Marvin is a singer. Biography

1. Marvin was born on April 2, 1939 in Washington, DC. His parents were the clergyman Marvin Gaye Sr. and Alberta, a housekeeper.
2. Thanks to his father's profession, young Marvin got acquainted with music very early. Already at the age of 4, he sang in church or accompanied his parent on the piano. In addition, it was in those years that Gay Jr. got his first experience of playing the drums.
3. Subsequently, the musician recalled that his mother did not encourage his passion for singing, which she planted thoughts of suicide in the child's soul of her son. In addition, Marvin's sister said that he was subjected to domestic violence from the age of 7 until adolescence.
4. Having dropped out of school at 17, tired of family squabbles and dreaming of the sky, Marvin volunteered for the US Air Force. However, the service did not last long. Frustrated with having to do the dirty work, Gay feigned a mental breakdown and was soon discharged. The sergeant, to whom Marvin was subordinate, will declare in the future that the future musician simply refused to follow orders.
5. In 1957, Gay formed The Marquees. The band released the song Wyatt Earp, the backing vocals to which were recorded by Bo Diddley.
6. Despite the short career of The Marquees, Gay's activities in this group attracted the attention of Harvey Fukua. Harvey's wife, Gwen, introduced Marvin to her brother, Berry Gordy, an aspiring producer who had just founded a new label, Motown Records. Gordy was impressed by Gay's pleasant tone of voice and offered him a contract. And Berry's older sister, Anna Gordy, became Marvin's first wife.
7. Nevertheless, for all his vocal talents, Marvin began his career at Motown as a session drummer on Smokey Robinson's recordings.
8. Before the release of his first single, Marvin changed his last name somewhat. He began to get bored with the ambiguous question with which he was teased - "Is Marvin Gay?" As a result, the singer began to write his name as "Marvin Gaye". He added the letter "e" also because at one time his idol, Sam Cooke, did the same. Interestingly, these musicians, Cook and Gay, will suffer a similar fate - both will be shot, being not old people at all.
9. For a long time, under pressure from the label, Marvin was engaged in a rather lightweight, from his point of view, rhythm and blues. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Gay achieved creative control over his own recordings (the same as Stevie Wonder's). The result was the album What’s Going On, which amazed the audience with its complexity of sound and sophistication of performance. Today the album is considered a milestone in the history of rhythm and blues and one of the brightest examples of soul.
10. Despite this success, it was not an easy time in Marvin's life. In the 1960s, he occasionally recorded romantic duets with Motown singers. One of his partners, Tammy Terrell, once passed out while performing with Gay. Doctors diagnosed her with a brain tumor, the disease progressed, and in 1970 Tammy died. His death plunged Marvin into a deep depression, until the end of his life he never fully recovered from this shock. It is worth noting that it was precisely from the early 1970s that Gay moved away from an active political position, and his work became more introspective.
11. For example, Marvin's hit single Let’s Get It On was originally conceived as a political song, but ended up with more personal themes of love and sex.
12. The title of one of Gay's later albums (Here, My Dear) was an appeal to his first wife, the same Anna, sister of Berry Gordy. By that time, the couple had divorced, and the money received from the sale of the record went to pay alimony.
13. In total, Marvin tied the knot twice. The first wife, Anna Gordy, was 17 years older than the musician, and the second, Janice Hunter, was 17 years younger.
14. The last years of Marvin's life were marred by litigation over taxes and divorce from his wives, a conflict with the Motown management and, most importantly, serious drug problems. Nevertheless, even in this difficult time, the musician achieved success - the composition Sexual Healing became a popular hit, and Gay's performance of the American anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game was recognized as a classic.
15. In the same 1983, the English "new romantics" Spandau Ballet, influenced by soul music, dedicated their most famous hit to Marvin - the song True - and even mentioned his name in the lyrics.
16. One of Gay's unfulfilled creative plans was a duet with Barry White. Marvin died a week before rehearsals began.
17. April Fool's Day in 1984 was overshadowed by tragedy. As a result of a family quarrel, the famous musician Marvin Gaye was killed by his own father. Ironically, the gun from which Gay Sr. fired the fatal shots was once presented to him for Christmas by ... his son, Marvin Gay Jr. The singer did not live one day before his 45th birthday.

How does it sound

Almost all Motown songs of the 1960s, recorded by black performers from Detroit, always sounded the same: until about 1965, they were recorded R'n'B hits, led by repetitive guitar or piano chords, then richly arranged high-pop music with obligatory strings and brass. Even though outwardly Gaia's hits are indistinguishable from the rest of the label's material, he seems to be the strangest performer of the entire Motown hit roster at the time. The reason for this is his unique, completely unimaginable voice. Gay from the very beginning did not fit into the framework of that characteristic (stress on the second syllable) voice, in search of which Motown chief Berry Gordy was endlessly searching. He could never give the high melodrama of Diana Ross from The Supremes, the street audacity of David Ruffin from The Temptations, the deep sensuality of Left Stubbs from the Four Tops, and even more so - the refined teenage tenderness of first Stevie Wonder, and then Michael Jackson. Gay, who passed through the church choirs and doo-wap, developed a special style - a wild, very gospel voice that changes in the course of one song from baritone to tenor. Of the singers of a similar rank from the 1960s, he can only be compared to Wilson Pickett - but if he sounded like a Neanderthal getting to the microphone, Gay was more like a man stunned by the endless problems of life. Actually, many of his early hits are just about such problems: Gay scours the United States in search of a girl who escaped from him ("Hitch Hike", with its guitar rhythm-playing influenced everyone - from Lou Reed to Johnny Marr), learns from unfamiliar people about treason ("I Heard It Through the Grapevine", practically the best song of all time), trying to get along with thoughts of parting ("Can I Get a Witness", by far the wildest song on early "Motown"). Even in lyrical or relatively calm things in which Gay speaks of a single and indivisible love, there are still notes of inner dissatisfaction and a lack of reconciliation with himself in his voice.

Place in history

It was Gay, along with Smokey Robinson, who was the first superstar of "Motown" - and in many ways formed the famous sound of the label, which at the beginning of its history released comic records, lounge jazz, country music, and much more, and raised its internal bar to prohibitive heights. Released in 1970, "Super Hits" is still the best compilation of his hits. The Motown albums of those years were traditionally a weak point, although - in fairness - Berry Gordy once tried not very successfully to make Gaia an album artist (see the Moods of Marvin Gaye or M.P.G. records).

Example

"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"

A compilation of the best duos of Marvin Gay and Tammy Terrell - the greatest of Motown's stellar tandems of the sixties

How does it sound

Marvin Gay was not only an important solo artist for Motown, but also the most suitable singer on the roster for recording opposite-sex duets, a popular segment of pop music in the sixties. Back in 1964, his joint songs with Mary Wells "Once Upon a Time" and "What's the Matter With You Baby" became all-American hits. Two years later, thanks to the heavy R'n'B "It Takes Two", Gay repeated his success in tandem with Kim Weston, and in 1967 he finally found a permanent partner - not very successful solo singer Tammy Terrell, girlfriend of David Ruffin from The Temptations. Gay and Terrell wrote their duets separately from each other - which can be heard from the not very successful mixes of the songs themselves - but this did not prevent them from feeling one hundred percent chemistry in their voices (groundless rumors about their romance followed immediately after the first hit of the couple). Most of the duo's material was, it is true, second freshness, but at least "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" are classic duets of the sixties, standing on a par with Lee's "Some Velvet Morning" Hezlewood and Nancy Sinatra or "Je t'aime ... moi non plus" by Gainsbourg and Birkin.

Place in history

Greatest Hits provides a better insight into Gay's career as a duet member - an important but short-lived and tragic career. Terrell, whom Gay, according to the recollections of Motown workers, treated like his own sister, back in 1967, at the age of twenty-two, was diagnosed with brain cancer - which by the end of the decade turned her into a wheelchair-bound blind and deaf a woman, and a year later he killed. Gay took the illness of his partner very hard - he went into a one and a half year depression, from which, however, he emerged as a completely different person.

Example

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

One of the greatest albums of all time - nine unusual and never outdated chamber soul songs

How does it sound

In mid-1969, when Terrell was already very ill, Berry Gordy persuaded Gaia to record another album with her - released in September of that year, "Easy". It was the recording of this disc that became the starting point for Gay in his crusade against the policies of "Motown", which actually controlled the lives of the label artists. At first, he simply stopped communicating with Gordy (even the fact that Gay's wife Anna Gordy, Berry's sister, was not helping the Motown chief), and then completely announced that he was leaving music. He spent the spring of 1970 training with the Detroit Lions team of the National Football League and thinking about a career in sports - but after training, he turned out to be too old and weak for a career as an American footballer, which, according to all Gay biographers, was very a serious blow. At about the same time, Gay, who had always been apolitical before, began to closely follow political events inside the United States - according to Anna Gordy, this interest was explained by the singer's meeting with his brother, who had returned from Vietnam at that time. In the summer, being in a completely deafening depression, he recorded "What's Going On" - a sad piano soul song about uncertainty within the country, between the lines of which the drama of the uncertainty of Gay's life was easily read. Berry Gordy refused to release the song as a single - and Gay had no choice but to boycott the label. “What’s Going On” hit the market only at the beginning of 1971 - and became the best-selling Motown song in the entire history of its existence. Struck by the success of the song, Gordy booked a studio for Gay and - for the first time in the history of a company that had always relied on in-house producers - gave the musician full carte blanche to record.

By the very name “What’s Going On” one can easily guess the state in which Gay was during the recording: the songs here seem to be out of focus. Each of them contains a melody that inherits all the hallmarks of Motown hits of the 1960s, but it is not always heard behind unusual arrangements, atypical for any soul album of those years: instead of funk, bass, flirting with psychedelic soul, there are rare and well-aimed piano chords, muffled percussion, light and lyrical saxophone. Gay's voice also enhances the defocus, firstly, he sang much softer than on his previous hits, and secondly, during the course of the record, he several times embarks on lengthy half-sung, half-spoken monologues.

Place in history

Now "What's Going On" sounds like the forerunner of a million different things - from the introspective Stevie Wonder albums of the mid-1970s to the soft black radio music of the late 1980s and early 1990s; in 1971 it sounded like the most avant-garde pop music ever. However, one has only to hear three singles from this disc - the title track, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)" - to understand that this is the avant-garde, which by no means does not run away from the listener, but, on the contrary, reaches out to him. On What’s Going On, Gay doesn’t voice anything important — most of his lyrics are about the peaceful political protest, ecology, and hard life of low-class African Americans in the early 1970s — but he says it all more convincingly and sensually than many.

Example

"What's Going On"

The soundtrack to Ivan Dixon's black exploration "The Man in Trouble" - based on the success of Isaac Hayes's music for "The Shaft" and Curtis Mayfield's for "Superfly" and is almost entirely instrumental

How does it sound

"Trouble Man" is a rather masterful, but absolutely typical soundtrack for a niche film for African Americans for its time. Funked bass, harsh crescendos, the atmosphere of heavy night fatigue imperceptibly present in the music - everything here seemed to be based on the same "Shaft". The only exception is the lingering blues "Trouble Man", which Gay sings with the impeccable persuasiveness of a troubled man.

Place in history

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Gaia's discography includes this album. First, that was the era. Secondly, Gay himself just started at Motown as an instrumentalist (mainly drummer), arranger and producer - and Trouble Man gives a complete picture of his talents.

Example

Sexiest soul album ever

How does it sound

The best thing about this disc is a quote from its booklet, written by Gay himself: “There is nothing wrong with consensual sex. I think we are too strict with him. The genitals are just a part of the amazing human body. SEX IS SEX and LOVE IS LOVE. Taken together, they complement each other. But sex and love are two completely different human necessities, and we should think of them that way. " “Let’s Get It On” is really an album not about love, but about sex, about desire, about bodily cravings. Slow, ballad, driven by very typical guitar inclinations, it is quite similar to “What’s Going On” in terms of its slightly ghostly sound, but as far as possible from its predecessor in mood, texture and form. The melodies here are much more tangible, the groove is much more sensual, in the lyrics there is not a drop of topicality, care or the search for truth, but exceptional hedonism. The key thing is “Distant Lover”, just the slowest and most attractive music in the world, not for the sex itself, but for the caresses that occur after it.

Place in history

“Let’s Get It On” is important for the contextual understanding of Gaia as a person. Growing up in an extremely religious environment, as a child, Gay perceived any thoughts about bodily love as exclusively sinful - as a result of which, as an adult, he suffered from problems with potency and indecision in relationships with women. This disc is also an important attempt for Gaia himself to overcome his own complexes. More intimate - nowhere.

Example

"Let’s Get It On"

Album of Gay's duets with Diana Ross, another Motown superstar

How does it sound

After Tammy Terrell's death, Gay vowed never to record duets again - but in the wake of the sudden success of What’s Going On and under the influence of Anna Gordy, he somewhat reconsidered his views. The record of duets with Diana Ross, created according to the good old principle of the factory "Motown" - other people's songs, third-party producers, control over every step of the performer - looked to him as a quick way to expand the audience even more and at the same time not strain. With the second, it didn't work out very well - although both Ross and Gaia had colossal experience in the Motown system behind them, the sessions of the album turned out to be sheer hell for both of them, who turned out to be completely different people. The first turned out better - the disc really sold in a million copies, and Berry Gordy was very pleased. Now "Diana & Marvin" cannot be listened to as an attempt to earn extra money quickly. The song material here is rather weak, the arrangements tend towards music of a lower category for housewives, and there is no chemistry between the performers themselves - for some reason Gay screams all the time, and Ross, while recording, seems to be preparing for motherhood and singing lullabies.

Place in history

Despite its rather low quality, this is still a one-of-a-kind joint disc of two pop legends - and this is already of great cultural interest.

Example

"My Mistake (Was to Love You)"

Best Live Album in Gay's Discography

How does it sound

Believe it or not, Gay, one of the most charismatic black singers of the sixties, was not particularly good as a concert performer as a staff artist on the Motown roster. There are two fundamental documentary evidence of this: the 1963 live album "Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage" and the recording of his concert at the Copacabana club, made in 1966, but released only forty years later. Both of these records, to put it mildly, are not "Live at the Harlem Square Club" by Sam Cook or "In Person at the Whiskey a Go Go" by Otis Redding: the incredible introvert Gay was clearly afraid of a large audience and a big stage and fought for a long time to suppress these phobias in themselves. Recorded during the Let’s Get It On tour, “Live!” Introduces a mature Gay, who is also performing in front of a mostly black audience in Oakland. Such a Gay is also far from an ideal concert performer (in particular, through a nine-minute potpourri of old Motown hits that he clearly dislikes, he makes his way with the ease of a person fulfilling the promissory notes imposed by the court), but at least already able to forget about the audience and sing as if only for himself ... The proof is the chic version of "Distant Lover", fused with the theme from "Trouble Man" and performed not as a suggestive ballad, but as a real church hymn.

Place in history

Gay later released another live album - "Live at the London Palladium", traditionally considered better than "Live!". This, however, is far from an indisputable point of view: firstly, there is even more classic "Motown" on it than on "Live!" Gay performs on an explicit autopilot - and secondly, the song material on it is clearly weaker than that presented on "Live!"

"Distant Lover"

Another Marvin Gay album about sex, this time about sex for love: during the recording of "I Want You" Gay was literally obsessed with a woman named Janice Hunter

How does it sound

Like a much more funky and powerful version of "Let’s Get It On" with one big exception - almost no really great songs. If you subtract the infectious title track and the instrumental version of the song "After the Dance" (strikingly similar to the music of Alexander Zatsepin to "The Mystery of the Third Planet"), the bottom line on "I Want You" reveals deeply sentimental and incompletely structured songs that sometimes break off in the most unexpected moments and in a bad sense devoid of any shame. Several times during the course of the record, the listener is offered a recording of a certain orgasmic woman - a cheap move that would come off for anonymous soundtracks to porn films of the seventies, but here it gives the impression of a calculated and clichéd trick, too pedaling the conceptual side of the record.

Place in history

Leaving aside the subjective opinion of the author of this “textbook” on “I Want You”, one cannot fail to mention that the disc is generally considered absolutely classical everywhere - along with “What’s Going On” and “Let’s Get It On”. If only for this reason it is worth listening to - it is possible that the author's heart is simply deaf to the fusion of drive and tenderness, which is customary to hear in “I Want You”.

Example

How does it sound

Devastated by the apparent lack of finances stemming from his reckless and serious cocaine addiction, Gay viewed the work on Here, My Dear as a quick way to earn the money he owed his first wife after the divorce - it was supposed to be released short and will consist mainly of various kinds of pop standards. However, as soon as the sessions for the album began, the musician was suddenly immensely carried away by the work - and he began to compose something completely different. The result was a double album of half-improvised songs in the format of diary entries - with lyrics that openly talked about Gaia's domestic and marital problems. Naturally, "Here, My Dear" failed miserably. Naturally, critics adore him - including the author of these lines. Even more spontaneous than What's Going On, even less structured than I Want You, narcissistic and showing a completely non-status singer's self-pity, Here, My Dear is a concentration of all the shortcomings of Gaia's music of the seventies - and brings them to the point of no return, turning them into virtues. The key song on “Here, My Dear” repeated in different versions as many as three times is called “When did you stop loving me? When did I stop loving you? " - and the music of the record seems to be looking for an answer to this eternal question in vain. Although the album is based on classic light funk, Gay breaks into doo-wap at various moments, quotes his old songs, turns to space motives clearly borrowed from George Clinton, leaves the listener alone with multi-minute saxophone solos. This whole kaleidoscope of light styles is accompanied by texts clearly composed by Gay on the go about the total collapse and disappointment in life, which cannot be prevented by newfound love ("Falling In Love Again") - as a result, not even a record, but a monodrama of unheard of power.

Place in history

“What’s Going On” and “Let’s Get It On” are unreachable heights in Gay's work, but “Here, My Dear” is a key album for understanding him as a person. A deeply imperfect person - but, unlike many, not afraid to bring these imperfections to the general public.

Example

"When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You"

Disco album intended as a conceptual recording of God and the world through the eyes of Marvin Gay, remixed and remixed by Motown without the musician's permission

How does it sound

Immediately after "Here, My Dear" Gay, already completely bankrupt and breaking even with Janice Hunter, under the command of an army of Motown producers, recorded a full-fledged disco album called "Love Man" - but managed to recall it at the last moment, left for London and, armed with kilograms of cocaine, he remade the disc for a concept album about the structure of all living things. Then some not very clear things happened: somehow the entire master of the album ended up at Motown, which remixed the ready-made songs, removed the song “Far Cry” from the tracklist and changed the already finished design of the disc, at the same time removing it from its planned title - “In Our Lifetime? " - question mark. After that, Gay finally broke with his label and stopped communicating with him in any way - and called the resulting disc "ridiculous." In 2007, "In Our Lifetime?" was reissued on two discs, on which Gay's original mix, and a version of Motown, and the Love Man album, and even the single Ego Tripping Out, recorded before the musician's departure to London, can be found. And what is the bottom line? First, Gay's anger can clearly be attributed to his poor health and addiction to drugs - if between his version of "In Our Lifetime?" and the mix of the label there are differences that are quite minimal. Secondly, the album "Love Man" is not as bad as one might think. Yes, this is a shameless attempt to drive Gaia into the club disco - but, with the exception of the terrible lyrics, the attempt, frankly, is not bad; not Donna Summer, but not Rod Stewart either. As for “In Our Lifetime?” Itself, this disc, playing even more strongly against the contrast of music (disco, but much less obvious and even in places close to what ZE Records was producing in those years) and lyrics (absolutely depressing and sometimes even frighteningly dark) than "Here, My Dear" turns out to be almost the most funky and danceable in Gaia's discography - and without any bad songs at all.

Place in history

Gay's most underrated album. "In Our Lifetime?" - this is far from “What’s Going On”, but it is not at all clear why the reputation of this record does not go beyond the limits of an amusing incident in the career of a great singer.

Example

Gay's last lifetime album, which suddenly brought him back to the charts

How does it sound

After the story with "In Our Lifetime?" Gay moved to live in Belgium - where he recorded his final disc. Dedicated, as in the best times, to sex and the rhythm of "Midnight Love" is no longer even soul, not funk, not disco, but a real synthpop with Caribbean motives. Drum machines are pounding, synthesizers are singing - and an extremely perky-sounding Gay plays the role of a man in whose house the best party in the world is about to begin. At first it makes a strange impression: it is impossible to believe that this frivolous album, filled with intonations of songs from the Hollywood films of the eighties about surfing and romance novels on golden beaches, really belongs to the pen of the always striving for high spiritual drama, Gay. Then you get used to it - and it turns out that the lightness of "Midnight Love" is only good for this disc. This is best seen in the main hit "Sexual Healing" - an amazingly beautiful and personal song, without its strange arrangement, it would have lost its naturalness and probably become a little more ponderous.

Place in history

Two years after the release of "Midnight Love", Gay was shot by his own father - and the last disc of the singer, who went through a lot of troubles and saw a lot of troubles, turned out to be, ironically, the most inappropriate to his biography. Therefore, if there is anything to close the story about Gaia, it is his performance of the US anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game. An incredible performance - and well showing what scale this person was.

Marvin Gaye (Marvin Pentz Gaye) was born in 1939 in Washington in a Christian family. From the age of three he sang in the church choir, then as a teenager he learned to play the organ. By the time he was 15, he had mastered keyboards and drums and performed with various black street bands, including The Rainbows and Moonglows, who played in the style of rhythm and blues. In 1957 he joined the group "Marquees", which performed romantic ... Read all

Marvin Gaye (Marvin Pentz Gaye) was born in 1939 in Washington in a Christian family. From the age of three he sang in the church choir, then as a teenager he learned to play the organ. By the time he was 15, he had mastered keyboards and drums and performed with various black street bands, including The Rainbows and Moonglows, who played in the style of rhythm and blues. In 1957 he joined the group "Marquees", which performed romantic jazz ballads and even released one album. In 1961, Marvin was spotted by Berry Gordy, the founder of the record label Motown Records, who was impressed by his beautiful young voice with a three-octave range, and was offered a contract.

From 1962 to 1965, Marvin Gaye continued to work mainly in the rhythm and blues style, his most famous compositions were "Can I get a witness" (1963) and "Stubborn kind of fellow", included in the TOP10 RB. Then, according to the idea of ​​the producers of Motown, Marvin begins recording a duet with such famous performers as Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. Among his compositions were mainly romantic blues and rhythmic dance jazz suites, including the famous "Baby don't do it" (1967). In 1970, after the tragic death of his last partner Tammy Terrell from a stroke right on stage, Marvin dramatically changes his style. His new album "What’s going on" (1971), which was a mixture of jazz, funk and classics, touched on many serious issues such as racism and drug addiction. Despite the fears of Motown Records, this album was a huge success. The funky composition "Mercy, mercy me" was especially popular. With the release of this album, Marvin Gaye is gradually achieving creative and financial independence from Motown. And the next album "Let’s get it on" (1973) becomes his most successful work.

Marvin Gaye paved the way for many talented funk performers on the stage. It was he who brought the young Stevie Wonder onto the stage, and in 1973 his joint album with Diana Ross was released.

Unfortunately, the evil that Marvin fought in his songs did not pass him by. His recordings from the late 70s betray a little destructive addiction to cocaine. Fleeing from tax problems, in 1980, Marvin moved to Europe, where soon one of his last live concert albums "In our lifetime" was released.

His last album "Midnight love" (1982) and the composition "Sexual healing" from it were awarded a Grammy in the category "Best Male Vocal in Rhythm & Blues".

Marvin's father, a priest, considering that the singing profession is a shame for his family, in one of the quarrels at the family table ... shot Marvin. April 1, 1984

In 2008, American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Marvin the 6th Greatest Singers of All Time, and 18th of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Discography:

1961 - The soulful of Marvin Gaye
1963 - That stubborn kind of fellow
1964 - When I’m alone I cry
1964 - Together (with Mary Wells)
1964 - Hello Broadway, this is Marvin
1965 - How sweet it is to be loved by you
1965 - A tribute to the great nat king cole
1966 - Moods of Marvin Gaye
1966 - Take two (with Kim Weston)
1967 - United (with Tammy Turrell)
1968 - I heard it through the grapevine
1968 - You’re all I need (to get by) (with Tammy Terrell)
1969 - Marvin Gaye & His girls (with Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Tammy Turrell)
1969 - Easy (with Tammy Turrell)
1969 - Marvin Pentz Gaye
1970 - That’s the way love is
1971 - What’s going on
1972 - Trouble man (film soundtrack)
1973 - Let’s get it on
1973 - Diana & Marvin
1976 - I want you
1977 - At the London Palladium (concert)
1978 - Here my dear
1981 - In our lifetime
1982 - Midnight love

By the time he was 15, he had mastered keyboards and drummers and performed with a variety of black street bands, including The Rainbows and Moonglows, which played in the style of rhythm and blues. In 1957 he joined the group "Marquees", which performed romantic jazz ballads and even released one album. In 1961, Marvin was spotted by Berry Gordy, the founder of the record label Motown Records, who was impressed by his beautiful young voice three octaves deep, and offered a contract.

From 1962 to 1965, Marvin Gaye continued to work mainly in the rhythm and blues style, his most famous compositions were "Can I get a witness" (1963) and "Stubborn kind of fellow", included in the TOP10 RB. Then, according to the idea of ​​the producers of Motown, Marvin begins recording a duet with a stack of famous performers such as Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. Among his compositions were mainly romantic blues and rhythmic dance jazz suites, including the famous "Baby don" t do it "(1967). In 1970, after the tragic death of his last partner Tammy Terrell from a stroke on stage, Marvin his new album "What" s going on (1971), a mixture of jazz, funk and classical music, touched upon many serious issues such as racism and drug addiction. Despite the fears of Motown Records, this album was a huge success. The funky composition "Mercy, mercy me" was especially popular. With the release of this album, Marvin Gaye is gradually achieving creative and financial independence from Motown. And the next album "Let" s get it on "(1973) becomes his most successful work.

Marvin Gaye paved the way for many talented funk performers on the stage. It was he who brought the young Stevie Wonder onto the stage, and in 1973 his joint album with Diana Ross was released. Unfortunately, the evil that Marvin fought in his songs did not pass him by either. His recordings from the late 70s betray a little destructive addiction to cocaine. Fleeing from tax problems, in 1980, Marvin moved to Europe, where soon one of his last live live albums "In our lifetime" was released. His last album "Midnight love" (1982) and the composition "Sexual healing" from it were awarded a Grammy in the category "Best Male Vocal in Rhythm & Blues". At the end of 1983, Marvin Gaye fell into a prolonged drug depression and began to constantly repeat about suicide. Unable to endure his torment any longer, in April 1984, Marvin's father shot and killed his son.

Discography:

1961 - The soulful of Marvin Gaye

1963 - That stubborn kind of fellow

1964 - When I "m alone I cry

1964 - Together (with Mary Wells)

1964 - Hello Broadway, this is Marvin

1965 - How sweet it is to be loved by you

1965 - A tribute to the great nat king cole

1966 - Moods of Marvin Gaye

1966 - Take two (with Kim Weston)

1967 - United (with Tammy Turrell)

1968 - I heard it through the grapevine

1968 - You "re all I need (to get by) (with Tammy Terrell)

1969 - Easy (with Tammy Turrell)

1970 - That "s the way love is

1971 - What "s going on

1972 - Trouble man (film soundtrack)

1973 - Let "s get it on

1973 - Diana & Marvin

1976 - I want you

1977 - At the London Palladium (concert)

1978 - Here my dear

1981 - In our lifetime

Mikhail Marvin is an aspiring singer and songwriter originally from Ukraine. Part of the Black Star label. Gained fame thanks to the hit "I Hate". It is especially popular among young people and actively collaborates with other successful performers.

Childhood

Misha Marvin was born in the picturesque city of Chernivtsi (Ukraine), where he spent his childhood. He was an ordinary boy, the only thing that distinguished him from most of his peers was a sincere love for music and a desire to use his capabilities to the maximum.

Mikhail studied at one of the schools in Chernivtsi and already at that time showed himself to be a creative person. After graduating from school in 2006, he moved to Kiev to pave his way into show business there, in the capital. To realize his dream, Mikhail decided to get a professional education, and therefore entered the Academy of Culture and Arts Leading Personnel (Department of Musicology).

Musical career

While still a student, Mikhail began to write his own lyrics. In those same years, he became a member of a male pop group. The guys recorded several songs and even shot a video, which cost them only $ 350. It was the composition "Super Song", and, by the way, although the musician himself is embarrassed to remember this period of creativity, the song was even taken into rotation by a couple of music channels. But soon they decided to end the existence of the group.

Simultaneously with the collapse of the group, Marvin was expelled from the third year of the academy after another failed session. The group's activities, active music lessons took the guy most of his time with music, and he simply did not have time to prepare for the exams.

Misha Marvin on the radio

At first, he worked as a host in a karaoke club and worked on lyrics for songs. Misha liked to put his feelings into rhymed lines, so the lyrics turned out to be strong and emotional. It is not surprising that very soon his talent was noticed.

In 2013, Misha wrote a couple of songs with a friend, who sold them for a thousand dollars the next day. The same friend introduced Misha Marvin to Pavel Kuryanov, the director of the Black Star inc label, who offered cooperation to the ambitious young man.

To begin with, Misha Marvin helped with the preparation of the album of the singer Hannah. Subsequently, the song "To be modest is not in fashion", the text of which was written by Mikhail, firmly entered the repertoire of the young singer.

Then Marvin and other team members worked on Yegor Creed's album "The Bachelor". Mikhail also co-authored the famous hits of Nathan, Mota and a number of other performers. For example, Misha became the author of the song "Oxygen", which Mot sang together with the group "VIA Gra". This kind of cooperation lasted two years.

In 2015, Pasha invited Marvin to try himself as a performer. His first work was the song "Well, what a business." It was assumed that Misha would perform the song together with DJ Kan, but then another singer wanted to join the duet. It turned out to be the well-known rapper Timati. Undoubtedly, it was a spectacular trio, the result of which the listeners were satisfied with. Olga Buzova even took part in the video recording. A little later, Marvin and Dj Kahn presented a song with the shocking title "Bitch".

In the middle of summer 2016, Misha Marvin presented his first solo song - "I Hate", for which a very high quality video was filmed.

Misha Marvin - I Hate (2016)

Within a few hours after the release, the composition became the leader of the iTunes pop chart and took a place in the top five of the entire chart, successfully competing with the duet of Creed and Timati “Where are you, where am I”. The video for the song "I Hate" took the sixth place in the YouTube rating and in just a day gained more than half a million views.

This was followed by cooperation with his longtime friend Mot, which ended with the release of the composition "Or maybe ?!"

Misha Marvin ft Mot - Maybe ?! (2016)

Misha Marvin's personal life

Mikhail Marvin tries to bypass questions about his personal life, although the paparazzi are persistently trying to find out information on this particular topic. For example, journalists drew attention to the song "Bitch", because such texts are not written without mental trauma. Misha had to admit that - yes, one girl broke his heart. The guy recalled this event as follows: “Then I lived in Kiev, worked in a karaoke, and, you yourself understand, what my salary was. I met a girl who lived in Vladivostok, she was from a wealthy family. Our feelings flared up, she moved to live with me, but after a month she realized that she was uncomfortable with the poor guy. Kim Kardashian. It should be not boring and sincere - that's for sure. "

Misha is focused on self-development and is very serious about choreography and acting in order to look flawless both in videos and at concerts. In addition, a talented guy learns to play the piano, as he believes that every musician should master this particular instrument.

Misha Marvin now

The young artist is planning to release his solo album. He wants to grow and develop precisely as a performer. Realizing the prospects and profitability of writing lyrics for other artists, Misha still seeks to convey his own thoughts to the listeners from his own lips.