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.

Gaye's father never kept a job, working for a total of three years, working at the Western Union and the post office.

During his teen years, Gaye's relationship with his father further deteriorated and he often was kicked out of the house by his father for what he perceived was misbehavior.

The next day, April 1, Gaye's parents started arguing again, with Gaye's father yelling from downstairs.

When Gaye's father marched upstairs to argue with Gaye's mother, Gaye began physically dominating his father, shoving him, knocking him down and kicking him.

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 father stepped closer and shot Gaye again at point blank range at his shoulder before leaving the room.

Growing up, as a child, Gaye's main influence was that of his minister father, something he would later acknowledge to biographer David Ritz and also in interviews he gave, often mentioning that his father's sermons left a big impression on him.

According to Marvin Gaye's relatives, it was one of the few times in which father and son's relationship wasn't so troubling.

Gaye's later music influenced the quiet storm, urban contemporary, slow jam and neo-soul music genres.

His brother Frankie later recounted how Gaye's public performance at a school play when he was 11 encouraged him to pursue a singing career.

In 1964, he scored his first hit duets with singer Mary Wells including " Once Upon a Time ", which was later featured on the duo's album, Together, which became Gaye's first charted album.

The success later translated to the top ten on the pop chart in January 1983, while the record reached international success, reaching the top spot in New Zealand and Canada and reaching the top-10 in the United Kingdom, later selling over two million copies, becoming Gaye's most successful single to date.

It was later determined during Gaye's autopsy that the singer had cocaine and PCP, or " angel dust " in his system at the time of his death.

Friends and some of Gaye's family members later contended that the gun was an act of " premeditated suicide " by Gaye, who had suffered from depression in the months leading up to his death.

A year later, Gaye's mother founded the Marvin P. Gaye Jr. Memorial Foundation in dedication to her son to help those suffering from drug abuse and alcoholism ; however she died a day before the memorial was set to open in 1987.

Other artists such as Maxwell, Nas and Common adapted his early 1970s fashion style of wearing kufis and beanie skull caps and jean outfits which was also later appropriated by Eddie Murphy in his role as James " Thunder " Early in Dreamgirls, while Michael Jackson, who admitted Gaye was an influence on his music and once described his music as " ridiculous " in a good way, in 2001, allegedly was also influenced by Gaye's fashion style in the 1980s adapting the military-styled suits Gaye wore on his final concert tour.

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.

Marvin Gaye's version was recorded in spring 1967, and is the second known recording, though was also rejected by Gordy as a single, and would also later go onto an album, In the Groove.

Gaye's " I Heard It Through the Grapevine " eventually outsold the Pips ', and until The Jackson 5's " I'll Be There " 20 months later, was the biggest hit single of all time on the Motown label.

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.

Motown struggled to get Gaye in the studio as Gaye focused on work on an album ( which would later be released as Here, My Dear, dedicated to Gaye's troubled first marriage ).

The voice was later confirmed to be that of Gaye's baby sister Zeola.

" The " Don " was later confirmed as Soul Train host Don Cornelius, who was one of Gaye's close friends.

Jackson later wrote, with brother Randy, the classic, " Shake Your Body ( Down to the Ground )", taking and altering bits of Gaye's chant, " let's dance, let's shout, get funky what it's all about.

Terrell recorded her vocals alone with producers Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol, who added Gaye's vocal at a later date.

He is noted for later having been one of the key figures in the development of the Motown label in Detroit, Michigan: his group gave Marvin Gaye's musical career a start, and Fuqua and his wife at the time, Gwen Gordy, distributed the very first Motown hit single, Barrett Strong's " Money ( That's What I Want )", on their record label, Anna Records.

Additional vocals, later added to Gaye's deluxe edition re-issue of I Want You, showcase two different lead vocal takes by Marvin.

The single became Gaye's most successful duet single to date, later outperformed by Gaye's duets with Tammi Terrell.

Gaye's sister Jeanne once served as the foundation's chairperson.

" Gaye's sister Jeanne said Gaye was beaten often between age seven well into his teenage years.

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.

Classic quiet storm recordings include Frankie Beverly and Maze's " Golden Time of Day ," Marvin Gaye's " Let's Get It On ", the orchestrations of Philadelphia soul, the recordings of Al Green, Barry White, and Bill Withers, much of jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery's work during his CTI ( Creed Taylor, Incorporated ) years, and the work of jazz-funk saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr.

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.

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 ).

The album was re-evaluated in the years following its original release, and is today seen as a landmark in Gaye's career.

' 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.

In March 1982, Motown and CBS Records negotiated for Gaye to be released from Motown, but didn't release the contents of their contract fearing a negative effect on Gaye's settlement to pay his creditors.

That year, the quartet began applying background vocals for emerging Motown star Marvin Gaye, singing on Gaye's first hit single, " Stubborn Kind of Fellow " After Mary Wells failed to make a scheduled recording session feigning a short illness, the Vels recorded what was initially a demo recording of " I'll Have to Let Him Go ".

The ladies provided backup vocals for Marvin Gaye's " Stubborn Kind of Fellow ".

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.

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.

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.

A deeply personal and controversial album, Here, My Dear is notable for chronicling Gaye's ill-fated first marriage to Anna Gordy.

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?

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.

The single's success helped its parent album, Live at the London Palladium find substantial success — especially in Gaye's home country, where it stayed at the top ten for several weeks.

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.

In a review for Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye, Erlewine also wrote " A few tracks stand out from the mire, particularly Madonna and Massive Attack's trip-hop re-interpretation of " I Want You "..." Jim Farber of the New York Daily News stated that " has never sounded better than in the cover of Marvin Gaye's " I Want You ".

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.

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 ".