“What's Going On” by Marvin Gaye

"What's Going On" came out on Motown's Tamla imprint in January 1971 and opens Marvin Gaye's album of the same name. It began with Renaldo "Obie" Benson, who had seen an act of police brutality, and he wrote the song with Al Cleveland and Gaye, who produced it himself. It marked Gaye's break from the Motown Sound toward something far more personal.

And it sounds like nothing Motown had done: the Funk Brothers laying down a loose, rolling groove, strings from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Gaye's own piano and percussion, and Gaye singing lead and harmonizing with himself, pleading rather than preaching. It topped the Hot Soul Singles chart for five weeks, reached number two on the Hot 100 and sold over two million copies. Rolling Stone put it at number 4 among its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004 and 2010.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.