What's Going On - 50th Anniversary Edition

Motown’s “Prince Of Soul,” Marvin Gaye, was already a hit artist for nearly a decade when, in 1971, he reached new heights with his album What's Going On. An immediate landmark recording, it was the first of Gaye's albums to break the top ten of Billboard’s Top LPs, and quickly became Motown's best-selling record. To this day, What's Going On is hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time, earning the number one spot on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2020 list of “The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.”

Now comes What’s Going On: Deluxe Edition / 50th Anniversary. This includes the original album, plus 12 bonus tracks featuring each of the LP’s original mono single versions and their B-sides, two of which are different takes – “God Is Love” and “Sad Tomorrows,” an earlier version of “Flying High (in the Friendly Sky)” – while the pre-album single version of “What’s Going On” has no “party” intro and a false fade. Also included is the title song’s earliest mix, initially made as a reference for Motown’s in-house quality control department before horns and strings were added; a dramatic instrumental mix; a “Coffeehouse Mix” by Grammy-winning engineer Russ Elevado that emphasizes the track’s previously buried acoustic guitar, originally available on a Record Store Day exclusive 10” EP for the album’s 45th anniversary in 2016. Also included from that same 2016 release is a “What’s Going On” duet with Motown artist B.J. the Chicago Kid. Other tracks are an early working version of “Symphony,” written by Marvin with Smokey Robinson, in which Marvin sings over and over, “what’s going on?” while the song of the same name sat unreleased; and the instrumental “I Love the Ground You Walk On,” recorded during the same waiting period.