Background
According to Ed Townsend, he wrote this song after an encounter with a woman he "admired from afar". The woman convinced Townsend that they could not "build happiness on the misery of others", as they both were in relationships with other people. He told her she was right and, as he was prepared to walk away from her for the last time, she asked, "is that all you have to say?", to which he responded, "no...if I should die tonight, Lord, before my time, I won't die blue 'cause I've known you."
Townsend later returned home where he later wrote out the rest of lyrics. He felt the song would be better suited for Gaye to record. But Gaye, known notoriously for not being able to sing a song unless the lyrics pertained to him personally whether he wrote them or not, turned the song down initially. He explained to Townsend, "I can't sing that song. I've never felt that way about a woman in my life." Subsequently, during the session for the album's title track, he met his future second wife, Janis Hunter. After a date, Gaye returned to the studio and exclaimed to Townsend, "Ed, get that song out. I can sing that sonovabitch now!"
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records subsidiary label Tamla. Recorded between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, and United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as a producer and to credit Motown's in-house studio band, the session musicians known as the Funk Brothers.
Edward Benjamin 'Ed' Townsend was an American singer, songwriter, producer and attorney. He performed and composed "For Your Love", a rhythm and blues doo wop classic, and co-wrote "Let's Get It On" with Marvin Gaye.
Let's Get It On is the thirteenth studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP.
Here, My Dear is the fifteenth studio album by music artist Marvin Gaye, released as a double album on December 15, 1978, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1977 and 1978 at Gaye's personal studios, Marvin Gaye Studios, in Los Angeles, California. The album was notable for its subject matter focusing largely on Gaye's acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye.
"Let's Get It On" is a song and hit single by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released June 15, 1973, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. The song was recorded on March 22, 1973, at Hitsville West in Los Angeles, California. The song features romantic and sexual lyricism and funk instrumentation by The Funk Brothers. The title track of Gaye's album of the same name, it was written by Marvin Gaye and producer Ed Townsend. "Let's Get It On" became Gaye's most successful single for Motown and one of his most well-known songs. With the help of the song's sexually explicit content, "Let's Get It On" helped give Gaye a reputation as a sex symbol during its initial popularity. "Let's Get It On" is written and composed in the key of E-flat major and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 82 beats per minute.
"I Want You" is a song written by songwriters Leon Ware and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and performed by singer Marvin Gaye. It was released as a single in 1976 on his fourteenth studio album of the same name on the Tamla label. The song introduced a change in musical styles for Gaye, who before then had been recording songs with a funk edge. Songs such as this gave him a disco audience thanks to Ware, who produced the song alongside Gaye.
I Want You is the fourteenth studio album by American soul singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. It was released on March 16, 1976, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla.
"Distant Lover" is the sixth song issued on singer Marvin Gaye's 1973 album, Let's Get It On and the b-side of the second single from that album, "Come Get to This". A live recording was issued as a single in 1974. The live version of the song was Gaye's most successful single during the three-year gap between Let's Get It On and his following 1976 album, I Want You.
"You Sure Love to Ball" is a song released by American recording artist Marvin Gaye. Released on January 2, 1974, it was the third and final single to be released from Gaye's album, Let's Get It On.
"Just to Keep You Satisfied" is a song by soul singer Marvin Gaye. The song was the b-side to Marvin's modest 1974 hit, "You Sure Love to Ball" and was the eighth and final song issued on the singer's 1973 album, Let's Get It On.
Diana & Marvin is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Gaye and Ross were widely recognized at the time as two of the top pop music performers.
Marvin Gaye Live! is the second live album issued by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on June 19, 1974, by Tamla Records.
"Ego Tripping Out" is a 1979 funk-styled dance record released by American soul singer Marvin Gaye, released as a single on the Tamla (Motown) label. The record was originally meant to be the lead single for the singer's aborted Love Man album. However, as the album was scrapped and reworked into In Our Lifetime, the song received further work, before being omitted from the final album tracklist. The single was later included in a 1994 re-release of In Our Lifetime and a 2007 re-release deluxe edition featured two different alternate mixes for the sessions of In Our Lifetime as well as the original Love Man single of it.
"You're the Man" is a song composed by singer Marvin Gaye and songwriter Kenneth Stover and released on the Motown subsidiary, Tamla, in the summer of 1972. Composed primarily on the basis of the 1972 presidential election, the song was supposedly the first release from Gaye's next album, You're the Man, but the song's modest success forced Gaye to shelve the album in protest.
Between the Sheets is the 22nd album released by The Isley Brothers on their T-Neck imprint on April 24, 1983. The album is notable for the title track, the follow-up hit "Choosey Lover", and the ballad "Touch Me". The song also appeared in the 2007 comedy film, Norbit.
"Everybody Needs Love" is a 1977 song recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye Co-composed with "Let's Get It On" co-writer Ed Townsend. The song was issued on the singer's confessional 1978 album, Here, My Dear. Though most of the songs on the album were based on a mostly antagonistic view of Marvin's first wife, Anna Gaye, a few songs like this stood out which discussed how everybody needed love.
"Baby, I'm for Real" is a soul ballad written by Marvin Gaye and Anna Gordy Gaye, produced by Marvin and recorded and released by American Motown vocal group The Originals for the Soul label issued in 1969.
Marvin Gaye was an American music artist and singer-songwriter who won acclaim for a series of recordings with Motown Records. Gaye's personal life, mainly documented in the biography, Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, included religious faith, child abuse by his father, personal relationships with his two wives, friends and girlfriends, and bouts with depression and drug abuse.
