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Marvin Gaye, What's Going on CD cover artwork

Marvin Gaye, What's Going on

Audio CD

Disk ID: 1439747

Disk length: 35m 35s (9 Tracks)

Original Release Date: 1971

Label: Unknown

View all albums by Marvin Gaye...

Tracks & Durations

1. What's Going On 3:54
2. What's Happening Brother 2:43
3. Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) 3:49
4. Save The Children 4:02
5. God Is Love 1:41
6. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) 3:14
7. Right On 7:31
8. Wholy Holy 3:07
9. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) 5:27

Note: The information about this album is acquired from the publicly available resources and we are not responsible for their accuracy.

Review

Sly & The Family Stone might have psychedelicized soul music, but Marvin Gaye personalized it. Although the powers-that-were Motown didn't even want to release the record, the unexpected success of What's Going On, issued in 1971, inspired Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and just about every other black artist on the planet to take greater responsibility for their music and its meaning. Gaye co-wrote the songs and produced the album, flavoring it with layer upon layer of his own multi-tracked vocals, oceans of hand percussion, strings, flutes, and jazzy horn solos. Spacey and loose as a spliff-fueled Sunday afternoon jam in the park, the nine songs all played like a hit single. The title track--inspired by his brother's return from the Vietnam War--and the obvious social commentary of "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" and "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" actually were hit singles. Two other tracks ("Wholly Holy" and "Save the Children") would inspire hit covers by Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross, respectively. Nevertheless, What's Going On sounds as fresh today as it did the week that it came out. Recommended reading: Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye by David Ritz (McGraw-Hill, 1985). --Don Waller

Other Versions

Albums are mined from the various public resources and can be actually the same but different in the tracks length only. We are keeping all versions now.

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 35s

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 35s

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 35s

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 32s (-1m 57s)

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 32s (-1m 57s)

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 31s (-1m 56s)

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 31s (-1m 56s)

What's Going on

Tracks: 9, Disk length: 35m 30s (-1m 55s)

What's Going on

Tracks: 11 (+2 tracks), Disk length: 40m 55s (+5m 20s)

What's Going on

Tracks: 17 (+8 tracks), Disk length: 1h 6m 14s (+30m 39s)

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