Gaye's first single, " Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide ", found regional success but also failed to chart, as would two more of Gaye's recordings by 1962.

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

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.

In October 1968, Gaye's recording of " I Heard It Through the Grapevine ", which became Gaye's first to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and also reached the top of the charts in other countries, selling well over a million copies.

The album became Gaye's first million-selling album and featured two more top-ten hits, " Mercy Mercy Me ( The Ecology )" and " Inner City Blues ".

When VH1 launched on January 1, 1985, Gaye's 1983 rendition of the national anthem was the very first video to be aired.

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.

The first video played is Marvin Gaye's rendition of " The Star-Spangled Banner ".

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 ".

Initially the band was essentially a joke band rather than a serious one ; their first " show " was in class singing Marvin Gaye's " Got to Give It Up ", using rolled-up maps as guitars because they could not actually play any instruments.

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

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.

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 ).

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.

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 ..

" It Takes Two " was also Gaye's first major hit in the UK, where it peaked at # 16 on the British singles charts in the spring of that same year.

Released in September of that year, the song gave Gaye his first taste of fame that would make him Motown's leading hit maker peaking at number eight on the Billboard Black Singles chart and number forty-six on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and was the leading single from Gaye's second album, the aptly titled That Stubborn Kinda Fellow.

The two first met in 1978 shortly after the release of Gaye's tormented Here, My Dear album.

It's most notable as the album that caused the first known struggle of Gaye's turbulent tenure with the label.

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.

" Other singles from the album included " Come Get to This ", which recalled Gaye's early Motown soul sound of the previous decade, while the suggestive " You Sure Love to Ball " reached modest success but was kept from being promoted by Motown due to its sexually explicit nature.

Gaye's next studio album, I Want You, followed in 1976 with the title track becoming a top-20 smash.

Gaye's 1976 album, I Want You, was inspired by this relationship.

The topic of divorce became a major topic that centered around the Here, My Dear album, while Gaye's concerns of the world in the context of his religious beliefs and his conflict with " good " and " evil " formed the basis of the In Our Lifetime album.

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.

" Along with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, this album ushered in a new socially conscious, funky style of popular soul music.

The same lineup played on 1985's Sportin ' Life album, which included a cover of Marvin Gaye's " What's Going On " and appearances by Bobby McFerrin and Carl Anderson.

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

* Marvin Gaye's " Come Live with Me Angel " from the album I Want You ( 1975 )

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.

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.

In addition, Gaye's classic album What's Going On, an introspective, low-key work which dealt with mature themes released in 1971, was in part a reaction to Terrell's death.

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.

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.

In September 1968, Whitfield added " Grapevine " to Gaye's new album In the Groove.

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 Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye is Marvin Gaye's 1961 debut album, and the second long-playing album ( TM-221 ) released by Motown.

Following the release of Gaye's first album, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, Gaye and Motown were in a struggle to agree with the direction his career should take.

' 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.

His attorney until his death, Curtis Shaw, said Gaye's Ostend period was " the best thing that ever happened to Marvin ".

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.

According to several music critics and historians, Marvin Gaye's career " spanned the entire history of rhythm and blues from fifties doo-wop to eighties contemporary soul.

* 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.

This resulted in the recordings of successful and critically acclaimed albums such as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On ( 1971 ) and Let's Get it On ( 1973 ), and Stevie Wonder's Music of My Mind ( 1972 ), Talking Book ( 1972 ), and Innervisions ( 1973 ).

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

She is also a part of the yet to be released documentary Marvin Gaye's sister made about her brother's life, My Brother Marvin.

It featured two UK top 10 hits with covers of Bob Dylan's " I'll Be Your Baby Tonight "-collaboration with UB40-and Marvin Gaye's cover " Mercy Mercy Me ".

", The Breeders ' " Cannonball ", Liz Phair's " Supernova " and Marvin Gaye's " Sexual Healing ".

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

In 2008, LMC covered Marvin Gaye's " I Heard It Through The Grapevine ".

Marvin Gaye's What's Going On is perhaps the best remembered of this field.

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.