The Rock & Roll Hall has listed at least three of Gaye's songs in its list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll including " I Heard It Through the Grapevine ", " What's Going On " and " Sexual Healing ".

When Gaye was honored with induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Gordy attended and accepted Gaye's induction to the Hall of Fame on his behalf with Marvin Gaye III.

Gaye's first top 40 pop song, " Hitch Hike ", was soon followed by his first top-10 hit single, " Pride & Joy ".

At approximately 11: 38 am, Gaye's father entered Gaye's room and shot at Gaye twice with a. 38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.

Gaye's first recordings involving social commentary occurred a couple years before working on What's Going On, including " Abraham, Martin & John " and " The Onion Song ", two songs of which gave Gaye hit success in Europe where it charted mainly in the United Kingdom pop chart.

While in Memphis in June 1968, Burke worked at the Sun Studios with Tamiko Jones ( born 1945 in Kyle, West Virginia, who was later both his manager and fiancée, on her album I'll Be Anything for You ( A & M SP3011 ), arranging several songs, including his own composition, " Suddenly "; singing duets with Jones on her cover of The Temptations ' " Please Return Your Love To Me " and Marvin Gaye's " Try It Baby "; and providing a vocal on " There's Got To Be A Better Way.

He also was a featured soloist on many of Marvin Gaye's original albums on Motown during the 1970s, as well as on many other pop and r & b sessions during 25 years as a first-call musician in the studios in LA.

His most recent album, Hardcastle VI, released in September 2011, features yet another remake of " Rainforest " -- this time mixed with R & B legend Marvin Gaye's signature song, " What's Going On.

Gaye's " Grapevine " also held number one on the R & B chart during the same seven weeks, and stayed at number one in the United Kingdom for three weeks starting on March 26, 1969.

The original album peaked at number four R & B and number twenty-six pop becoming Gaye's lowest-charting studio album of the 1970s.

The Gladys Knight & the Pips version was the best-selling Motown single ever to that point, but it was replaced a year later by Gaye's version.

He had a long and distinguished writing career, initially for New York artists on the Wand / Sceptre labels such as such as Dionne Warwick ( e ) and Tommy Hunt, as well as Gene Pitney before moving to Motown, where he provided songs for Smokey & The Miracles, the Marvelettes, David Ruffin, the Four Tops and Chuck Jackson before hitting the big time with a co-authorship of Marvin Gaye's " What's Goin ' On?

Among its highlights were Michael Jackson's performance of " Billie Jean " ( which contained his first recorded moonwalk ), Linda Ronstadt duetting with Smokey Robinson, a Temptations / Four Tops " battle of the bands ", Marvin Gaye's inspired speech about black music history and his memorable performance of " What's Going On ", a Jackson 5 reunion, and an abbreviated reunion of Diana Ross & the Supremes, who performed their final # 1 hit, " Someday We'll Be Together " from 1969.

Gaye peaked at # 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart with the song in January 1965, and # 3 on Billboard's R & B Singles chart making it Gaye's most successful single to that point with record sales well over 900, 000 copies.

The original recording by Gaye and Terrell peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-one on Billboard's Hot R & B / Soul Singles chart for five weeks, becoming one of the longest-running number one R & B hits of 1968 and the most successful duet recording of Marvin Gaye's entire career.

The single was Gaye's second U. S. million seller successfully duplicating its predecessor " I'll Be Doggone ", from earlier in 1965 by topping Billboards Hot R & B Singles chart in the fall of 1965, peaking at # 8 on the US Pop Singles chart.

The song was also Gaye's first top ten pop single peaking at number ten on the chart and just missed the top spot of the R & B singles chart peaking at number two.

The single was the top selling R & B single of the year, and was the first release from Gaye's 1969 studio album M. P. G ..

They included his biggest success, " Dancing in the Street ", which he co-wrote with Hunter and Marvin Gaye ; " It Takes Two " ( Gaye and Weston ), " Ask the Lonely " for the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin's " What Becomes of the Brokenhearted ", " My Baby Loves Me " ( Martha & The Vandellas ), " Uptight ( Everything's Alright )" for Stevie Wonder and Gaye's " Stubborn Kind of Fellow ".

Featuring his frenetic funk cover of Marvin Gaye's " I Heard It Through the Grapevine ", the song exploded to number one on the R & B singles chart helping the album sell over a million copies.

Gordy was often the focal point of Gaye's early hits, including " Stubborn Kind of Fellow ", " Pride & Joy " and " You Are a Wonderful One ", the latter song released right around the time Gaye and Gordy married in April of 1964.

Gaye's jazz ambitions continued after the album's release, throughout the 1960s, he recorded three more albums featuring jazz covers, which didn't go well with audiences used to the singer's grittier R & B work during the sixties.

Despite the failure of Gaye's debut, which featured jazz and blues songs with only a few R & B songs, Gaye had no desire to have an R & B career, figuring he wouldn't get much exposure from a crossover audience singing R & B.

' Forever Changes ' unlocked a new musical palette for African American musicians to utilize, which paved the way for future song cycles like Marvin Gaye's ' What's Going On ' and Sly Stone's ' There's a Riot Going On ,' classics by other African Americans that also chronicled the increasingly despondent state of the American dream.

Although the album was not as commercially successful as its predecessor was, it contained three high-charting singles, including the title track, " True Colors " which became Lauper's second song to hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100, " Change of Heart " ( No. 3 ) and a cover of Marvin Gaye's " What's Going On " ( No. 12 ) followed.

*" Right On " ( song ), the seventh track on Marvin Gaye's landmark album What's Going On

* At the end of the movie This Christmas the main cast danced down a " Soul Train " line to Marvin Gaye's song " Got to Give It Up " ( before the credit roll ).

When Gaye's album with his version of Grapevine was released in August 1968 radio disc jockeys were playing the song, so Gordy had it released as a single in November when it went to number one.

Gladys Knight was not pleased that Gaye's version usurped her own, and claimed that Gaye's version was recorded over an instrumental track Whitfield had prepared for a Pips song, an allegation Gaye denied.

In 1985, two years following Gaye's death, the song was re-released in the UK reaching number eight thanks to a Levi's commercial ( starring Nick Kamen ).

Marvin Gaye's version of the song is used in the opening credits of The Big Chill ( 1983 ) as each of the main characters gets to hear ( through the " grapevine ") about the death of their college friend, and then travels to his funeral ; the song serving in an extradiegetic fashion to both unite the main characters ' friendship and to locate it nostalgically for the viewer.

" U Can't Touch This " sampled " Super Freak " by Rick James ; " Dancin ' Machine " sampled the Jackson 5 ; " Have You Seen Her " is a semi-cover of The Chi-Lites song ; " Help the Children " interpolates Marvin Gaye's " Mercy Mercy Me ( The Ecology )"; " Pray " and " She's Soft and Wet " sample the Prince songs " When Doves Cry " and " Soft and Wet " respectively.

The song, a response to Gaye's label Motown pushing for the singer to record commercially accessible dance music to fit the music industry's embrace of dance rhythms, was released in March 1977.

After nearly five minutes, Gaye's vocals appear in a falsetto, which he sangs in for most of the song.

Gaye's song became an important influence and motivation for Michael Jackson, who was searching to write a potential hit after The Jacksons had struggled with previous offerings.

" The song, " Don't Stop ' til You Get Enough ", written solely by Jackson and recorded the same year as " Shake Your Body ", took even more of Gaye's approach with the entire song, using percussive instruments as the basis of the song and a continued funk guitar riff, that was also present on " Got to Give It Up ".

Gaye's leading vocals brought in both falsetto and a gospel approach near the ending coda of the song.

Written and produced by Motown songwriting and producing team Holland – Dozier – Holland, the song was built among gospel-styled music and heralded Gaye's beginnings in the church with a rhythm and blues / rock and roll setting.

The song also helped continue Gaye's successful hit streak as the singer would score another Top 40 pop hit at the end of that year with " Can I Get a Witness ".

By the late forties, Gaye's father split from the House of God and joined the newly-formed House of the Living God, but later rejoined the original House of God and headed its Board of Apostles by the early fifties.

Gaye's father eventually quit the House of God in the mid-fifties, after he wasn't named Chief Apostle of the church.