by André Depienne

April 1st 1984 : a very sad day in the history of soul music, as soul icon Marvin Gaye died. One day before his 45th birthday the motown legend got shot by his own father, a pastor during a fight. The “prince of motown” as he was refered to, was born as Marvin Pentz Gay jr. in Washington D.C. in 1939. But it was only when Marvin got famous that he decided to add an “e” to his name. One of the reasons was to avoid that one could believe he would be a homosexual. In the late 50th the world used to be a bit more conservative. Marvin’s career started as a singer in the choir of his school. He afterwards also learned to play piano and drums all by himself. Later he became the drummer of a band called “Smokey Robin- son & the Miracles”. After his military service he played with several “Doo-Wop-bands” and did a title called “Wyatt Earp” with Bo Diddley and the Rainbows. After a concert in Detroit Berry Gordy jr. signed him to his le- gendary soul-label “Motown Records”. With this label he quickly rose to be a superstar and brought wealth to Mister Gordy. Until 1977 Marvin recorded not less than 39 top 40 hits and some of them with female partners like Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell and Diana Ross. For more information about Mar- vin Gaye we recommend the biography “Di- vided Soul. The Life of Marvin Gaye”, written by David Ritz .