What's Going On (album)

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Lore & Background

By the end of the 1960s, Marvin Gaye had fallen into a deep depression following the brain tumor diagnosis of his Motown singing partner Tammi Terrell, the failure of his marriage to Anna Gordy, a growing dependency on cocaine, troubles with the IRS, and struggles with Motown Records. One night, while holed up at a Detroit apartment, Gaye attempted suicide with a handgun, only to be stopped by Berry Gordy's father. Gaye said during this time that he felt he "didn't deserve" his success and felt like "a puppet - Berry's puppet, Anna's puppet. I had a mind of my own and I wasn't using it." In March 1970, Terrell died of a brain tumor, and Gaye refused to perform onstage for several years. He ditched his clean-cut image, grew a beard, and preferred sweatsuits. Around spring 1970, he pursued a football career with the Detroit Lions, even working out with the Eastern Michigan Eagles football team, but was advised that any future injury would derail his career. The album's title track was inspired by Renaldo "Obie" Benson of the Four Tops, who witnessed police brutality against anti-war protesters at Berkeley's People's Park on May 15, 1969, later termed "Bloody Thursday." Benson and songwriter Al Cleveland wrote a song based on that event. After the Four Tops rejected it, Benson offered it to Gaye during a golf game. Gaye added new musical composition, a new melody, and lyrics reflecting his own disgust, and Benson later said, "we measured him for the suit and he tailored the hell out of it." Recording began on June 1, 1970, at Hitsville U.S.A., with Funk Brothers members including James Jamerson, who performed his bass riffs on the floor after arriving drunk. Gaye's trademark multi-layering vocal approach came off initially as an accident when engineers Steve Smith and Kenneth Sands accidentally mixed two lead vocal takes together; Gaye loved the sound and used it for the duration of the album.

Reader's Guide

What's Going On is widely regarded as a landmark recording in popular music and a classic of 1970s soul, significant to the development of progressive soul. The album stayed on the Billboard Top LPs for over a year and became Gaye's second number-one album on Billboard's Soul LPs chart, where it stayed for nine weeks, and on the No. 2 spot for another 12 weeks. The title track, released in January 1971 as the album's lead single, hit number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the top position on Billboard's Soul Singles chart five weeks running. The follow-up singles "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" also reached the top 10 of the Hot 100, making Gaye the first male solo artist to place three top ten singles on the Hot 100 from one album. In 1985, writers on British music weekly the NME voted it the best album of all time. In 2020 and 2023 revisions, Rolling Stone listed What's Going On as the greatest album of all time. Multiple critics, musicians, and many in the general public consider it one of the greatest albums of all time.

Did You Know?

• The album's opening saxophone riff by Eli Fontaine was originally just a demo; when Fontaine said he was 'just goofing around,' Gaye replied, 'Well, you goof off exquisitely. Thank you.'
• Bassist James Jamerson performed his bass riffs on the floor after arriving drunk to the session.
• Gaye's multi-layered vocals on the title track were an accident—engineers accidentally mixed two lead vocal takes together, and Gaye loved the result.
• The title track was inspired by Renaldo 'Obie' Benson witnessing police brutality against anti-war protesters at Berkeley's People's Park on May 15, 1969, later called 'Bloody Thursday.'
• Gaye attempted suicide with a handgun but was stopped by Berry Gordy's father.