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Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye, 1970s.
Marvin Gaye
American singer and composer
Also known as: Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.
Quick Facts
- Byname of:
- Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.
- Died:
- April 1, 1984, Los Angeles, California (aged 44)
- Awards And Honors:
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (1987)
- Grammy Award (1982)
- Notable Works:
- “What’s Going On”
- On the Web:
- NPR - Remembering Marvin Gaye's Iconic 'What's Going On' (Dec. 11, 2024)
Marvin Gaye (born April 2, 1939, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 1, 1984, Los Angeles, California) was an American soul singer-songwriter-producer who, to a large extent, ushered in the era of artist-controlled popular music of the 1970s. Gaye’s father was a storefront preacher; his mother was a domestic worker. Gaye sang in his father’s Evangelical church in Washington, D.C., and became a member of a nationally known doo-wop group, the Moonglows, under the direction of Harvey Fuqua, one of the genre’s foremost maestros, who relocated the group to Chicago. When doo-wop dissipated in the late 1950s, Gaye had already absorbed Fuqua’s ...(100 of 690 words)