Marvin Gaye biography

Around this time Gaye added the 'e' to the end of his name - partly to distance himself from the sexual connotations of the word 'gay', and partly to emulate his hero, Sam Cooke, who had also added the vowel to the end of his moniker. Gordy was at first reluctant to allow Gaye to realise his ambition of recording his own material, but what would have greased the wheels ever so slightly was Gaye's relationship with the boss's sister, Anna Gordy.

An undisputed talent - Gaye was a multi-instrumentalist, gifted song-writer and just happened to be blest with that silky soulful voice - he actually posed something of a quandary to Gordy, as Motown had thus-far thrived on a strictly demarcated division of labour: there were singers on one hand, and there were song-writers on the other, and the success of the label was built upon keeping the to camps separate. Gaye and his boss were to regularly argue over the direction the young performer's career should take, but after a couple of unsuccessful single releases, Gaye scored a success with 'Stubborn Kind of Fellow' in 1962.

Over the course of the next years, Gaye was to go on to achieve stellar fame, notching up chart hits such as 'Hitch Hike', 'I'll be Doggone' and 'How Sweet It Is (To be Loved By You)'. He rapidly became something of a pin-up, and made regular TV appearances to further bolster his renown. And much as he was lauded as a solo artist, Gaye performed a number of duets - with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and in particular, Tammi Terrell. The 1967 album 'United', a collaborative effort between Gaye and Terrell, spawned huge hits such as 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' and 'Your Precious Love', and although the two denied the rumours that they were lovers, the intimacy they achieved on record, their voices so well-matched, meant that they sang as if they were.

Whether or not they were lovers, Gaye admitted he adored Terrell, and was shocked when she collapsed into his arms during a 1967 concert. This was actually the first sign of the brain tumour that was eventually to kill Terrell in 1970. Utterly devastated at the loss of his friend and collaborator, Gaye was thrown into deep depression, such that he refused to celebrate the number one success of 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' in 1968 - his first number one, and arguably the record that best epitomises what Motown does best. Despite having threatened to quit music all together, Gaye did eventually return to the studio, and ended up making one of the most groundbreaking and important records in the history of music, 1971's 'What's Going On'.

It could all have been so different - Berry Gordy did not see what was effectively a political protest song as a commercially viable proposition, and was reluctant to release the track as a single at all. Gaye's persistence, and his refusal to record any more until Gordy relented, led to the record being released, becoming a number two hit in the pop charts, and prompting the label boss to ask for an album's worth of more of the same. The album was a major departure from Gaye's earlier work - stepping away from the candy-cane sentimentality and sugar-sweet lyrical content, Gaye seized far more creative control of his work, deployed funkier elements in his arrangements, and did not shy away from thorny issues with tracks such as 'Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)' and 'Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)' - both of which were also top ten hits. If nothing else, what Gaye achieved with this record was to prove that soul music was not necessarily restricted to love songs - and that the music industry could not, and should not, ignore the political and social climate in which it existed.

Having worn his heart on his sleeve with 'What's Going On', covering the Vietnam war, the environment, political change, and urban despair, Gaye renegotiated his contract with Motown, giving himself far more creative control over his work - and thereby paving the way for other artists on Motown's books to do the same. That Stevie Wonder, for example, likewise gained more creative freedom was undoubtedly another of the important legacies of 'What's Going On', as Wonder was to go on to record equally memorable and important records such as 'Talking Book' and 'Innervisions'.

Gaye recorded the mostly-instrumental soundtrack for the blaxploitation flick 'Trouble Man', a suitably moody and atmospheric piece of work that highlighted the performer's appetite (and talent) for jazz. This was followed by the pinnacle of sexual soul music, the 1973 album 'Let's Get It On' - probably responsible for a large number of the babies conceived that year! This was another highly personal album, although more in a sense of intimacy and passion than political awareness - and it even managed to outsell 'What's Going On', reaching number two in the charts.

After 'Marvin and Diana', a 1973 album of duets with Diana Ross, Gaye released his next solo album, 'I Want You' in 1976, which yielded another number one single, the title track. However, his personal life was not nearly as smooth as his professional life - his marriage to Anna Gordy was in tatters, and their divorce was to be the very definition of an unpleasant break-up. Spending much of the mid-70s in the divorce courts, Gaye was haemorrhaging money, and not recording any new work. Motown plugged the gap by releasing 'Live at the London Palladium' in 1977, and despite the album's success, and the number one spot for single 'Got to Give It Up', Gaye was in crisis.

As he had filed for bankruptcy, the divorce settlement decreed that Gaye must give all the royalties from his subsequent album to his ex-wife. The album in question, 1978's 'Here, My Dear' was another starkly personal piece of work, two discs' worth of songs picking over the carcass of his recently ended relationship with Anna, intimate and bitter and about as un-commercial as it was possible to be. Although the album flopped at the time of its release, it came to be more fondly viewed with the passage of time, such that it has even been re-released in February 2008 - on Valentine's Day, no less (someone at the label clearly had a sense of humour!). Anna felt violated enough by the album's content to seriously consider taking Gaye to court again, for invasion of privacy, although this eventually petered out.

Gaye had remarried, to Janis Hunter, in 1977, but this was more short-lived than his first marriage - shortly after the wedding they were separated, and their divorce was eventually finalised in 1981. He moved to Hawaii, in the hope of turning his disastrous personal affairs around, but he was crippled by the twin problems of tax troubles and a major drug habit. Next album release, 'In Our Lifetime' (1981), did not give Gaye the fillip he so needed, and in fact led to a major falling out with Motown - he maintained that his work had been remixed without his approval, and was angry that a question mark had been removed from the album's name, thus losing the intended irony of the title. This was his final album on the Motown label, with whom his relationship had been severed irrevocably.

Gaye relocated once again, to Ostend on the Belgian coast, with the intention of getting off the drugs and back to the music. Going to Belgium wasn't quite as random as it may seem - Gaye had been invited there by Freddy Cousaert, a promoter who became his manager and mentor, with the aim of going on a small European tour. Gaye set about getting well again, jogging on the beach and working out in the gym, and above all getting himself off the marijuana and cocaine.

Over the summer of 1982, Gaye wrote, recorded and mixed his next album, 'Midnight Love', with his usual meticulous approach, and adopting a more accessible, marketable sound than he had on 'In Our Lifetime', the sales of which had been disappointing. It was a strong, funk-tinged comeback, and with single 'Sexual Healing' Gaye was back in the top ten. A star again, Gaye buried the hatchet with Gordy (appearing on a televised Motown anniversary special), and was then invited to sing the American national anthem at 1983's NBA All-Star Game. It was a memorable performance, however, it was to be his last public appearance.

The turn-around in Gaye's career had unfortunately brought with it a return to his excessive cocaine use, and the tour to support 'Midnight Love' was fraught with difficulties - Gaye was wrestling with his major personal crises, depression and paranoia, as well as his addiction problems. He moved back into his parents' home, but things came to a tragic end: after a family row had escalated, Gaye's father grabbed a gun and shot him dead.

As well as the various posthumous album releases from Motown and Columbia (to whom he had signed after parting ways with Gordy), there are now plans afoot for a movie of the last year of Gaye's life, with Jesse L. Martin to play the singer and James Gandolfini (a.k.a. Tony Soprano) to play his manager, Freddy Cousaert. Despite Gaye's tragic end, and the various personal problems that plagued him throughout his life, the importance and popularity of his musical output remained utterly undimmed after his passing, as shown by his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

• Marvin Gaye Discography