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*<sup>[A]</sup> The Neptunes Mix
*<sup>[A]</sup> The Neptunes Mix
*<sup>[B]</sup> The Jermaine Dupri Mix
*<sup>[B]</sup> The Jermaine Dupri Mix

==Rock Aid Armenia cover==
The remake of "What's Going On" was the first of the [[Rock Aid Armenia]] releases in aid of earthquake victims in the [[1988 Spitak earthquake|1988 Armenian earthquake]]. The version featured [[Boy George]], [[Aswad (band)|Aswad]], [[Errol Brown]], [[Richard Derbyshire]] and various other British artists. The record was produced by [[Steve Levine]] and the executive producers were Fraser Kennedy and Jon Dee. This was released as a single on [[Island Records]].


==Other covers==
==Other covers==

Revision as of 00:48, 7 August 2012

Template:Other uses2

For the 4 Non Blondes song sometimes mistitled "What's Going On?", see What's Up? (song).
"What's Going On"
Song
B-side"God Is Love"

"What's Going On" is a song written by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, Al Cleveland, and Marvin Gaye. It was the title track of Gaye's groundbreaking 1971 Motown album of the same name, and it became a crossover hit single that reached #2 on the pop charts and #1 on the R&B charts.[2] A meditation on the troubles and problems of the world, the song proved a timely and relatable release, and it marked Gaye's departure from the pop stylings of 1960s-era Motown towards more personal material. The song topped a Metro Times list of the 100 Greatest Detroit Songs Of All Time,[3] and in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the fourth greatest song of all time.

The song has been covered by multiple artists, notably Cyndi Lauper, whose version reached #12 on the pop singles charts in 1987.

Background

Song concept

In 1970, Renaldo "Obie" Benson was a member of Motown's popular male vocal group The Four Tops. While on the road in San Francisco, Benson saw several young anti-war protesters being arrested and pushed over by police. Benson said he was deeply disturbed by the polices' actions and when he returned home, began writing a song initially about police brutality and "picket lines, picket signs". Benson presented the idea to his fellow Four Tops band mates though they each told him that they didn't want to record the song in fear of losing fans. At the time, records by The Temptations and Edwin Starr pointed to a rawer sound that discussed social affairs. Most of the Four Tops songs dealt with relationships. Earlier that year, the group had put out "Still Water", which was co-written by Smokey Robinson. Its parent album was a proto-concept album. After coming up with a few lyrics for the untitled song, Benson hired Al Cleveland to help him with more lyrics. The track, originally about civil rights and anti-war protests, was given Joan Baez to record. However, Baez wasn't able to record the song, which still had no title and half the lyrics of which were unfinished.

Recording

At the same time, Marvin Gaye was going through a personal and professional crossroads. The 31-year-old singer was dealing with the tragedy of losing his best friend, singing partner Tammi Terrell, who died in March of that year after suffering from a brain tumor for three years. Gaye was thinking of quitting show business and joining the Detroit Lions football team, even training every morning to get in shape for his tryout. Though he didn't make the team, the Lions players said they were impressed by the singer's regimen. Gaye had also shot a movie earlier in the year titled Hot Chrome and Leather, which was held back from release for a year. Around the same time, he was offered the role as Sam Cooke in a film but turned it down because he found it odd to play a role of "a soul singer who gets shot to death". Gaye stopped performing onstage after Terrell's death and after a while soul-searching, decided to continue his music career but under his own terms, which implied wresting control from Motown and from his brother-in-law Berry Gordy. He had seen great success as a songwriter and producer with The Originals' hits "Baby I'm for Real" and "The Bells" and wanted to produce more. It was while golfing with Benson and Cleveland that Gaye came up with the song title after asking them "what's going on, man?" Returning to Gaye's house, Benson and Cleveland presented Gaye the still-unfinished song. Motivated and inspired by horrific stories of the Vietnam War told to him by his brother Frankie, Gaye began adding his own lyrics and modified the "picket lines, picket signs" lyrics to the chorus with the repeats of "what's going on". He also added melody to his piano while Benson played parts of the song in his guitar. Putting the song together, Gaye received credit for co-composition. Gaye originally thought the song's moody feel was perfect for The Originals but Benson assured Gaye that he should record it himself, which he agreed to.

On June 10, 1970, Gaye returned to Hitsville USA with the song. The recording was looser than Gaye's previous recordings, in which Gaye free-styled two different vocal leads while Motown's session musicians The Funk Brothers played in a laid-back setting. At the intro, saxophonist Eli Fontaine's line was not originally intended. When Gaye heard playback though, he realized this was the bittersweet hook he had been groping for and let Fontaine go. When Fontaine tried telling Gaye that he was "just goofing", the singer told him "you goofed off exquisitely." Notable Motown bassist James Jamerson was pulled into the session after the singer located him drunk at a bar. Jamerson couldn't sit in his seat because of him flopping over, so according to the story told by one of his band mates, Jamerson lay on the floor playing the bass line. However, arranger Dave Van dePitte recalls that it was a track that Jamerson greatly respected: "On 'What's Going On' though, he just read the [bass] part down like I wrote it. He loved it because I had written Jamerson licks for Jamerson." Annie Jamerson recalls that when he returned home that night, he declared that the song they had been working on was a 'masterpiece', one of the few occasion where he had discussed his work so passionately with her.[4] Gaye also added to instrumentation playing piano and keyboards while also playing a loud effect on the drums to help accentuate Chet Forest's drumming. He also added his own background vocals singing the "what's going on" refrain to his own leads. To add a more personal touch, Marvin, his Detroit Lions friends Mel Farr and Lem Barney and several Funk Brothers members could be heard communicating as if they were at a party or a gathering. Alternate crowd chatter can be heard in the Detroit mix of the song near the ending. While hearing playback, Gaye asked one of his engineers to give him his two vocal leads to compare which ones to use for the song. Accidentally the engineers mixed the two leads together. Gaye was impressed with the double-lead feel and decided to keep it, it influenced his later recordings where he mastered vocal multi-layering adding in three different vocal parts. The song was also notable for its use of major seventh and minor seventh chords, which was a fairly uncommon use at the time.[5]

Arguments with Berry Gordy

During the same session, Marvin added in the song "God is Love", with lyrics he wrote about his faith in God. The music was co-written by Marvin, first wife Anna Gordy, James Nyx and Elgie Stover, the foursome had originally used the music for the Monitors' original recording of Marvin's "Just to Keep You Satisfied", which was recorded in 1969. Like "What's Going On", Marvin added in a lead and an accompanying background while harmonizing together in parts of the bridge. With "What's Going On" as the leading A-side, Gaye presented the song to Motown CEO Berry Gordy but was dismayed when Gordy flatly turned it down calling it "too jazzy". Marvin protested by telling him he wouldn't record again until the song was released. Smokey Robinson, singer and Motown's vice president at the time, said that Gordy once asked him to get Gaye to change his mind about releasing "What's Going On", to which Robinson replied that telling Marvin to do anything different "is like a bear shitting in the woods, Marvin ain't budging." According to Harry Balk, Gordy told him the song had the "Dizzy Gillespie-styled scats", claiming it was "old". Undeterred, Gaye stood by his decision not to record while Gordy desperately tried to get the singer back to the recording studio.

Release and reaction

On January 20, 1971, seven months after recording the song, a prominent Los Angeles radio disk jockey leaked "What's Going On" to his station. Harry Balk who was in charge of Motown in Detroit while Berry Gordy was on the West coast, decided on his own (and at the risk of his position at Motown) to release the song. Soon, the country was playing the record unbeknownst to Berry Gordy who still had not given anyone permission to release it and did not know that Balk took it upon himself and released this song which he realized was a gem that the public should hear. Gordy was astonished however when word came that the song was one of the fastest-rising and fastest-selling songs of the country. Within a month, it had reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Selling Soul Singles charts and by March, the song had peaked at number-one R&B and number-two pop, eventually selling over 2.5 million records becoming the fastest-selling Motown single to date at that time and Gaye's best-selling release following "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" two and a half years before.

The song's success gave Gaye the freedom to produce his own album with songs of similar themes. Gaye would base the parent album, also titled What's Going On as the conceptual story of a returning Vietnam War veteran who comes back to a world he doesn't recognize. Gordy was unenthusiastic about the album, but on release it was an immediate critical and commercial success. "What's Going On" itself has since become one of Gaye's signature songs.

Bootleg multitrack recordings

In 2008 a bootleg copy of the original analog multi-track recordings of this and other famous tracks surfaced on bit torrent sites, allowing the separate instrumental and vocal parts to be heard in isolation.

Personnel

Chart performance

Chart (1971) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 2
U.S. Hot Selling Soul Singles 1
U.S. Cashbox Top 100 1

Cyndi Lauper cover

"What's Going On"
Song
B-side"One Track Mind"

Cyndi Lauper covered "What's Going On" on her second album, True Colors, in 1986. In March 1987, it was released as the third single from the album.

On the album version, the song starts off with a series of gunshots in reference to Vietnam, while the single release is a remix with an alternate vocal used in the intro. It is the single version that most often appears on compilations. Lauper's "What's Going On" was a modest hit around the world, even reaching #17 on the U.S. dance chart, thanks to its club remixes by Shep Pettibone. "What's Going On" became True Colors's first release to fail to achieve top ten status on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 12.

The video for the song was also popular and aired heavily on MTV. It was nominated for an award at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1987. An extended mix of the song is used in the music video.

Chart performance

Chart (1987) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 52
Dutch Singles Chart 30
German Singles Chart 46
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 30
UK Singles Chart 57
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 12
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music Maxi Single Sales 7
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 17
U.S. Cash Box Top 100 Singles 15

Track listing

  1. "What's Going On" (club version) – 6:20 (Marvin Gaye; Al Cleveland; Renaldo Benson)
  2. "What's Going On" (long version) – 6:22 (Marvin Gaye; Al Cleveland; Renaldo Benson)
  3. "What's Going On" (instrumental) – 6:25 (Marvin Gaye; Al Cleveland; Renaldo Benson)
  4. "One Track Mind" – 3:39 (Cyndi Lauper; Jeff Bova; Jimmy Bralower; Lennie Petze)

Official versions

  1. Album version – 4:39
  2. Club version – 6:30
  3. Instrumental – 6:25
  4. Long version – 6:22
  5. Special version – 3:51

Artists Against AIDS Worldwide cover

Untitled

On October 30, 2001, a group of popular recording artists under the name "Artists Against AIDS Worldwide" released an album containing multiple versions of "What's Going On" to benefit AIDS programs in Africa and other impoverished regions.[7] Jermaine Dupri and Bono produced the radio single version, whose performers included Britney Spears, Ja Rule, Nas, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Nelly Furtado, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, Destiny's Child, Wyclef Jean, Backstreet Boys, Monica, Gaye's own daughter Nona, and many other popular artists. The album contained that single along with 8 additional remixes. The song was recorded shortly before the September 11, 2001 attacks, and it was decided afterwards that a portion of the song's proceeds would benefit the American Red Cross' September 11 fund as well. A music video was directed by Jake Scott.

Artists Against AIDS Worldwide

Track listings

US maxi
  1. "What's Going On" (Dupri Original Mix) – 4:20
  2. "What's Going On" (The London Version) – 3:57
  3. "What's Going On" (Moby's Version) – 4:38
  4. "What's Going On" (Fred Durst's Reality Check Mix) – 5:16
  5. "What's Going On" (Mangini/Pop Rox Mix) – 5:50
  6. "What's Going On" (Mick Guzauski's Pop Mix) – 4:09
  7. "What's Going On" (Dupri R&B Mix) – 4:45
  8. "What's Going On" (The Neptunes This One's for You Mix) – 5:00
  9. "What's Going On" (Junior Vasquez's Club Mix) – 9:34
US vinyl maxi
  1. "What's Going On" (MK Mix) – 6:52
  2. "What's Going On" (The London Version) – 3:57
  3. "What's Going On" (MK Kitchen-Aid Dub) – 6:27
  4. "What's Going On" (Dupri Alternate Extended Mix) – 4:46

Charts

Chart (2001) Peak
position[8]
USA Billboard Hot 100 27[A]
USA Billboard Hot 100 Airplay 26
USA Mainstream Top 40 24
USA Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 76[B]
UK Singles Chart 6
  • [A] The Neptunes Mix
  • [B] The Jermaine Dupri Mix

Rock Aid Armenia cover

The remake of "What's Going On" was the first of the Rock Aid Armenia releases in aid of earthquake victims in the 1988 Armenian earthquake. The version featured Boy George, Aswad, Errol Brown, Richard Derbyshire and various other British artists. The record was produced by Steve Levine and the executive producers were Fraser Kennedy and Jon Dee. This was released as a single on Island Records.

Other covers

References

  1. ^ Classic Tracks Back To Back Singles. Thunder Bay Press. 2008. p. 125.
  2. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 225.
  3. ^ The 100 greatest Detroit songs ever! (Metro Times Detroit)
  4. ^ Licks, Dr (1989). Standing In The Shadows Of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson (book). Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-88188-882-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Edmonds, Ben (2003). Marvin Gaye: What's Going On and the Last Days of the Motown Sound (book). Canongate U.S. ISBN 978-1-84195-314-4.
  6. ^ http://www.unitarium.com/time-calculator
  7. ^ http://www.hopeforafricanchildren.org/New/Press/pr_103001.html
  8. ^ "What's Going On: All-Star Tribute > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". allmusic. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  9. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/promenade-1993-album-by-peter-white-1 "Promenade 1993:Album" from Answers.com
  10. ^ "Peter White Plays To Strengths At Seattle’s Jazz Alley " from SmoothVibes.com
  11. ^ Čovek rado izvan sebe živi at Discogs
Preceded by Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles number-one single
March 27 – April 24, 1971 		Succeeded by
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