What's Going On Marvin Gaye: The Accidents That Made It
What's Going On Marvin Gaye recorded in 1970 began as someone else's reject.
The idea came from Renaldo Benson of the Four Tops.
Benson's own group had already turned it down.
A warm-up saxophone take, a slip on a tape machine, and an intoxicated bass player shaped the record you know.
Berry Gordy heard the result and called it the worst thing he had ever heard.
He refused to put it out.
Two staffers released it anyway while he was out of town.
It became the fastest-selling single Motown had released to that point.
Marvin Gaye in a 1973 Motown publicity photo by Jim Britt.
Image credit: Jim Britt for Motown Records, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
A Song the Four Tops Handed Back
The song did not start with Marvin Gaye at all.
It started with Renaldo "Obie" Benson, the bass singer in the Four Tops.
He worked the first version up with the songwriter Al Cleveland.
Then he offered it to his own group.
The Four Tops passed, telling Benson it was a protest song and not for them.
What's Going On Marvin Gaye would soon record was still looking for a singer.
What Obie Benson Saw in Berkeley
The Four Tops were on tour in the San Francisco area in May 1969.
Benson watched police clash with anti-war demonstrators at People's Park in Berkeley.
He saw officers beating young protesters in the street.
The scene stayed with him on the bus that night.
He kept asking a plain question about it, and that question became the hook.
Why Marvin Gaye Took It On
Benson brought the song to Marvin Gaye in 1970.
Gaye first thought it would suit the Originals, a Motown group he was producing.
Then he decided to sing it himself.
He rewrote the melody, changed lyrics, and took a third of the writing credit alongside Benson and Cleveland.
Gaye was in a dark stretch when the song reached him.
His singing partner Tammi Terrell had died that March.
His brother Frankie had recently come home from three years in Vietnam.
The full arc of that period is covered in the Marvin Gaye profile on this site.
How the Record Got Made by Accident
Gaye cut the track at Motown's Hitsville studio in Detroit.
Almost every memorable detail on it arrived by chance.
What's Going On Marvin Gaye fans quote today is really a run of studio accidents.
A Saxophone Line That Was Just a Warm-Up
Session player Eli Fontaine came in to add alto saxophone.
He was still warming up when Gaye stopped the tape.
Gaye told him he could go home, because they already had what they needed.
Fontaine protested that he had only been goofing around.
Gaye told him he goofed off exquisitely and kept the take.
That loose, first-thought phrase is now the first thing you hear on the record.
The same unforced spirit runs through a lot of the decade.
The Random 70s Song Generator is a quick way to fall into it.
Two Lead Vocals, One Lucky Mistake
Gaye sang two full lead vocals for the song.
He asked engineer Ken Sands to put both on tape so he could pick the better one.
Sands played the comparison mix back on a mono machine by mistake.
Both vocals came out of the speaker at once.
Gaye loved the accident and told them to leave it that way.
That doubled, talking-to-himself vocal became his signature for the rest of the decade.
A Bass Line Played Lying on the Floor
The bass part came from James Jamerson of the Funk Brothers, Motown's house band.
By several accounts he was too drunk that night to sit up on his stool.
He lay flat on the studio floor and played the part on his back.
That roaming bass line is one of the most studied in popular music.
The talking you hear at the very start is Gaye with two Detroit Lions players, Mel Farr and Lem Barney.
Gaye was close with both men and later tried out for the team.
Hear how all of that fits into under four minutes: play What's Going On on Listen Now.
What's Going On Marvin Gaye Released While Gordy Was Away
The Worst Record Berry Gordy Had Ever Heard
Berry Gordy did not want the song anywhere near a Motown release.
He thought a protest record would sink Gaye's career and hurt the label.
He is often quoted calling it the worst thing he had ever heard.
Gaye refused to record anything else until Motown gave in.
Two executives, Harry Balk and Barney Ales, forced the issue while Gordy was out of the country.
They pressed 100,000 copies and put the single in stores in January 1971.
It sold out in a week.
An Album Recorded in Ten Days
The single moved so fast that Gordy drove to Gaye's house and asked for a full album.
The What's Going On Marvin Gaye delivered in return took shape in about ten working days that March.
He tracked it fast and loose, letting songs run into each other with no hard stops.
Motown released the album on May 21, 1971.
It gave Gaye the creative control the label had spent years denying him.
Where the Song Landed on the Charts
The single did most of its work early in 1971.
That is why its year-end rank sits lower than its weekly peak.
The same pattern shows up across Music of the 70s.
On the weekly Billboard Hot 100 it stalled one place short of the top.
On Billboard's Soul Singles chart it ruled for over a month.
On paper the single side of What's Going On Marvin Gaye made looks modest next to the album.
The album was the bigger chart story, holding number one on Billboard's Soul LPs list for nine weeks straight.
| Chart | Peak | Time at the top |
|---|---|---|
| Hot 100, weekly (single) | #2 | did not reach number one |
| Soul Singles, weekly (single) | #1 | 5 weeks |
| Hot 100, 1971 year-end (single) | #21 | not applicable |
| Soul LPs, weekly (album) | #1 | 9 weeks |
The single and album chart figures above match this site's own Billboard year-end and soul-chart data.
Why the Song Still Gets Played
What's Going On Marvin Gaye cut at Hitsville has only grown in standing since 1971.
Rolling Stone placed it at number six on its 2021 list of the 500 greatest songs, up from a lower spot on earlier versions.
The magazine went further with the album, naming it the greatest album ever made on its 2020 list.
The Grammy Hall of Fame inducted the album in 1998.
The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2003.
What's Going On Marvin Gaye tracked in ten days is now shorthand for soul music growing up.
Part of why it lasts is the mood, worried and tender at once.
The Mood Song Matcher lines up other records that sit in that same register.
It also changed what a soul album was allowed to be about, a shift traced in 70s Soul Music.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote What's Going On by Marvin Gaye?
What's Going On was written by Renaldo "Obie" Benson of the Four Tops, songwriter Al Cleveland, and Marvin Gaye.
Benson came up with the idea after seeing police beat anti-war protesters in Berkeley in 1969.
His own group passed on it.
Gaye reworked the melody and the words and recorded it himself in 1970.
Why did Berry Gordy not want to release What's Going On?
Berry Gordy thought the song was too political and not commercial enough for Motown, and he called it the worst record he had ever heard.
He refused to put it out.
Two Motown staffers, Harry Balk and Barney Ales, released the single in January 1971 while Gordy was away.
It sold about 100,000 copies in a week.
How did What's Going On perform on the charts?
What's Going On reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent five weeks at number one on Billboard's Soul Singles chart in 1971.
This site's year-end data ranks the single 21st for all of 1971.
The What's Going On album then topped Billboard's Soul LPs chart for nine straight weeks that summer.
Is the saxophone opening on What's Going On really a warm-up take?
The alto saxophone line that opens What's Going On came from session player Eli Fontaine, who was only warming up.
Marvin Gaye stopped the tape and told him he was finished for the day.
Fontaine said he had just been goofing around.
Gaye replied that he goofed off exquisitely and kept the take.
Who are the voices talking at the start of What's Going On?
The party chatter at the start of What's Going On comes from Marvin Gaye and two Detroit Lions football players, Mel Farr and Lem Barney.
Gaye was close friends with both men and later tried out for the team himself.
The loose studio talk set the tone for the rest of the record.
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