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Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Commonly referred to as the "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul", he helped to shape the sound of Motown and soul music in the 1960s and 1970s. A cultural icon, Gaye is often considered one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time.
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entertainment · American singer and songwriter (1939–1984) · singer · singer-songwriter · pianist · songwriter · soul musician · composer · author · musician · also Marvin Gaye, Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., Marvin P. Gaye, Gaye
Born 2 April 1939 · Died 1 April 1984 · Q189758
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“It fell from the heavens and hit me between the eyes. So much soul, so much hurt. I related to the story, to the way that no one except the Lord really can read the heart of lonely kids in love.”
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TVGuide.co.uk: Marvin Gaye: A Tribute at the Proms on BBC Two Northern Ireland HD: full details and when it's on
The Baltimore Banner: Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye and more tributes featured in BlackRock Center for the Arts’ new season
Ad-hoc-news.de: Marvin Gaye – 50th anniversary of I Want You drives new tributes - Ad-hoc-news.de
Ad-hoc-news.de: Marvin Gaye - I Want You anniversary marked with new remix releases - Ad-hoc-news.de
TicketNews: MARVIN: The Marvin Gaye Musical Philadelphia tickets on sale
BroadwayWorld: Reseña: BBC PROMS: MARVIN GAYE - PRINCE OF SOUL, Royal Albert Hall
BroadwayWorld: Review: BBC PROMS: MARVIN GAYE - PRINCE OF SOUL, Royal Albert Hall
TODAY.com: Tracee Ellis Ross Reflects On Growing Up As Diana Ross’ Daughter: ‘Warhol Painted Me. Marvin Gaye Called the House’
The Upcoming: BBC Proms: Marvin Gaye – Prince of Soul at the Royal Albert Hall
Colin's Column: BBC Proms 2026, Friday August 14 @ Royal Albert Hall, London – Marvin Gaye: Prince of Soul. [Posted for the record.]
Ad-hoc-news.de: Marvin Gaye and the legacy of What’s Going On - Ad-hoc-news.de
BBC: Marvin Gaye: A Tribute at the Proms
Your Observer: Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe takes its Marvin Gaye show on the road
Ad-hoc-news.de: Marvin Gaye and the enduring legacy of What's Going On - Ad-hoc-news.de
La Vanguardia: Muerte y resurrección de Marvin Gaye en la ciudad de Ostende
Karlobag.eu: BBC Proms celebra a Marvin Gaye en Londres: entradas para una noche de soul orquestal en el Royal Albert Hall
Public attention spiked: 71,799 Wikipedia readers in one day, 20× the usual 3,590, with 2 article edits.
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People: Marvin Gaye Was Fatally Shot By His Reverend Father During a Fight. Inside the Singer's Shocking Death, 42 Years Later
The Guardian: ‘If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off’: Terrence Howard explains why he declined Marvin Gaye biopic
Yahoo: Marvin Gaye's 3 Children: All About Marvin III, Nona and Frankie (and Why They Fought for Their Father's Legacy in a 2013 Lawsuit)
The Guardian: ‘I’ve used hairbrushes, spatulas, car keys, apples ...’ Sheila E on drumming with Prince, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and more
The Guardian: Collection of unreleased Marvin Gaye songs found in Belgium
The Guardian: Ed Sheeran cleared of infringing copyright in Marvin Gaye lawsuit
The Guardian: Ed Sheeran sings in court as part of Marvin Gaye copyright case
The Guardian: Ed Sheeran testifies in Marvin Gaye copyright case: ‘Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs’
Through Motown, Universal Music Enterprises, and Universal Music Group
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Released album “You’re the Man”.
Producer Quincy Jones claimed Gaye had been sexually involved with actor Marlon Brando, an allegation denied by Gaye's surviving family
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Gaye's family was awarded $7
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The thirtieth anniversary of Gaye's death
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His song "A Funky Space Reincarnation" was used in the Charlize Theron–starred ad for Dior J'Adore perfume
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Watts Branch Park, a park in Washington that Gaye frequented as a teenager, was renamed Marvin Gaye Park
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Gaye was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame
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Snopes.com rated the claim “Marvin Gaye deliberately recorded a wretched album designed to sell poorly in order to cheat his ex-wife out of royalties.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
For inclusion by the Library of Congress to its National Recording Registry
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Released album “The Complete Duets”.
Released album “M.P.G. / That’s the Way Love Is”.
Released album “That Stubborn Kinda Fellow / How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You”.
Released album “Together / Take Two”.
Released album “Legends of Soul”.
Released album “Marvin Gaye: Here, My Dear & In Our Lifetime”.
Released album “Les Indispensables”.
Released album “Classic Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Marvin Gaye, Vol. 2: The ’70s”.
Released album “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”.
Released album “Super Hits”.
Becoming his most successful album to date
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Released album “The Love Songs”.
Released album “20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell”.
Released album “20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Marvin Gaye, Volume 1: The ’60s”.
Released album “The Sexual Healer”.
Released album “Midnight Love & The Sexual Healing Sessions”.
Released album “Vulnerable”.
Released album “The Soulful Sound of Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “Forever Yours”.
Released album “Early Classics: Marvin Gaye”.
Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1996).
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Released album “Marvin Gaye”.
Gaye posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
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Released album “The Man, the Music, the Legend”.
Released album “Marvin Gaye Live”.
Released album “Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “The Best of Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “The Master 1961–1984”.
Released album “The Marvin Gaye Classics Collection”.
Released album “The Very Best of Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “Love Starved Heart”.
Released album “The Norman Whitfield Sessions”.
Released album “Motown Legends: Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “Seek & You Shall Find: More of the Best (1963-1981)”.
Released album “Distant Lover”.
Released album “Motown Legends”.
Released album “Best of 2 Super Acts on 1 Great Compact Disc”.
Released album “Great Songs and Performances”.
Released album “Motown’s Greatest Hits”.
Released album “Every Great Motown Hit of Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “The Marvin Gaye Collection”.
Released album “Soul Collection”.
Gaye received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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Released album “Collection Gold”.
Released album “Missing You: The Best Of”.
Released album “Mr. Hitch Hike”.
Released album “Love Songs”.
A year after his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Gaye was inducted posthumously to the NAACP Hall of Fame
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Released album “18 Greatest Hits”.
Released album “A Musical Testament 1964–1984”.
Awarded Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987).
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Released album “Moods of Marvin Gaye/That’s the Way Love Is”.
Declaring that Gaye "made a huge contribution to soul music in general and the Motown Sound in particular"
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Released album “Smokey Robinson’s Greatest Hits / The Best of Marvin Gaye”.
The song was covered by Buddy Miles as part of a California Raisins ad campaign
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Released album “Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye”.
Released album “Compact Command Performances: 20 Greatest Hits”.
Released album “Trouble Man / M. P. G.”.
Released album “I Heard It Through the Grapevine / I Want You”.
Released album “What’s Going On / Let’s Get It On”.
Released album “United / You’re All I Need”.
Gaye's mother founded the Marvin P
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Gaye's 1983 rendition of the national anthem was the first video they aired, immediately followed by Diana Ross' tribute song to Gaye, "Missing You"
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Released album “Romantically Yours”.
Released album “Dream of a Lifetime”.
Released album “Marvin Gaye & His Women: 21 Classic Duets”.
More than 10,000 mourners lined up to pay respects to the singer at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, which was then followed by a private funeral that was attended by over 500, including former Motown colleagues such
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Gaye was shot and killed by his father, Marvin Gay Sr
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Died 1984-04-01.
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A verbal fight occurred between Gaye's parents at the property, leading Gaye to intervene and defend his mother
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Released album “The History of Rock, Volume Twenty Four”.
At the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California
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Where, after playing the piano and delivering a speech on the history of black music, including Motown itself, he performed "What's Going On"
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Gaye sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the NBA All-Star Game at The Forum in Inglewood, California — accompanied by Gordon Banks, who played the studio tape from the stands
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Released album “Compact Command Performances: 15 Greatest Hits”.
Gaye rented a mansion in Sherman Oaks, but due to his increasing debt and drug issues, he soon returned to his parents' property in West Adams, Los Angeles
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Released album “Greatest Hits”.
Motown and CBS negotiated Gaye's release from Motown
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Released album “Midnight Love”.
Gaye re-emerged that year with "Sexual Healing" and its album, Midnight Love, which became his most successful single and album respectively to date and performed a memorable rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at th
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Released album “Night Life”.
Gaye was using the TR-808, a drum machine that became prominent in the early '80s
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Under the advice of music promoter Freddy Cousaert, Gaye relocated to Cousaert's apartment in Ostend, Belgium
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Released album “In Our Lifetime”.
Released album “Motown Superstar Series, Volume 15”.
Released album “Here, My Dear”.
Released album “I Want You”.
Released album “Marvin Gaye’s Greatest Hits”.
Released album “Anthology”.
Released album “Diana & Marvin”.
Released album “Let’s Get It On”.
Released album “What’s Going On”.
Gaye became one of the first Motown artists to break away from the reins of a production company, later producing the albums, Let's Get It On, I Want You and Here, My Dear
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Gaye signed a new deal with Motown worth $1 million (US$7,949,877 in 2025), making it the most lucrative deal by a black recording artist at the time
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Released album “Marvin Gaye Super Hits”.
Gaye returned to Hitsville U
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Released album “That’s the Way Love Is”.
Released album “Easy”.
Released album “M.P.G.”.
Released album “Marvin Gaye and His Girls”.
Released album “In the Groove”.
Released album “You’re All I Need”.
Terrell collapsed in Gaye's arms during a performance at Hampden–Sydney College in Farmville, Virginia
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Released album “United”.
Gaye began collaborating with Tammi Terrell on a series of hit singles such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Your Precious Love", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By", the latter thre
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Released album “Greatest Hits, Vol. 2”.
Released album “Take Two”.
Released album “Moods of Marvin Gaye”.
During a chart lull where he failed to score a follow-up solo top ten single, Gaye returned to duet work with Kim Weston, scoring a top 20 hit with "It Takes Two"
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Released album “A Tribute to the Great Nat King Cole”.
Released album “How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You”.
Released album “Hello Broadway”.
Released album “Together”.
Released album “When I’m Alone I Cry”.
Released album “That Stubborn Kinda’ Fellow”.
Gaye found success as co-songwriter of the Marvelettes track "Beechwood 4-5789", on which he also played drums
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Released album “The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye”.
Gaye joined them on the road as their drummer
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Including the song "Mama Loocie", which was Gaye's first lead vocal recording
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17-year-old Gaye dropped out of high school and enlisted in the United States Air Force
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Or 1954, the Gays moved into the East Capitol Dwellings public housing project in D
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Born 1939-04-02.
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