What's Going On (album)

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What's Going On (Marvin Gaye album)
)
For other albums, see What's Going On (disambiguation) § Albums.

What's Going On
A photo of Gaye looking away from the camera
Studio album by
Marvin Gaye
ReleasedMay 21, 1971 (1971-05-21)
RecordedJune–September 1970; March–May 1971
Studio
GenreSoul
Length35:32
LabelTamla
ProducerMarvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye chronology
Super Hits
(1970) 		What's Going On
(1971) 		Trouble Man
(1972)
Singles from What's Going On
  1. "
    What's Going On
    "
    Released: January 20, 1971
  2. "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
    Released: June 10, 1971
  3. "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
    Released: September 16, 1971
  4. "Save the Children"
    Released: November 11, 1971

What's Going On is the eleventh

Golden World, United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California, it was Gaye's first album to credit him as producer and to credit Motown's in-house session musicians, known as the Funk Brothers
.

What's Going On is a

Mercy Mercy Me
").

What's Going On stayed on the

Soul Singles chart five weeks running. The follow-up singles "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
" also reached the top 10 of the Hot 100, making Gaye the first male solo artist to place three top ten singles on the Hot 100 from one album.

The album was an immediate commercial and critical success, and came to be viewed by music historians as a classic of 1970s soul. Multiple critics, musicians, and many in the general public consider What's Going On to be one of the greatest albums of all time and a landmark recording in popular music. In 1985, writers on British music weekly the NME voted it the best album of all time. In 2020, it was ranked number one on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Background

Max M. Fisher Music Center
.

By the end of the 1960s, Marvin Gaye had fallen into a deep depression following the brain tumor diagnosis of his Motown singing partner Tammi Terrell, the failure of his marriage to Anna Gordy, a growing dependency on cocaine, troubles with the IRS, and struggles with Motown Records, the label he had signed with in 1961. One night, while holed up at a Detroit apartment, Gaye attempted suicide with a handgun, only to be stopped by Berry Gordy's father.[1]

Gaye started to experience more international success around this time as both a solo artist with hits such as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" and as a dual artist with Tammi Terrell, but Gaye said during this time that he felt he "didn't deserve" his success and he felt like "a puppet - Berry's puppet, Anna's puppet. I had a mind of my own and I wasn't using it."[2][3][1] In March 1970, Gaye's singing partner Terrell died of a brain tumor. The singer responded to Terrell's death by refusing to perform onstage for several years. In January 1970, Motown released Gaye's next studio album, That's the Way Love Is, but Gaye refused to promote the recording, choosing to stay at home. During this secluded period, Gaye ditched his previous clean-cut image to grow a beard, and preferred to wear sweatsuits instead of dress suits and sweaters.[4]

The singer also got back in touch with his

professional football team the Detroit Lions of the NFL, even working out with the Eastern Michigan Eagles football team.[4] However, his pursuit of a tryout was stopped after the owner of the team advised him that any future injury would derail his career.[4][5][6] Gaye befriended three of the Lions teammates, Mel Farr, Charlie Sanders and Lem Barney, as well as then-Detroit Pistons star Dave Bing
.

Conception

Benson in a suit looking sideways
Fellow soul singer Renaldo Benson inspired Gaye to write about political themes and social change in his music.

While traveling on his tour bus with the

anti-war protesters who had been protesting at Berkeley's People's Park in what was later termed as "Bloody Thursday".[7] Benson later told author Ben Edmonds, "I saw this and started wondering 'what was going on, what is happening here?' One question led to another. Why are they sending kids far away from their families overseas? Why are they attacking their own kids in the street?"[7][8] Returning to Detroit, Motown songwriter Al Cleveland wrote and composed a song based on his conversations with Benson of what he had seen in Berkeley. Benson sent the song to the Four Tops but his bandmates turned the song down.[7] Benson said, "My partners told me it was a protest song. I said 'no man, it's a love song, about love and understanding. I'm not protesting. I want to know what's going on.'"[7][8]

Benson offered the song to Marvin Gaye when he participated in a golf game with the singer. Returning to Gaye's home outside

The Originals. Benson eventually convinced Gaye that it was his song. The singer responded by asking for partial writing credit, which Benson allowed. Gaye added new musical composition, a new melody and lyrics that reflected Gaye's own disgust. Benson said later that Gaye tweaked and enriched the song, "added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem like a story and not a song ... we measured him for the suit and he tailored the hell out of it."[9][8] During this time, Gaye had been deeply affected by letters shared between him and his brother after he had returned from service in the Vietnam War over the treatment of Vietnam veterans.[10]

Gaye had also been deeply affected by the social ills plaguing the United States at the time, and

1965 Watts riots as a pivotal moment in his life in which he asked himself, "with the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?"[10] One night, he called Berry Gordy about doing a protest record, to which Gordy chastised him, "Marvin, don't be ridiculous. That's taking things too far."[9] The singer's brother Frankie wrote in his 2003 autobiography, My Brother Marvin, that while reuniting at their former childhood home in Washington, D.C., Frankie's recalling of his tenure at the war made both brothers cry.[11] At one point, Marvin sat propped up in a bed with his hands in his face.[12] Afterwards, Gaye told his brother: "I didn't know how to fight before, but now I think I do. I just have to do it my way. I'm not a painter. I'm not a poet. But I can do it with music."[12]

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Marvin Gaye discussed what had shaped his view on more socially conscious themes in music and the conception of his eleventh studio album:

In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say ... I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world.[13]

Recording

Two two-storey houses with signs marking one as Hitsville U.S.A.
Gaye recorded the album at Motown's in-house studio Hitsville U.S.A. (since converted into a museum)

On June 1, 1970, Gaye entered Motown's

saxophonist behind "Baby, I'm For Real", also participated in the recording. Jamerson, who could not sit properly on his seat after arriving to the session drunk, performed his bass riffs, written for him by the album's arranger David Van De Pitte, on the floor.[14] Fontaine's alto saxophone riff to open the song was not originally intended. When Gaye heard the playback of what Fontaine thought was simply a demo, Gaye instantly decided that the riff was the ideal way to start the song. When Fontaine said he was "just goofing around", Gaye being pleased with the results replied, "Well, you goof off exquisitely. Thank you."[9]

The laid-back sessions of the single were credited to lots of "

marijuana smoke and rounds of Scotch".[9] Gaye's trademark multi-layering vocal approach came off initially as an accident by engineers Steve Smith and Kenneth Sands.[14] Sands later explained that Gaye had wanted him to bring him the two lead vocal takes for "What's Going On" for advice on which one he should use for the final song. Smith and Sands accidentally mixed the two lead vocal takes together.[14]
Gaye loved the sound and decided to keep it and use it for the duration of the album.

That September, Gaye approached Gordy with the "What's Going On" song while in California where Gordy had relocated. According to one account, Gordy disliked the song, allegedly calling it "the worst thing I ever heard in my life".[9] As a result, Gaye angrily responded to Gordy's alleged putdown by going on strike until Gordy changed his mind.[15][9] Gordy himself denied this claim, stating he loved the song's jazzy feel but cautioned Gaye that the sound was out of date of the sound of the times and also feared the loss of Gaye's crossover audience by releasing the political song.[16] Gaye continued to record his own compositions during this time, some of which later made his 1973 album, Let's Get It On. Motown executive Harry Balk recalled trying to get Gordy to release the song at the end of the year, to which Gordy replied to him, "that Dizzy Gillespie stuff in the middle, that scatting, it's old."[17] Gordy mentioned later that he feared no one would buy songs with a jazz influence after his attempt to be a record store owner of a jazz shop folded after a year, years prior to starting Motown. Most of Motown's Quality Control Department team also turned the song down, with Balk later stating that "they were used to the 'baby baby' stuff, and this was a little hard for them to grasp."[18]

With the help of Motown sales executive

Golden World, or Studio B.[14]

The album's original mix, recorded in Detroit at both Hitsville and Golden World as well as United Sound Studios, was finalized on April 5, 1971. When Gordy listened to the mix, he worried that no other hit single would emerge from it.[15] To ease Gordy's worries, Gaye and the album's engineers entered The Sound Factory in West Hollywood in early May, integrating the orchestra somewhat closer with the rhythm tracks, while Gaye used different vocal tracks and added extra instrumentation. Presented to Motown's Quality Control department team, they were worried about future hit singles due to its concurrent style with each song leading to the next. Gordy however vetoed their decision, agreeing to put this mix of the album out that month.[16]

Music and lyrics

"What's Going On"
The opening 30 seconds of the album's first track, which feature layered vocals, horns, and polyrhythm.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

"What's Going On", the title track, features soulful, passionate vocals and

classical music orchestration, and arrangements. Reviewer Eric Henderson of Slant stated the song had an "understandably mournful tone" in response to the fallout of the late 1960s counterculture movements.[16] Henderson also wrote that "Gaye's choice to emphasize humanity at its most charitable rather than paint bleak pictures of destruction and disillusionment is characteristic of the album that follows."[16]

This is immediately followed in segue flow by the second track, "What's Happening Brother", a song Gaye dedicated to his brother Frankie, in which Gaye wrote to explain the disillusionment of war veterans who returned to civilian life and their disconnect from pop culture.

dependence on heroin. The lyric, "I know, I'm hooked my friend, to the boy, who makes slaves out of men", references heroin as "boy", which was slang for the drug. "Save the Children" was an emotional plea to help disadvantaged children, warning, "who really cares/who's willing to try/to save a world/that is destined to die?", later crying out, "save the babies". A truncated version of "God Is Love" follows "Save the Children" and makes references to God
.

"

blues-oriented funk vibe, with its bass riffs composed and performed by Bob Babbitt, who also performed on "Mercy Mercy Me". The entire album's stylistic use of a song cycle[19] gave it a cohesive feel and was one of R&B's first concept albums, described as "a groundbreaking experiment in collating a pseudo-classical suite of free-flowing songs."[16]

David Hepworth described the album as "like a jazz record not merely because it had jazz manners and was slathered in strings and employed congas and triangle as its most prominent form of percussion...But it's also jazz in the sense that...[i]t plays like one long single."[20]

The Absolute Sound described the album as "a brilliant psychedelic soul song-cycle".[21]

Release and promotion

Released on May 21, 1971, What's Going On became Gaye's Top 10 entry on the

Cash Box Top 100, and held the pole position on Billboard
's Soul Singles chart five weeks running.

The follow-up single, "

Nielsen SoundScan, it has vended over 1.6 million copies since sales tracking began (in 1991). It was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry
for shipments of 300,000 albums.

Six months after the release of What's Going On, Sly and the Family Stone released There's a Riot Goin' On (1971), titled in response to Gaye's album.[22]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[23]
Chicago Tribune[24]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[25]
MusicHound R&B5/5[26]
The Observer[27]
Rolling Stone[28]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[29]
Slant Magazine[30]
Sputnikmusic5/5[31]
The Village VoiceB[32]

What's Going On was generally well received by contemporary critics. Writing for Rolling Stone in 1971, Vince Aletti praised Gaye's thematic approach towards social and political concerns, while discussing the surprise of Motown releasing such an album. In a joint review of What's Going On and Stevie Wonder's Where I'm Coming From, Aletti wrote, "Ambitious, personal albums may be a glut on the market elsewhere, but at Motown they're something new ... the album as a whole takes precedence, absorbing its own flaws. There are very few performers who could carry a project like this off. I've always admired Marvin Gaye, but I didn't expect that he would be one of them. Guess I seriously underestimated him. It won't happen again."[33] Billboard described the record as "a cross between Curtis Mayfield and that old Motown spell and outdoes anything Gaye's ever done".[34] Time magazine hailed it as a "vast, melodically deft symphonic pop suite".[35] The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was less impressed. Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), he deemed it both a "groundbreaking personal statement" and a Berry Gordy product, baited by three highly original singles but marred elsewhere by indistinct music and indulgent use of David Van De Pitte's strings, which Christgau called "the lowest kind of movie-background dreck".[25]

According to Paul Gambaccini, Gaye's death in 1984 prompted a critical re-evaluation of the album, and most reviewers have since regarded it as an important masterpiece of popular music.[34] In MusicHound R&B (1998), Gary Graff said What's Going On was "not just a great Gaye album but is one of the great pop albums of all time",[26] and Rolling Stone later credited the album for having "revolutionized black music".[13] The Washington Post critic Geoffrey Himes names it an exemplary release of the progressive soul development from 1968 to 1973,[36] and Pitchfork's Tom Breihan calls it a prog-soul masterpiece.[37] BBC Music's David Katz described the album as "one of the greatest albums of all time, and nothing short of a masterpiece" and compared it to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue by saying "its non-standard musical arrangements, which heralded a new sound at the time, gives it a chilling edge that ultimately underscores its gravity, with subtle orchestral enhancements offset by percolating congas, expertly layered above James Jamerson's bubbling bass".[38] In his 1994 review of Gaye's re-issues, Chicago Tribune reviewer Greg Kot described the album as "soul music's first 'art' album, an inner-city response to the Celtic mysticism of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, the psychedelic pop of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [and] the rewired blues of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited."[24] Richie Unterberger found the album somewhat overrated, writing in The Rough Guide to Rock (2003) that much of its "meandering introspection" paled in comparison to its three singles.[39]

A remastered deluxe edition with 28 additional tracks was released on May 31, 2011, to similar acclaim. At

average score of 100, based on ten reviews.[40]

Accolades

In 1985, writers on British music weekly the

TV network VH1 placed it at number 4. In 2003, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. What's Going On was ranked number 6 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, one of three Gaye albums to be included, succeeded by 1973's Let's Get It On (number 165) and 1978's Here, My Dear (number 462).[45] The album is Gaye's highest-ranking entry on the list, as well as several other publications' lists. In a revised 2020 list, this time voted on by musicians instead of music critics, the album moved up to the top spot, replacing The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[46]

Accolades for What's Going On
Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Bill Shapiro United States The Top 100 Rock Compact Discs[47] 1991 *
Jimmy Guteman The Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time[48] 1992 *
Chris Smith 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music[49] 2009 *
Elvis Costello (Vanity Fair, Issue No. 483) Costello's 500[50] 2000 *
Chuck Eddy The Accidental Evolution of Rock'n'Roll[51] 1997 *
Consequence of Sound Top 100 Albums Ever[52] 2010 19
Consequence 100 Greatest Albums of All Time[53] 2022 9
Dave Marsh & Kevin Stein The 40 Best of Album Chartmakers by Year[54] 1981 7
Pitchfork
 		Top 100 Albums of the 1970s[55] 2004 49
Rolling Stone The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[42] 2003 6
Rolling Stone The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[46] 2020 1
Spin 15 Most Influential Albums Not By Beatles, Stones, Dylan or Elvis[56] 2003 *
Time Top 100 Albums of All Time[57] 2006
NME
 		United Kingdom All Times Top 100 Albums[41] 1985 1
NME 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[58] 2013 25
Waxx Lyrical Australia Record Of The Month[59] 2023
(*) designates lists that are unordered.

Track listing

Original release

All songs produced by Marvin Gaye. Songwriters as shown in the 1971 original album liner notes release:[60]

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."
What's Going On
"
3:51
2."What's Happening Brother"
2:57
3."Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)"Gaye3:40
4."Save the Children"
  • Gaye
  • Cleveland
  • Benson
3:04
5."God Is Love"
2:31
6."Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"Gaye3:05
Total length:19:08
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Right On"
  • Gaye
  • Earl DeRouen
7:20
2."Wholy Holy"
  • Gaye
  • Benson
  • Cleveland
3:20
3."Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
  • Gaye
  • Nyx
5:16
Total length:15:56
2002 CD bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
10."God Is Love"
  • Gaye
  • A. Gaye
  • Stover
  • Nyx
2:48
11."Sad Tomorrows"
2:22

2001 Deluxe Edition

In 2001, a "Deluxe Edition" 2-CD version of the album was released by Motown, which included the original LP as released, the discarded "Detroit

mixes of the singles. Also included was a recording of Gaye's first live concert performance after two years away from the stage following Tammi Terrell's illness and death, performed at The Kennedy Center Concert Hall in his native Washington, D.C.
, on May 1, 1972.

Disc one (original album and bonus tracks)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."
Renaldo "Obie" Benson
3:53
2."What's Happening Brother"Gaye, James Nyx Jr.2:43
3."Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)"Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Elgie Stover3:49
4."Save the Children"Cleveland, Benson, Gaye4:03
5."God Is Love"Gaye, A. Gaye, Stover, Nyx1:41
6."Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"Gaye3:16
7."Right On"Earl DeRouen, Gaye7:31
8."Wholy Holy"Benson, Cleveland, Gaye3:08
9."Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"Gaye, Nyx5:26
10."What's Going On" (Detroit mix) 4:08
11."What's Happening Brother" (Detroit Mix) 2:43
12."Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)" (Detroit Mix) 3:49
13."Save the Children" (Detroit Mix) 4:02
14."God Is Love" (Detroit Mix) 1:47
15."Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" (Detroit Mix) 3:08
16."Right On" (Detroit Mix) 7:32
17."Wholy Holy" (Detroit Mix) 3:08
18."Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" (Detroit Mix) 5:46
19."What's Going On" (Rhythm & Strings mix) 3:50
Disc two
No.TitleRecordedLength
1."Sixties Medley" ("
That's the Way Love Is"/"You"/"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"/"Little Darling (I Need You)"/"You're All I Need to Get By"/"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"/"Your Precious Love"/"Pride and Joy"/"Stubborn Kind of Fellow")
Live at the Kennedy Center13:23
2."Right On"Live at the Kennedy Center7:33
3."Wholy Holy"Live at the Kennedy Center3:32
4."Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"Live at the Kennedy Center9:06
5."What's Going On"Live at the Kennedy Center5:42
6."What's Happening Brother"Live at the Kennedy Center2:54
7."Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)"Live at the Kennedy Center3:51
8."Save the Children"Live at the Kennedy Center4:22
9."God Is Love"Live at the Kennedy Center1:43
10."Stage Dialogue"Live at the Kennedy Center2:34
11."Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (Reprise)"Live at the Kennedy Center5:12
12."What's Going On (Reprise)"Live at the Kennedy Center4:07
13."What's Going On" (Single version) 3:56
14."God Is Love" (Single version) 2:56
15."Sad Tomorrows" 2:27
16."Head Title" (also known as "Distant Lover") 4:07

2011 Super Deluxe Edition

Disc 1 (original album & bonus tracks)

  2. "What's Going On" (Original Rejected Single Mix)
  3. "Head Title (Distant Lover)" (Demo)
  4. "Symphony" (Demo)
  5. "I Love the Ground You Walk On" (Instrumental)
  6. "What's Going On" (Mono Single Version)
  7. "God is Love" (Mono Single Version)
  8. "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" (Mono Single Version)
  9. "Sad Tomorrows" (Mono Single Version)
  10. "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" (Mono Single Version)
  11. "Wholy Holy" (Mono Single Version)

Disc 2 ("The Detroit Instrumental Sessions and More")

  1. "Checking Out (Double Clutch)"
  2. "Chained"
  3. "Country Stud"
  4. "Help the People"
  5. "Running from Love" (Version 1)
  6. "Daybreak"
  7. "Doing My Thing"
  8. "T Stands for Time"
  9. "Jesus is Our Love Song"
  10. "Funky Nation"
  11. "Infinity"
  12. "Mandota" (Instrumental)
  13. "Struttin' the Blues"
  14. "Running from Love" (Version 2 with Strings)
  15. "I'm Going Home (Move)"
  16. "You're the Man" (Parts I & II)
  17. "You're the Man" (Alternate Version 1)
  18. "You're the Man" (Alternate Version 2)

LP (Original Detroit Mix – April 5, 1971)

  1. "What's Going On" (Detroit Mix) – 4:08
  2. "What's Happening Brother" (Detroit Mix) – 2:43
  3. "Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)" (Detroit Mix) – 3:49
  4. "Save the Children" (Detroit Mix) – 4:02
  5. "God Is Love" (Detroit Mix) – 1:47
  6. "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" (Detroit Mix) – 3:08
  7. "Right On" (Detroit Mix) – 7:32
  8. "Wholy Holy" (Detroit Mix) – 3:08
  9. "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" (Detroit Mix) – 5:46

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

Certifications for What's Going On
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[71] Platinum 300,000*
United States (RIAA)[72] Gold 500,000^

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Gulla 2008, pp. 344.
  2. ^ Ritz 1991, pp. 126.
  3. ^ Posner 2002, p. 225.
  4. ^ a b c d Gulla 2008, pp. 345.
  5. ^ Music Urban Legends Revealed #16 Archived July 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Legendsrevealed.com (July 29, 2009). Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  6. ^ Gates 2004, pp. 332.
  7. ^ a b c d Lynskey 2011, pp. 155.
  8. ^ a b c Edmonds 2003, p. 75–78.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lynskey 2011, pp. 157.
  10. ^ a b Lynskey 2011, pp. 156.
  11. ^ Gaye 2003, p. 72.
  12. ^ a b Gaye 2003, p. 75.
  13. ^ a b Rolling Stone 2012.
  14. ^ a b c d e f "Marvin Gaye 'What's Going On?'". July 11, 2011. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  15. ^ a b c d Bowman 2006, pp. 16.
  16. ^ a b c d e f "Slant Magazine Music Review: Marvin Gaye: What's Going On". SlantMagazine.com. November 10, 2003. Archived from the original on December 10, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  17. ^ Bowman 2006, pp. 15.
  18. ^ Bowman 2006, pp. 15–16.
  19. ^ O’Dell, Cary (2003). ""What's Going On"—Marvin Gaye (1971)" (PDF). Library of Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  20. ISBN 9781627793995. Archived
    from the original on September 16, 2023. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  21. ^ "Marvin Gaye: What's Going On". The Absolute Sound. Archived from the original on December 28, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  22. ISBN 0-8264-1744-2
    .
  23. ^ Bush, John. Review: What's Going On. AllMusic. Retrieved on 2010-01-17.
  24. ^ a b Kot, Greg. "Review: What's Going On[permanent dead link]". Chicago Tribune: 4. July 22, 1994. (Transcription of original review at talk page)
  25. ^
    ISBN 0-89919-025-1
    . Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  26. ^
    ISBN 0-8256-7255-4
    .
  27. ^ Benson, George (February 22, 2004). "The Classic: Marvin Gaye: What's Going On". The Observer. Archived from the original on March 27, 2007. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  28. ^ "Review". Rolling Stone. January 23, 2003. p. 68.
  29. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8
    .
  30. ^ Henderson, Eric. Review: What's Going On Archived December 19, 2003, at the Wayback Machine. Slant Magazine. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  31. ^ Bowman, Kirk (May 21, 2021). "Marvin Gaye – What's Going On (album review)". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  32. ^ Christgau, Robert (December 12, 1971). "Consumer Guide (21)". The Village Voice. New York. Archived from the original on May 4, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
  33. ^ Aletti, Vince (August 5, 1971). "Marvin Gaye: What's Going On : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 25, 2007. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
  34. ^ a b "Marvin Gaye – What's Going On". SuperSeventies.com. Archived from the original on September 21, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  35. ^ McKeen 2000, pp. 532.
  36. ^ Himes, Geoffrey (May 16, 1990). "Records". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  37. ^ Breihan, Tom (May 19, 2011). "Marvin Gaye's What's Going On Gets Box Set". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  38. ^ "Review of Marvin Gaye – What's Going On – 40th Anniversary Edition Review". BBC – Music. June 27, 2011. Archived from the original on June 19, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  39. ISBN 1-85828-457-0
    .
  40. ^ "What's Going On [40th Anniversary Edition] Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 24, 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
  41. ^ a b "NME Writers Top 100 Albums Of All Time". NME. November 30, 1985. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2011.
  42. ^ a b "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. December 9, 2004. Archived from the original on August 15, 2006. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
  43. ^ "Music of the Millennium". BBC. Archived from the original on September 2, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
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Sources

External links

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