THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

114-Marvin Gaye-What’s Going On.

1971-It has never charted in the UK.

Best Bit-At 0.08. Marvin Gaye may have been a Soul Legend, but he really wanted to be a ‘NFL’ football player. He was good friends with the Detroit Lions players Mel Farr, (1944-2015) and Lem Barney, and when they would meet up they would greet each other by saying ‘Whats Going On.’

Marvin Gaye (see also best songs 723 and 183) was born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. on April 2nd, 1939, in Washington D.C. United States, he died after being shot in the chest, and his shoulder, by his father Marvin Gay Sr. on April 1st, 1984, he was 44 years old. Marvin Gaye was intervening in a fight between his parents, and had become involved in a physical altercation with his father. Marvin Gaye Sr, (1914-1998) was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charges were reduced to voluntary manslaughter following a diagnosis of a brain tumour. He was given a suspended six-year sentence and probation, and died at a nursing home in 1998.

It was in 1960 after auditioning for ‘Motown’ president Berry Gordy that Marvin Gaye was signed to ‘Tamla,’ which was a subsidiary of ‘Motown’ records, it was at this time that Gaye started spelling his surname with an added ‘e’, in the same way as Sam Cooke (see also best songs 156) had done. Gaye also did this to silence rumours of his sexuality, and also to put more distance between himself and his father. Marvin Gaye would go on to record 25 studio Albums, which have been issued between between 1961-2019, and 83 singles released between 1961-2015. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart he has achieved 40 top 40 singles, with three of those songs reaching Number 1, while in the UK he has charted on 17 occasions, with ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ making Number 1 in 1968.

‘What’s Going On’ was co-written by Al Cleveland, (1930-1996) Renaldo Benson, (1936-2005) and Marvin Gaye, who was also the songs producer. The song went on to peak at Number 2 on Billboard, selling in excess of 2 million copies, and becoming Motown’s biggest selling single up to that point. The original idea for the song came from Renaldo Benson of the ‘Four Tops.’ (see also best songs 650) He had been on the groups tour bus in Berkeley, California, on May 15th, 1969, when he witnessed police brutality and violence in that city’s ‘Peoples Park’ during a protest held by anti war activists, in what was later to become known as ‘Bloody Thursday’. Benson took his idea for the song to Motown staff songwriter Al Cleveland who helped develop the song. Benson offered the song to the Four Tops but they refused it because of it’s subject matter, so he then took it to Marvin Gaye who added many of his own ideas.

Initially Marvin Gaye had problems in convincing Motown to release ‘What’s Going On,’ because Berry Gordy who at that time was also the brother-in-law of Gaye felt that if Gaye was to release a ‘protest song’ it would not go down well with his fan base, and also the wider general public who only really knew Gaye for his love songs. Eventually Gaye got his own way, and the song was released, Berry Gordy has said,’For years, people have written that I stood in the way of this song’s release, and that Marvin had threatened never to record for me again if I didn’t put it out, that must make for great reading, but none of it is true.’

‘Mother, mother, there’s too many of you crying. Brother, brother, brother, there’s far too many of you dying. you know we’ve got to find a way to bring some lovin’ here today.’