Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. better known as Marvin Gaye, started his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s. Gaye ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records. Crowned “The Prince of Motown” and “The Prince of Soul”, he became the label’s top-selling solo artist with hits like “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)”, “Ain’t That Peculiar”, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.
He gave us great hits like What’s Going On, Let’s Get It On, and I Want You. These song helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile, Gaye returned to the US with the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, “Sexual Healing” and the Midnight Love album before his death. Sexual Healing” won Gaye his first two Grammy Awards including Best Male Vocal Performance, in February 1983, and also won Gaye an American Music Award for Favorite Soul Single.
Sadly, Gaye was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984 on day shy of his 45th birthday. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and also honored by Hollywood’s Rock Walk in 1989 and given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990.
I had an opportunity to meet Marvin Gaye at a concert a couple of years before he died, he was very soft-spoken and as sexy as the lyrics he sang.
Happy Birthday Marvin Gaye
Here’s one of my favorite Marvin Gaye videos:
