What’s Going On

What’s Going On was a critical and commercial sensation in spite of the fact that Gordy, fearing its political content (and its stand against the Vietnam War), had argued against its release. It included the chart-topping singles “What’s Going On,” “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),”…

…influential soul record ever, Gaye’s What’s Going On. In the late 1960s Detroit was wracked with violent race riots, and in the early ’70s the company relocated to Los Angeles, where its move into filmmaking was generally fruitful. Motown’s most famous film, Lady Sings the Blues (1972), starred Ross and…

influenced by Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, the album in which his Motown stablemate moved away from the label’s “hit factory” approach to confront the divisive social issues of the day. Any anxieties Gordy may have felt about his protégé’s declaration of independence were amply calmed by the run…