Gaye, Marvin (Gay, Marvin Pentz)

views updated

Gaye, Marvin (Gay, Marvin Pentz)

April 2, 1939
April 1, 1984

Singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye grew up in Washington, D.C., and began his musical career singing in the choir and playing organ in the church where his father, Marvin Gay, Sr., was a Pentecostal minister. In a radical rejection of his father's expectations, the younger Gaye became a secular musician.

Gaye's career as a professional musician began in 1958 when he became friendly with Harvey Fuqua, a re-cord promoter for Chess Records who was impressed with his performance at a local high-school talent contest. After hearing Gaye's 1957 recordings with a group called the Marquees ("Wyatt Earp" and "Hey Little Schoolgirl") on the Columbia rhythm-and-blues label Okeh, Fuqua invited Gaye to Chicago and signed him to the Chess label in 1959. From the beginning of his career Gaye altered his last name, adding an e to the end for reasons he never explained.

In 1960 Gaye and Fuqua relocated to Detroit, where Fuqua established contacts with Berry Gordy, founder of the fledgling Motown Records. The next year Gaye and Fuqua married two of Gordy's sisters (Anna and Gwen, respectively), Fuqua joined Motown, and Gaye was signed to the label. Even though Gaye was part of the Gordy family, it was several years before he began recording as a Motown solo artist. From 1960 to 1962 he was a backup singer and session drummer for various Motown performers. In 1962 Motown released his debut solo album, The Soulful Mood of Marvin Gaye, a collection of jazz-influenced, middle-of-the-road ballads. It was two years until Gaye had a hit single with "Hitch Hike" (1964). That same year he released "Pride and Joy," which climbed to the top ten on both the pop and the rhythm-and-blues charts.

During his time with Motown, Gaye recorded such hit records as "Ain't That Peculiar" (1965), "It Takes Two" (1967), "Your Precious Love" (1967), "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" (1968), "You're All I Need to Get By" (1968), and, most successful of all, "Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1968) and "What's Going On" (1971). As one of Motown's soul-music emissaries, Gaye perfected the style, its ballad idiom, emotional lyrics, and use of gospel techniques in a secular context.

Gaye's most successful album was What's Going On (1971), which included three top ten hits ("Inner City Blues," "Mercy Mercy Me," and the title song). As Motown's first "concept album," What's Going On was musically diverse and a forum for Gaye to articulate his views on contemporary political issues, with particular attention to pollution in the nuclear age and the challenges facing inner-city blacks.

The year What's Going On was released, Gaye received honors from Billboard and Cashbox magazines as trendsetter and male vocalist of the year, respectively. He also won an Image Award from the NAACP. Motown released his next album, Let's Get It On, in 1973, and the title song immediately reached number one on the charts as Gaye's most successful single.

The last ten years of Gaye's life were marked by his divorce from Anna Gordy, marriage to Janis Hunter, relocation to Europe because of tax debts, dismissal from Motown in 1981, and increased dependence on drugs. His long-term feuds with his father and ongoing depression erupted on April 1, 1984, when an argument between the men resulted in Gay shooting and killing his son in Los Angeles. Gaye's father was acquitted because a brain tumor contributed to his irrational and violent behavior.

Gaye's soulful aesthetic, with his light, crooning tenor voice full of emotion, earnestness, and often guttural sensuality, was ideally suited to both his contemplative and ecstatic performance modes. In 1983, the year before his death, Gaye continued to reveal his gifts as a performer, winning two Grammy Awards, for best male vocalist and best instrumental performance, with his gold record "Sexual Healing."