One of popular music’s most indelible voices is given birth in Washington D.C. The son of a former Pentecostal preacher, Marvin Gaye would become one of Motown’s earliest stars producing such R&B-pop standouts as “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” (1962, Tamla), “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You”) (1964, Tamla) and “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” (1967, Tamla). But it was his ‘70s work that would come to define Gaye as a groundbreaking artist whose artistic courage matched his self-destructive battles with drugs. From What’s Going On (1971, Motown), R&B’s first conceptual protest album to the sexy bedroom masterpiece Let’s Get It On (1973, Motown) to his bare-bones double album Here, My Dear (1978, Motown), which detailed his turbulent marriage to Anna Gordy, Gaye personified the term “artistic maverick.” His shocking shooting death at the hands of his own father only solidified Gaye’s rich and diverse legacy that can now be heard in the work of such performers as Maxwell, D’Angelo, and Robin Thicke.
Article tags: Marvin Gaye, Prince
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