What's Going On

The Artist

Marvin Gaye was a Washington, D.C.-born singer, songwriter, and producer who became one of Motown's defining voices throughout the 1960s. Known early on for silky romantic hits like "Ain't That Peculiar" and duets with Tammi Terrell, Gaye chafed against the label's polished, singles-driven machine and yearned for creative control. His sound blended gospel fervor with pop sophistication — a tension that gave his best work an almost spiritual urgency. What's Going On marked a radical turning point, transforming him from hitmaker into auteur and setting a new standard for what soul music could say.

The Album

Recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit across late 1970 and into 1971, What's Going On was produced by Gaye himself alongside Motown arranger David Van De Pitte, who gave the record its lush, orchestrated warmth. Gaye famously fought Berry Gordy for the album's release — Gordy initially called the title track "the worst thing I ever heard" — before its commercial success made the argument for him. The album was conceived as a suite rather than a collection of singles, with tracks flowing seamlessly into one another and a saxophone-soaked, jazz-inflected atmosphere threading throughout. Thematically, it grapples with the Vietnam War, urban poverty, drug addiction, and ecological destruction, voiced through the perspective of a Vietnam veteran returning home to a country he barely recognizes.

Listen For

The suite structure. Gaye designed the album to play as a continuous piece, with melodies and motifs recycling across tracks — notice how "What's Going On," "What's Happening Brother," and "Right On" share harmonic DNA.

Wild Bill Moore's saxophone. The tenor saxophone woven through the opening title track sets the album's emotional register immediately — breathy, conversational, and warm rather than showy.

Layered vocal arrangements. Gaye recorded his lead vocals and harmonies separately and stacked them, effectively singing against himself — creating a ghostly, internal-dialogue quality most vivid on "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)."

The party at the start. The opening seconds of "What's Going On" drop you into a gathering — overlapping voices, laughter, congas — before Gaye's vocal floats in. It's a deliberate choice to root a political record in human warmth.

God and grief in the lyrics. Gaye's spiritual language runs deeper than protest sloganeering — in "Wholy Holy" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," he moves between communal prayer and raw despair, asking whether salvation is even possible.