Song · Marvin Gaye
“Got to Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye
Released 1984
“Got to Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye appears on 11 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 2005 and 2026. It was first released in 1984. Its best result is #71 on the WFPK Top 100 Party Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #879 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Motown wanted Marvin Gaye to make a disco record, and in March 1977 he answered with "Got to Give It Up", written by Gaye himself and produced by Art Stewart. It's disco on his own terms, loose and sly, a label assignment turned into something that sounds like pure pleasure.
It arrived at the end of a rough stretch. Through 1976 he was tangled up in lawsuits from former bandmates and divorce proceedings with Anna Gordy, and money trouble bad enough that his European promoter, Jeffrey Kruger, booked him a long tour of Europe to help clear the debts. The single topped three Billboard charts, the Hot 100 among them, went over big around the world, and Gaye sometimes used it to open his concerts.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 71 | WFPK | WFPK Top 100 Party Songs | 100 |
| 2009 | 875 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2014 | 402 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2018 | 705 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2019 | 620 | KEXP | KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time | 627 |
| 2020 | 643 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 880 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 192 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 177 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of All Time | 909 |
| 2025 | 405 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
| 2026 | 797 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: Got To Give It Up.
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