Marvin Gaye
2 April 1939 – 1 April 1984
Marvin Gaye was an American singer, songwriter and producer who recorded for Motown from the early 1960s, first as a hitmaker in the label's house style and later as a self-produced album artist. His 1971 record What's Going On, which he wrote and produced around themes of war, poverty and the environment, changed the range of subject matter open to soul music. He was shot and killed by his father in 1984, a day before his forty-fifth birthday.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Marvin Gaye.
- Ada Yonath (1939–2026) Overlapped 45 years →
- Adonis (1930–present) Overlapped 45 years →
- Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) Overlapped 45 years →
- Akio Morita (1921–1999) Overlapped 45 years →
- Alan Paton (1903–1988) Overlapped 45 years →
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Overlapped 45 years →
Life events
Born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., the son of a Pentecostal minister.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgJoined Motown in Detroit as a session drummer and solo singer.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMarried Anna Gordy, the sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy; the couple later divorced.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis recording of the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became Motown's best-selling single to that point.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWrote and produced the album himself after resistance from Motown, and it became his best-known work.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe album became one of the best-selling records of his career.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLeft the United States amid tax debts and personal difficulties and settled in Belgium.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe single from the album Midnight Love brought him his first competitive Grammy Awards.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDied at his parents' house after an argument; his father was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
Source: en.wikipedia.org