Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On (1973). butchT Greatest Albums of all Time

What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released May 21, 1971, on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records.[1] Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1970 and March–May 1971 at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World and United Sound Studios in Detroit and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California.

The first Marvin Gaye album credited as being produced by the artist himself, What's Going On is a unified concept album consisting of nine songs, most of which lead into the next. It has also been categorized as a song cycle; the album ends on a reprise of the album's opening theme. The album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam War veteran returning to the country he had been fighting for, and seeing nothing but injustice, suffering and hatred.

What's Going On was the first album on which Motown Records' main studio band, the group of session musicians known as the Funk Brothers, received an official credit. The album features introspective lyrics and socially conscious themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War. What's Going On was both an immediate commercial and critical success and has endured as a classic of early-1970s soul. A deluxe edition set of the album was released on February 27, 2001, and featured a rare live concert shot at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center from May 1972.

In worldwide critics', artists' and public surveys, it has been voted one of the landmark recordings in pop music history and is considered to be one of the greatest albums ever made.[2] In 2003, the album was ranked number six on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, placing that same position nine years later.[3]
Studio album by Marvin Gaye
Released May 21, 1971
Recorded June–September 1970; March–May 1971
Hitsville U.S.A.
Golden World
United Sound Studios
(Detroit, Michigan)
The Sound Factory
(West Hollywood, California)
Genre Soul, R&B
Length 35:38
Label Tamla
Producer Marvin Gaye

All lead vocals by Marvin Gaye
Produced by Marvin Gaye
Members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Conducted and Arranged by David Van De Pitte
Background Voices:
Marvin Gaye
The Andantes (Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps)
Mel Farr and Lem Barney of the Detroit Lions
Bobby Rogers of The Miracles
Elgie Stover
Kenneth Stover
Strings, Woodwinds and Brass
Gordon Staples, Zinovi Bistritzky, Beatriz Budinzky, Richard Margitza, Virginia Halfmann, Felix Resnick, Alvin Score, Lillian Downs, James Waring – violins
Edouard Kesner, Meyer Shapiro, David Ireland, Nathan Gordon – violas
Italo Babini, Thaddeus Markiewicz, Edward Korkigan – cellos
Max Janowsky – double bass
Carole Crosby – harp
Dayna Hardwick, William Perich – flutes
Larry Nozero, Angelo Carlisi, George Benson, Tate Houston – saxophones
John Trudell, Maurice Davis – trumpets
Carl Raetz – trombone



Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers and Solo Horns
Eli Fontain – alto saxophone
Wild Bill Moore – tenor saxophone
Marvin Gaye – piano, mellotron ("Mercy Mercy Me"), box drum ("What's Going On")
Johnny Griffith – celeste, keyboards
Earl Van Dyke – keyboards
Jack Brokensha – vibraphone, percussion
Joe Messina, Robert White – electric guitars
James Jamerson – bass guitar "What's Going On," "What's Happening Brother," "Flyin' High," "Save the Children," "God Is Love," and the b-side "Sad Tomorrows"
Bob Babbitt – bass guitar "Mercy, Mercy Me", "Right On", "Wholly Holy" and "Inner City Blues"
Chet Forest – drums
Jack Ashford – tambourine, percussion
Eddie "Bongo" Brown – bongos, congas
Earl DeRouen – bongos, congas
Bobbye Hall – bongos "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"[50]
Katherine Marking – graphic design
Alana Coghlan – graphic design
John Matousek – mastering
Vic Anesini;– Digital Remastering
James Hendin – Photography
Curtis McNair – Art Direction