Timeline Marvin Gaye: What's Going On

Motown hitmaker turned soul prophet — Marvin Gaye from Stubborn Kind of Fellow to What's Going On and Sexual Healing.

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Dashed left edge = started before this timeline · Dashed right edge = still ongoing

Marvin Gaye: What's Going On 19

1939 Marvin Gaye born in Washington, D.C. Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. The son of a strict Pentecostal minister.
1956 – 1957 Marvin Gaye serves in the US Air Force Discharged Leaves after a short, unhappy spell.
1958 Marvin Gaye joins the Moonglows Harvey Fuqua Sings in Harvey Fuqua's doo-wop group.
1961 Marvin Gaye signs with Motown Tamla Signs with Berry Gordy's label in Detroit.
1962 Marvin Gaye scores his first hit with Stubborn Kind of Fellow First hit The start of a long run of Motown hits.
1964 Marvin Gaye releases How Sweet It Is Top ten How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) becomes a standard.
1967 Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell release Ain't No Mountain High Enough Duets The first of a series of classic duets.
1967 Marvin Gaye's duet partner Tammi Terrell collapses on stage Hampden-Sydney College She collapses in his arms — she dies in 1970, aged 24.
1968 Marvin Gaye releases I Heard It Through the Grapevine Motown's biggest hit Number one for seven weeks — the label's best-selling single to date.
1971 Marvin Gaye releases What's Going On Protest soul A song cycle on war, poverty and the environment that Berry Gordy didn't want to release.
1973 Marvin Gaye releases Let's Get It On Number one single His biggest-selling album at Motown.
1977 Marvin Gaye tops the charts with Got to Give It Up Disco hit A party-noise disco single that reaches number one.
1978 Marvin Gaye releases Here, My Dear Divorce album An album about his divorce, its royalties assigned to his ex-wife.
1981 Marvin Gaye moves to Ostend Belgium Leaves the US behind for the Belgian coast.
1982 Marvin Gaye releases Sexual Healing Comeback His first Grammy-winning hit, written in Ostend.
1983 Marvin Gaye sings the anthem at the NBA All-Star Game The Star-Spangled Banner A slow, soulful version over a drum machine.
1984 Marvin Gaye killed by his father Los Angeles Shot by his father the day before his 45th birthday.
1987 Marvin Gaye inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Inducted posthumously.
2015 Marvin Gaye's estate wins the Blurred Lines case Copyright verdict A jury finds Blurred Lines copied Got to Give It Up.