstage, and it was later discovered that she had a brain tumor. This eventually led to her death, and this ended Marvin’s career of duets and also caused him to go into a depression. During this time, though, Marvin had his greatest hit to date with “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” although he refused to acknowledge the success of this song (Kimberley & Lopez). The first significant event that would impact Marvin Gaye’s musical career, as stated before, was the constant physical abuse that he received from his father. This abuse started from a very young age for Marvin, and he only found solace in music. Although his career only started with singing, Marvin continued to expand his musical horizons to different instruments and genres. The abuse Marvin received from his father is ultimately what caused him to drop out of high school and enlist in the Air Force, which eventually lead to the beginning of his career in Motown (Kimberley & Lopez). Another very impactful event on Marvin’s musical career was his time spent with Tammi Terrell and her death. As talked about before, Marvin began performing duets during the time that he was also building his solo career. The most successful duet that he performed in was with Tammi Terrell. Although their performances together had a large impact on Marvin’s career, her death may have had a bigger impact. Marvin became depressed and contemplated suicide many times, and during this depression he had his greatest hit to date. Even though his music was continually successful after this event, Marvin became incredibly frustrated with the type of music that he made in Motown. He wanted to make a difference and make music that was socially relevant instead of just music that was popular. This inspired him to release What’s Going On in 1971. Marvin produced this album himself, and the album discussed things such as poverty, drug abuse, the environment and discrimination. Although Barry Gordy was hesitant to release this album, once he did it was an instant hit and had great success (Kimberley & Lopez). Marvin Gaye’s marriage to Barry Gordy’s sister, Anna Gordy, also had a huge impact on his musical career. They were married for about ten years before it started to come to an end. After What’s Going On, which was very political in nature, Marvin’s next album was much more personal. It was influenced by Marvin’s separation from Anna, and was called Get It On. It surprised Marvin’s fans by being incredibly sexual in content (Kimberley & Lopez). The album was very successful and prompted Marvin to go on a tour to promote it. The live performances added to Marvin’s appeal and made him a very sought-after artist (“Marvin Gaye Bibliography”). Among the many accomplishments listed above, Marvin’s best-known single is “Sexual Healing,” released in 1982. It spent ten weeks at No. 1 on Hot Black Singles, which was a staggering accomplishment for that time. It was known to be one of the biggest R&B hits of the ‘80’s. It not only found success in the United States, but also internationally. This eventually won him two Grammy Awards, one being Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and the other being Best R&B Instrumental Performance, in 1983. He also won an American Music Award because of this song in the R&B-soul category. Another huge accomplishment occurred in 1996 when he was given The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for all of his creative and artistic contributions to the music world (“Marvin Gaye Biography”). Of course, he is still considered one of the greatest artists of all time today, as Rolling Stone Magazine has named him the 18th greatest artist of all time (“The Velvet Underground – 100 Greatest Artists”). Marvin Gaye has and will continue to be known as one of the pioneers of Motown and one of the greatest R&B artists of all time. His styles and music have impacted many other artists over time. Marvin decided around 1969 that he wanted his music to be political and discuss what was happening in the United States and all over the world. Although Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, thought What’s Going On would be a flop, it actually ended up being a huge success and is known as one of the most historic albums ever created (Beaudoin, Kate). When it came to Motown, Marvin Gaye could do it all. His wrote, played and produced a variety of songs over time. To him, albums weren’t just a collection of individual songs, but a story. He used themes such as the state of the world, sexual politics and marriage to inspire each of his albums. Unfortunately, Gaye’s life came to an end on April 1, 1984. This was the day before his 45th birthday. Marvin was in a violent argument with his abusive father when he shot Marvin at point-blank range. His ashes are now scattered in the Pacific Ocean (“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum”). Although Marvin Gaye’s life ended at a relatively young age, his legend still lives on today and will continue to do so. He helped to pioneer Motown music and is know as one of the greatest R&B singers to ever live. His name continues to show up on Rolling Stone’s list of best artists, and his music continually influences our society. His album What’s Going On had a great impact on our country’s politics during the 1970’s, and although it shocked the world, it was a very successful album. Many people and events impacted Marvin, such as his abusive father and the death of his friend Tammi Terrell. Although he went through many traumatic experiences, this is what pushed his music to be great. He has also clearly had a great impact on artists that followed him and on the Motown and R&B genres as a whole. His legend will live on forever.

Bibliography
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Kimberly, and Lopez. "Marvin Gaye." Marvin Gaye. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016.

"Marvin Gaye Biography." - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016.

"Marvin Gaye Page." Marvin Gaye Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016.

"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum." Marvin Gaye Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016.

"The Velvet Underground - 100 Greatest Artists." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2016.