Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. was born on April 2, 1939
Written by adminChris on April 3, 2012
As one of the pioneers of Motown, singer-songwriter and producer Marvin Gaye helped shape the sound of R & B music and is considered one of the greatest artists of all time.
Find out more about these early years & groups (& hear some TUNES! of course) on the Rhythm & Blues Show at 12 on Tuesday. Together with information, community news, advice etc & more great tunes from those great years of Rhythm & Blues, ending as usual with a bit of jump blues/ R + R madness!!!
Early Background
The Marquees were a short-term Washington, D.C., group who evolved from the Rainbows. Chester Simmons, Reese Palmer, James Nolan, and Marvin Gaye sang with the Rainbows at various times; Simmons was a founding member and the latter three filled in for missing Rainbows when needed. The group was part of a group of district singers who congregated in Bo Diddley’s basement studio. Diddley’s place overran with talent, including Billy Stewart and the Four Jewels.
The Marquees loved the Moonglows, and Gaye went on a mission to get next to the Moonglows’ Harvey Fuqua when the group appeared at the Howard Theater. Gaye’s bugging coerced Fuqua into arranging an audition in an alley outside the Howard; the Marquees impressed Fuqua so much that he fired the Moonglows after the gig and hired the Marquees. He canceled a gig in Baltimore and took the Marquees to Chicago where he added Chuck Barksdale (who had recently quit the Dells) and recorded as the New Moonglows on "12 Months of the Year" in 1959; they also supplied backing vocals to Chuck Berry’s "Almost Grown" and "Back in the U.S.A."……………….
…………….Fuqua and Gaye ventured to Detroit, where Fuqua set up some record companies that he eventually sold to Berry Gordy. Both Fuqua and Gaye married sisters of Gordy; Fuqua headed Motown’s Artist Development Department along with producing and writing, while Marvin Gaye became a superstar…………
