What's Going On
by Marvin Gaye
- Type: Album
- Released: May 21, 1971
- Label: Tamla
- Country: United States
- Length: 35:34
- Community rating: 4.45/5 from 29 ratings
Album Notes & Community Reviews
As his first self-produced project, Marvin Gaye’s ‘What's Going On’ is a seamless song cycle that blends the foundational soul of the Funk Brothers with sophisticated, jazz-inflected arrangements and Gaye's own layered, ethereal vocals. The album's narrative is told from the perspective of a Vietnam War veteran surveying a landscape of social injustice, poverty, environmental decay, and drug abuse. This thematic depth marked a definitive break from the established Motown formula, establishing a new paradigm for artistic control and social commentary in popular music.
Genres
Descriptors: soulful, orchestral, spirituality, social-commentary, harmonies
Tracklist
- What's Going On (3:53)
- What's Happening Brother (2:44)
- Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) (3:50)
- Save The Children (4:03)
- God Is Love (1:42)
- Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (3:14)
- Right On (7:32)
- Wholy Holy (3:08)
- Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (5:28)
Credits
- Marvin Gaye - lead and backing vocals, piano, box drum, producer
- David Van DePitte - conductor, arranged by
- Eli Fontaine - alto saxophone
- Robert White - acoustic guitar
- Joe Messina - electric guitar
- James Jamerson - bass
- Chet Forest - drums
- Eddie "Bongo" Brown - bongos, congas
- Jack Ashford - tambourine, percussion
- Elgie Stover - backing vocals, songwriter
- Mel Farr - backing vocals
- Lem Barney - backing vocals
- Bobby Rogers - backing vocals
- Angelo Carlisi - alto saxophone
- Tate Houston - baritone saxophone
- Bob Babbitt - bass
- Max Janowsky - bass [string]
- Earl DeRouen - bongos, congas
- Johnny Griffith - celesta [celeste]
- Edward Korkigian - cello
- Italo Babini - cello
- Thaddeus Markiewicz - cello
- The Funk Brothers - instrumentation, backing vocals
- Detroit Symphony Orchestra - instrumentation
- Al Cleveland - songwriter
- Renaldo "Obie" Benson - songwriter
- Curtis McNair - art direction
- Ken Sands - engineer
- Steve Smith - engineer