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 later served six years probation for the crime after agreeing to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

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

Gaye's first album, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, released in June 1961, failed to chart, however.

Gaye continued to tour into 1975 following Gaye's success in sold-out concert dates.

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.

On March 31, 1984, Gaye and his parents were involved in an argument over misplaced business documents, which occurred in Gaye's bedroom.

Only after Gaye's mother intervened and separated the two did Gaye retreat back to his room.

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.

Despite this, however, Gaye and Gordy maintained a relationship until Gaye's death in 1984.

Months following his death, Decker told Parade magazine that she had carried Gaye's unborn child and that she lived with Gaye at his parents ' house until, she said, family resentment caused Gaye to move her to an apartment in West Hollywood.

A year following his death, Marion Barry, the then-mayor of Washington, D. C. declared April 2 ( Marvin's birthday ) as " Marvin Gaye Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund Day " in the city on a day after the anniversary of Gaye's 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.

Gaye's vocal style changed in the late 1960s in which he was told to incorporate a sharper raspy voice especially in Norman Whitfield's recordings, which Gaye initially profoundly disliked, considered it out of his range, but said he was " into being produce-able ".

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.

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 ".

James was friends with fellow Motown acts Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, though his friendship with the latter artist was tested after James began dating Gaye's former wife, Janis Gaye.

Both Marvin Gaye and Valerie Simpson gave different stories on how the production of Terrell's and Gaye's third album together, Easy, was released.

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.

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.

Gaye's funeral was held on April 5 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park by over 10, 000 mourners.

Gaye's last girlfriend at the time of his death was London native Deborah Decker.

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 ".

Also, on CBS Sports ' final NBA telecast to date ( before the contract moved to NBC ) at the conclusion of Game 5 of the 1990 Finals, they used Gaye's 1983 All-Star Game performance over the closing credits.

* October 14 – Tammi Terrell faints and collapses into duet partner Marvin Gaye's arms onstage during a performance at the Hampton University homecoming in Virginia.

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.

The performance documented on the resulting double LP, entitled Live at the London Palladium and released in 1977, is considered one of Gaye's finest live recordings.

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.

It was an instant success, landing at number-one on three different Billboard charts and helping its parent album, Gaye's live album, Live at the London Palladium, sell more than two-million copies.

Throughout 1976, Marvin Gaye's popularity was still at a high in America and abroad, but the singer struggled throughout the year due to pending lawsuits from former band mates.

Before, Gaye had modest success with two singles-" Save the Children " ( which was released as a double-A side with Gaye's 1966 recording, " Little Darling ( I Need You )") in 1971 and " Let's Get It On " in 1973 ( which peaked at number 31 on the UK chart ).

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.

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.