May 21, 1971: Marvin Gaye Releases "What's Going On"

May 21, 1971: Marvin Gaye releases his album What's Going On, on Tamla Records, a subsidiary of Motown Records. For many years, Rolling Stone magazine rated it was one of the Top 10 albums of all time, with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles at Number 1. At the time, and certainly in hindsight, it seemed to be a Sgt. Pepper of soul music. In 2020, Rolling Stone released a revised list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and ranked What's Going On at Number 1.

Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. was born on April 2, 1939, in Washington, D.C., the son of a Pentecostal minister who beat him and the other children. His love of music developed early, and he formed one doo-wop singing group, then another, before his father kicked him out of the house. He found the U.S. Air Force no better than an abusive father, and faked mental illness, getting a general discharge.

He returned to Washington, and formed The Marquees. Harvey Fuqua, lead singer of The Moonglows, heard them, took them to Chicago, and hired them for Chess Records, renaming them the New Moonglows, singing backup on Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." and "Almost Grown."

In 1960, Fuqua took Gaye to Detroit, and introduced him to Berry Gordy Jr., who had just founded Motown Records. At the time, "gay" still usually meant "lightly happy" rather than "homosexual," but this was changing. But there were other reasons to change his name: He wanted to distance himself from his father's name, and it was a tribute to someone else who had put an E on the end of his name: Sam Cooke.

Starting in late 1962, he was one of the acts on the Motortown Revue, which toured all over the country, and even allowed its performers on ABC-TV's American Bandstand. By 1965, Motown was more than keeping up with rock and roll's "British Invasion," and Marvin's contributions that year included "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Peculiar."

And he recorded a series of hit duets with Supremes lead singer Diana Ross, Kim Weston, and especially Tammi Terrell. Tammi was married, but the musical chemistry between them was such that rumors of an affair between them persist to this day. No evidence of them being anything more than close friends has ever been discovered.

In 1968, the Detroit Tigers won the American League Pennant. Their broadcaster, Ernie Harwell, was asked to select the National Anthem singers for the World Series games in Detroit. For Game 4, he selected Marvin, a representative of the city's musical giant Motown Records, who sang it straight, and got a nice hand. For Game 5, Harwell selected José Feliciano, and that's a story for another time.

The world was changing, and Marvin thought his music should change with it. But Berry Gordy was a control freak, and he thought having black singers address social ills would hurt Motown's profile and profits. He began to relent in 1968, letting The Supremes sing "Love Child" (which hit Number 1) and "Living In Shame."

But Marvin wasn't allowed to sing about social ills. At the end of the turbulent year of 1968, he had the Number 1 song in the country, and it was a spectacular recording, but it was "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," a traditional love song. In 1969, he had a hit with "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby." This was a decent song, and, with its line of, "I ain't got time to do no studying once I get out of class," it would have been a fine start for an 18-year-old rookie singer at Motown. At the time, though, Marvin Gaye was 30 years old.

The year 1970 would prove to be a turning point. Tammi Terrell died from a brain tumor, and Marvin couldn't handle it. And his brother Frankie Gaye -- he, too, became a singer and added the E -- returned from serving in Vietnam, and told Marvin of the awful things he had experienced there. Marvin knew that Berry had complete creative control. But he also knew that something had to be done.

Even more important, he now had an ally: Stevie Wonder, now 20, was also ready to move on to topical material. He had already recorded Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out." But he wanted to write his own songs that would match those.

Together, Marvin and Stevie went on strike, and Berry relented. He let Stevie record "Higher Ground," and that was the start of a bunch of great songs about issues, including "Superstition" and "Living for the City."  

And Berry let Marvin record "What's Going On," which became the title track to a landmark album that also included "Inner City Blues" and the environmental-themed song "Mercy Mercy Me." All 3 became Top 10 hits. There was an anti-drug song, "Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)," and songs titled "Save the Children" and "God Is Love."

The title track included Lem Barney and Mel Farr of the NFL's Detroit Lions singing backup. Marvin had been so disillusioned by his career, and perhaps inspired by Paper Lion, the film based on writer George Plimpton's book about trying out for the Lions, that he asked them for a tryout. They turned him down, fearing that injuries could hurt his music career. But when "What's Going On" the single hit Number 2 and sold over 1 million copies, everyone who played or sang on it, including Barney and Farr, received gold records.

Berry Gordy listened to the request in the chorus of Marvin's song: "Talk to me, so you can see what's going on." He saw that he was wrong, and Marvin and Stevie were right. He began to move Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles, which had become the center of the recording industry on planet Earth. But Marvin and Anna split up, and he began seeing Janis Hunter, who became the mother of his daughter Nona, who became a singer and actress, and his son Frankie, named for his brother.

Berry wasn't the only one who saw the light: The album sold over 2 million copies within a year of its release. In Rolling Stone, reviewer Vince Aletti wrote, "There are very few performers who could carry a project like this off. I've always admired Marvin Gaye, but I didn't expect that he would be one of them. Guess I seriously underestimated him. It won't happen again." Billboard magazine called it "a cross between Curtis Mayfield and that old Motown spell and outdoes anything Gaye's ever done." Even staid old Time magazine hailed it as a "vast, melodically deft symphonic pop suite."

Did I say, "staid" and "old"? How about the BBC? Their David Katz described the album as "one of the greatest albums of all time, and nothing short of a masterpiece." He compared it to Miles Davis' jazz landmark Kind of Blue by saying, "Its non-standard musical arrangements, which heralded a new sound at the time, gives it a chilling edge that ultimately underscores its gravity, with subtle orchestral enhancements offset by percolating congas, expertly layered above James Jamerson's bubbling bass."

What's Going On is often rated as one of the Top 10 rock and roll albums of all time.  Even my father, a fan of classical, folk and country music, admitted (years after Marvin's shocking death) that this album made him a fan of Marvin's.

Having gotten that out of his system, on August 28, 1973, Marvin released Let's Get It On, another concept album, one about... getting it out of your system. The title track became his 2nd Number 1 hit. He had a 3rd in 1977, "Got to Give It Up." This song inspired many other performers, from Michael Jackson, whose 1st solo Number 1, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," was very close in lyrics and style; to Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I., whose 2013 chart-topper "Blurred Lines" was so close to it that, 2 years later, a court awarded $7.4 million in royalties/damages to Marvin's children.

In spite of this success, Marvin had become, to borrow the title of David Ritz's posthumous biography of him, a divided soul. He turned to cocaine, and moved to Europe, where he was already popular, and lived and toured there.

In 1982, having kicked drugs for the moment, a deal was made to release Marvin from his Motown contract. He signed with CBS Records, and recorded the album Midnight Love, including the single "Sexual Healing." It was a smash, and he was back in the spotlight, winning his 1st 2 Grammy Awards, and being invited to sing the National Anthem before the NBA All-Star Game at The Forum outside Los Angeles. He made it sound like a gospel song. It had been 15 years since he sang it straight at the World Series, and José Feliciano hadn't. Times had changed, and everyone loved Marvin's new version.

But the comeback was all too brief, as he fell back on cocaine, and suffered bouts of paranoia. He had bought his parents a house in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. But his father had never really changed, and was always arguing with everyone else in the family, including Marvin and his mother Alberta. On April 1, 1984, at that house, an argument between Marvin Gay Sr. and Marvin Gaye Jr. turned into a shoving match, and Marvin Jr. got the upper hand, beating his father severely. In revenge, Marvin Sr. shot Marvin Jr., killing him. The next day would have been Marvin Jr.'s 45th birthday.

In 1993, singer-songwriter Linda Perry led the band 4 Non Blondes to record a song titled "What's Up?" But those words are not anywhere in the song. Instead, the chorus asks, "What's going on?" The song is about pain, possibly mental illness, and the narrator admits, "Oh, my God, do I pray, every day, for a revolution!"

It is widely presumed that the reason the song isn't titled "What's Going On?" is so that it won't be confused with Marvin Gaye's song. Nevertheless, it was nearly as big a hit, and remains Perry's biggest hit as a singer, although she's written Number 1 hits for others.

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May 21, 1971 was a Friday. Football was in its off-season. The NHL season had ended 3 days earlier, with the Montreal Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup, beating the Chicago Black Hawks in the Finals in 7 games. The NBA season had ended 3 weeks earlier, with the Milwaukee Bucks beating the Baltimore Bullets in a 4-game sweep. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 8-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Danny Cater singled home 2 runs in the top of the 9th to give the Yankees a 7-6 lead, but Lindy McDaniel couldn't hold it, and gave up a game-tying single to Eddie Leon and a game-winning single to Gomer Hodge. According to Baseball-Reference.com, with 2 outs in the top of the 9th, the Indians had a 97 percent chance of winning, and a 13 percent chance when the bottom of the 9th began, but won, anyway.

McDaniel had once been a really good reliever, but it was games like this that led the Yankees to trade Carter and Mario Guerrero to Boston for Sparky Lyle before the next season, and to then trade McDaniel to Kansas City for Lou Piniella after 1973, 2 of the trades that helped build the next Yankee dynasty.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-2 at Shea Stadium. Nolan Ryan outpitched Pat Jarvis. Ed Kranepool went 3-for-4, and Ken Boswell, Bob Aspromonte and Jerry Grote each had 2 RBIs. Hank Aaron went 3-for-4, including his 651st career home run.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 6-2 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Bob Robertson and Willie Stargell hit home runs for the Pirates, and Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5. Stargell's home run won the game in the top of the 13th inning.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Pete Rose went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Johnny Bench went 1-for-2 with 3 walks and an RBI. Dave Concepcion hit a home run.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski hit a home run. So did Brooks Robinson. Frank Robinson went 1-for-5. The Orioles tied the game in the bottom of the 9th, but the Red Sox scored 4 runs in the top of the 10th to win it.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 1-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Dean Chance pitched 7 2/3rds innings of 3-hit ball, and Fred Scherman finished the 3-hit shutout. Ed Brinkman doubled home the only run in the 5th inning. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks, in his last season, only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres, 15-8 at Busch Memorial Stadium. José Cardenal, Joe Torre and Julián Javier hit home runs.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Willie Mays went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 3-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Tom Bradley pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 10-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Bert Blyleven outpitched John "Blue Moon" Odom. George Mitterwald hit 2 home runs, and Steve Braun 1. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Rod Carew went 1-for-5. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-4.

* And the Kansas City Royals and the Milwaukee Brewers were rained out at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 6. The Royals swept, 4-3 and 6-4.