In this episode of Classic Rock Album Olympics music historians Gary Wenstrup and Robert Rodriguez take Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On for a spin and award gold, silver and bronze medals for their favorite tracks.
Medal Winners
What’s
Going On
Flyin’
High (In The Friendly Sky)
Mercy
Mercy Me (The Ecology)
What’s
Happening Brother
Inner
City Blues (Makes Me Want To Holler)
The album was released in the summer of 1971 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made. It marked a dramatic artistic transformation for Marvin Gaye and for Motown itself. Rather than focusing on romantic love songs, Gaye created a deeply personal concept album that addressed war, poverty, racial injustice, environmental concerns, police brutality, drug abuse, and spiritual renewal. Inspired in part by conversations with his brother Frankie, who had recently returned from service in Vietnam, What’s Going On captured the hopes, frustrations, and uncertainty of America during one of the nation’s most turbulent periods.
What’s Going On was produced by Marvin Gaye, making him one of the first Motown artists to exercise complete creative control over a major project. Recording sessions took place at Detroit’s Hitsville U.S.A. studio and at Golden World Studios, also in Detroit. Gaye experimented with layered vocals, sophisticated orchestration, jazz-influenced harmonies, and seamless transitions between songs, creating one of the first truly unified concept albums in soul music.
Marvin Gaye handled the lead and background vocals and worked with Motown’s famous house band – The Funk Brothers. They included bassists James Jamerson and Bob Babbit, drummer Chet Forest, percussionist Jack Ashford, keyboardist Earl Van Dyke and guitarists Robert White and Joe Messina. The album’s lush orchestral arrangements and rich vocal textures combined elements of soul, jazz, classical music, gospel, and rhythm and blues into a sound unlike anything Motown had previously
released.
Commercially, the album became one of the biggest successes of Marvin Gaye’s career, reaching #6 on the Billboard 200. Three singles emerged from the album. The title track, “What’s Going On,” reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” climbed to #4 and became one of popular music’s earliest environmental anthems. “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” reached #9.
The cultural significance of What’s Going On is difficult to overstate. It transformed expectations of what soul music could address and
demonstrated that pop music could also confront serious social and political issues. The album challenged Motown’s traditional business model, expanded creative freedom for recording artists, and influenced generations of musicians across soul, R&B, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and pop.
Artists ranging from Stevie Wonder to Prince, Bruce Springsteen, D’Angelo, and many others have cited it as a landmark achievement.
More than five decades after its release, What’s Going On continues to appear near the top of virtually every list of the greatest albums ever recorded and remains a timeless statement about empathy, justice, faith, and our shared humanity.
Hashtags: #WhatsGoingOn #MarvinGaye #Motown
#SoulMusic #ClassicAlbums #MusicHistory #ConceptAlbum #FunkBrothers #1971Music
#ClassicSoul #VinylCommunity #AlbumHistory #MercyMercyMe #InnerCityBlues
#WhatsGoingOnAlbum
Bonus Tracks
I
Can’t Get Next To You – Temptations
Stoned
Love – The Supremes
War
– Edwin Star
Ball
of Confusion – Temptations
Love
Is God
Right
On
Save
The Children
Sadly, a demo version of What’s Going On does not exist
Track Listing
Side One
What’s Going On
What’s Happening Brother
Flyin’ High (In The Friendly Sky)
Save The Children
God Is Love
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
Side Two
Right On
Wholy Holy
Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)
Contact Info
Website: Gary Wenstrup
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