Page "The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye" Paragraph 1

Between his release from the U. S. Air Force in 1957 and signing with Motown Records ' Tamla imprint in 1961, Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. was struggling to find his identity in the music business.

A long admirer of different forms of music from early rock ' n ' roll, blues, jazz and doo-wop, Gaye sought to mix the styles of Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstine, Little Willie John and Jesse Belvin, first getting involved in groups such as the Marquees, which he joined following his honorable discharge from a tenure in the Air Forces, which soon replaced the original members of Harvey Fuqua's group The Moonglows under the moniker, Harvey and the New Moonglows, with Reese Palmer doing most of the leads though Marvin did take some lead vocal parts, including speaking in the intro and ending of the single, " The Twelve Months of the Year ", and sung all lead in the song, " Mama Loochie ".

Both songs were released on the Chess label in 1959 and during this period the group sung background for notable Chess acts including Chuck Berry on the song " Almost Grown ", and Etta James ' " Chained to My Rocking Chair ".

After living in Chicago for two years and following a tour in Detroit, Fuqua decided to split up the group and take Marvin with him to help get him work in the musically-developing city.

Fuqua then signed Marvin to a contract with his Harvey and Tri-Phi Records and also assigned him to work with his then-girlfriend Gwen Gordy's Anna label.

Gaye would do drumming work for acts on Tri-Phi and Harvey including, most notably, The Spinners, on their debut hit, " That's What Girls Are Made For ".

In December of 1960, Marvin introduced himself to Motown CEO Berry Gordy at Motown's annual Christmas party by playing piano and singing " Mr. Sandman ".

Gordy was impressed with Marvin and later began working out a negotiation deal with Fuqua to sign the young singer to Gordy's Motown empire.

Fuqua agreed to sell 50 % of his interest in Marvin to Gordy, which led to Gordy presenting Gaye with a lucrative deal, which he signed with the following month.

Marvin was then assigned to Motown's Tamla imprint, an imprint he'd record with for the 20 years he recorded with the label.

In the meantime, Marvin met and fell in love with one of Gordy's sisters, Anna Gordy and the couple would begin dating during the spring of 1961, marrying within a year