Marvin Gaye Anniversary

Motown's "Prince Of Soul," Marvin Gaye, was already a hit artist for nearly a decade when, in 1971, he reached new heights with his album What's Going On. An immediate landmark recording, it was the first of Gaye's albums to break the top ten of Billboard's Top LPs, and quickly became Motown's best-selling record. To this day, What's Going On is hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time, earning the number one spot on Rolling Stone magazine's 2020 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time."

Motown's "Prince Of Soul," Marvin Gaye, was already a hit artist for nearly a decade when, in 1971, he reached new heights with his album What's Going On. An immediate landmark recording, it was the first of Gaye's albums to break the top ten of Billboard's Top LPs, and quickly became Motown's best-selling record. To this day, What's Going On is hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time, earning the number one spot on Rolling Stone magazine's 2020 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time."

In addition, UMe has released Funky Nation: The Detroit Instrumentals, a group of 14 tracks that Gaye recorded in late summer and fall of 1971, after the initial release of What's Going On. Instead of touring in the wake of the album's success, Gaye cut funk and rock jams with a one-time-only band led by Motown's then-touring drummer Hamilton Bohannan: 17-year-old Ray Parker, Jr., Melvin Ragin, a.k.a. "Wah Wah Watson" (himself just 20) and Leroy Emmanuel of the Fabulous Counts (a relatively experienced 25-year-old) on guitars, and Michael Henderson, age 20, on bass. Gaye played keyboards and percussion. While a few tracks on Funky Nation had been issued across previous special releases, most of the tracks were newly issued on the What's Going On 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition in 2011, and now for the first time they will be getting their own individual digital release.