" Sexual Healing " won Gaye his first two Grammy Awards including Best Male Vocal Performance, in February 1983, and also won Gaye an American Music Award in the soul / R & B category.

Key Largo, the following year, gave Trevor the role of Gaye Dawn, the washed-up nightclub singer and gangster's moll, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

* Claire Trevor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Gaye Dawn.

When Gaye won two Grammys for " Sexual Healing ", Gordy was present.

Following the success of What's Going On, Marvin Gaye had not only won creative control but a renewed $ 1 million contract with Motown subsidiary Tamla had made the musician then the most profitable R & B artist of all time.

In 1959, the group signed with Chess and recorded several sides for the label, including the Fuqua-led " Twelve Months of the Year ", to which Gaye opened the song on spoken word, and the Gaye-led " Mama Loochie ".

" Marvin drummed on The Marvelettes ' " Please Mr. Postman " and several of their other recordings, including " Beechwood 4-5789 ", which Gaye co-wrote.

By this time, Gaye had developed a serious dependence and addiction to cocaine and was dealing with several financial issues with the IRS.

From his earlier recordings as member of the Marquees and Harvey and the Moonglows and in his first several recordings with Motown, Gaye recorded mainly in the baritone and tenor ranges.

Between 1962 and 1966, Robinson would also be one of the in-demand songwriters and producers for Motown, penning several hit singles such as " The One Who Really Loves You ", " You Beat Me to the Punch " and " My Guy " for Mary Wells, " The Way You Do The Things You Do ", " My Girl ", " Since I Lost My Baby " and " Get Ready " for The Temptations, " When I'm Gone " and " Operator " for Brenda Holloway, " Don't Mess With Bill ", " The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game " and " My Baby Must Be a Magician " for The Marvelettes and " I'll Be Doggone " and " Ain't That Peculiar " for Marvin Gaye.

Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown roster in 1966, and, although regarded as a second-string act, scored several hit singles, including " I Heard It Through the Grapevine ", ( recorded later by Marvin Gaye ), " Friendship Train " ( 1969 ), " If I Were Your Woman " ( 1970 ), " I Don't Want To Do Wrong " ( 1971 ), the Grammy Award winning " Neither One of Us ( Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye )" ( 1972 ), and " Daddy Could Swear ( I Declare )" ( 1973 ).

He has cited several musicians as his inspirations, including Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, and Donny Hathaway.

According to fellow Funk Brothers in the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Gaye was desperate to have Jamerson play on " What's Going On ", and went to several bars to find the bassist.

Gaye never fully got over Terrell's death, according to several biographers stated Terrell's death led Gaye to depression and drug abuse.

In addition to being recorded several times by Motown artists, the song has been covered by a range of musicians including Creedence Clearwater Revival, who recorded an eleven-minute version for their 1970 album, Cosmo's Factory, and has been used twice in television commercials – each time using session musicians recreating the style of the Marvin Gaye version: the 1985 Levi's commercial, " Launderette ", featuring male model Nick Kamen, and the 1986 California raisins promotion with Buddy Miles as the singer for the clay animation group The California Raisins.

Gaye and Stewart brought in several musicians and Gaye's friends and family ( mainly his brother Frankie, sister Zeola and girlfriend Janis Hunter ) to Gaye's recording studio complex, Marvin's Room.

As well as leading his own bands and recording albums under his own name, Amy also did session work and played the solos on several recordings, including The Doors song " Touch Me ", Carole King's Tapestry, and Lou Rawls ' first albums, Black and Blue and Tobacco Road, coinciding with Dexter Gordon in the Onzy Matthews big band, as well as working with Marvin Gaye, Tammy Terrell and Smokey Robinson.

Besides his work as the session keyboardist on Motown hits such as " Bernadette " by The Four Tops, " I Heard It Through the Grapevine " by Marvin Gaye, and " Run Away Child, Running Wild " by The Temptations, Van Dyke performed with a small band as an opening act for several Motown artists, and released instrumental singles and albums himself.

Gaye invited several musicians, including some from the Funk Brothers and musicians from Hamilton Bohannon's band.

Moore also sung co-lead on a few recordings as well, such as " I Love Your Baby " and the groups ' Billboard Top 40 hit " Doggone Right ". Pete is also an accomplished producer, having produced several hit songs, including The Miracles ' 1965 R & B chart hit, Choosey Beggar, their 1969 hit, Here I Go Again, the group's million-selling Top 10 hit, Baby Baby Don't Cry ( also 1969 ), and the aforementioned City Of Angels album, along with albums by Marvin Gaye, and The Supremes.

Motown Records artists such as Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson contributed to the evolution of soul music, although their recordings were considered more in a pop music vein than those of Redding, Franklin and Carr.

His contribution in pioneering soul music led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and popularized the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown.

Gaye branched out into secular music as a teenager, joining the doo-wop group The Marquees, after returning from an honorable discharge from the United States Air Force, before the group was hired by Harvey Fuqua to be Harvey & The Moonglows.

Following the band's separation in 1960, Gaye began working as a session drummer for the Detroit music label, Anna, before signing with Motown Records in 1961, adding an " e " to his surname.

Gaye also ranked high on music magazines ' lists, ranking at number 18 on the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time on the American music magazine, Rolling Stone, and he ranked number 20 on VH-1's list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Gaye became a fan of secular music styles, including R & B and doo-wop.

Gaye, who wept openly at her funeral, responded to her death by going into a prolonged seclusion from the music business.

It was eventually decided that Gaye wouldn't be allowed to perform a tryout due to fears of injuries could have on his music career.

Gaye then promised not to record any more music for Motown.

In February 1981, under the advice of music promoter Freddy Couseart, Gaye relocated to Couseart's apartment in Ostend, Belgium where he briefly was able to back away from drug usage and got his confidence back.

In his book, Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye, author and music writer Michael Eric Dyson elaborated that the album was " unmistakably a work of romantic and erotic tribute " to Hunter and that the singer's obsession with Hunter was " nearly palpable in the sensual textures that are the album's aural and lyrical signature ".

In his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame biography, Gaye is described as having " made a huge contribution to soul music in general and the Motown Sound in particular.

" Due to his influence in R & B and soul music, Gaye has been cited as " the number-one purveyor of soul ".

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.

What's Going On also provided another first in Motown and R & B music: Gaye and his engineers had composed the album in a song cycle, segueing previous songs into other songs giving the album a more cohesive feel as opposed to R & B albums that traditionally included filler tracks to complete the album.

" However, Burke ’ s chart decline coincided with the years when most other exemplars of soul music ( including Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, and Stevie Wonder ) were " solidifying their respective stardoms.

The social and political ferment of the 1960s inspired artists like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield to release albums with hard-hitting social commentary, while another variety became more dance-oriented music, evolving into funk.

Despite his previous affinity with politically and socially-charged lyrical themes, Gaye helped popularize sexual and romance-themed music and funk, while his 1970s recordings, including Let's Get It On ( 1973 ) and I Want You ( 1976 ) helped develop the quiet storm sound and format.

The music video for the Diana Ross song " Missing You " pays tribute to Marvin Gaye, Florence Ballard, and Paul Williams, all former Motown artists who had died.

By the early 60s figures like Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder were dominating the R & B charts and breaking through into the main pop charts, helping to accelerate their desegregation, while Motown and Stax / Volt Records were becoming major forces in the record industry.

Following the death of Tammi Terrell in 1970, Gaye went into seclusion, emerging the following year with " What's Going On " and its subsequent album, which helped to make him one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of Motown's production company to be his own artist.

Gaye notched his next duet success late the following year with Kim Weston, on the song, " It Takes Two ".

The following year, Gaye released the Let's Get It On album.

Despite his promise not to tour following Tammi Terrell's death, due to pressure from fans and Motown, Gaye agreed to his first tour in four years, starting off at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on January 4, 1974.

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

The following month, Gaye performed at the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special.

On April 8, 1964, Gaye married Anna Gordy, the first marriage for both, following a three-year courtship.

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.

* The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The Coasters, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Bill Haley, B.

After two successive Top 40 R & B singles, the ballad " In and Out of My Life " (# 22 US R & B ) and the Marvin Gaye cover, " Tear It On Down " (# 37 US R & B ), the group disbanded following a farewell concert, held at Detroit's Cobo Hall on December 21, 1972.

He was the father of musician Marvin Gaye and gained notoriety after shooting and killing him on April 1, 1984 following an argument at their Los Angeles home.

Already depressed from the first diagnosis of her illness back in late 1967 and from her onstage collapse, Marvin Gaye further withdrew from performing following Terrell's death, re-emerging two years later performing during a benefit concert at the then newly-opened Kennedy Center at Washington, D. C. in May 1972.

They also appeared as backing vocalists on these following recordings and singles for Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell:

Before the book could be finished, Gaye died of complications following a heart attack at the age of 60.

Gaye recorded his vocals on the first date of sessions, adding instrumentation on the following day, and then adding other effects in the latter two days, mixing it by January 1977.

It also registered at # 21 pop giving Sermon his highest-charted single on the pop charts as a solo artist and giving Gaye his first posthumous hit in 10 years following 1991's R & B-charted single, " My Last Chance " also bringing Gaye his 41st top 40 pop hit.

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 ".

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.

As the soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploitation film of the same name, the Trouble Man soundtrack was a more contemporary move for Gaye, following his landmark politically charged album What's Going On.

Later that year, Gaye relocated to London following the end of a European tour, then moved to Ostend, Belgium in February 1981.