On this day in 1971: Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ is the nation’s top R&B song

On March 28, 1971, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” the legendary recorded track, was the nation’s top Rhythm and Blues chart song. 

At the time, Gaye, a Washington, D.C., native and Motown Records legend, lived on Detroit’s Northwest side. It was recorded at the Hitsville USA record studio in Detroit. 

The venerable track addresses issues that gripped America at the time, such as concerns about white police harassment and brutality in urban communities like Detroit, Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles and helped to power the American Civil Rights movement. Civil unrest occurred in the Harlem section of New York City in 1964; the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965; and in Detroit and Newark, N.J., in 1967. 

The song also lifted up a growing anti-Vietnam War movement in the United States. Massive rallies centered on the public demand to end U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia were carried out in several cities including Detroit, Ann Arbor and in Washington, D.C., during the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Then-U.S. Sen. Phil Hart (D-Birmingham) was a leading speaker during a large anti-Vietnam War rally held at the University of Michigan in 1969.

Gaye was inspired, in part, by his brother, Frankie, who had served in Vietnam, to pen “What’s Going On.” In “Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye” the noted recording artist wrote with biographer David Ritz.

“The death and destruction I saw in Vietnam sickened me,” Frankie told me. “The war seemed useless, wrong and unjust.” 

“What’s Going On” was nominated for two Grammy awards in 1972, including “Best Male R&B Vocal Performance” and “Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).” However, the song did not win in those categories. 

Gaye died in April 1984, one day before his 45th birthday. He was fatally shot during a domestic dispute by his father, Marvin Sr., at their home in the Western Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. 

In 2021, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer named Jan. 20 “What’s Going On” Day in the state, marking the 50th anniversary of the recording. That year, a portion of West Outer Drive Street in Detroit also was renamed Marvin Gaye Drive.