November 19th, 1971
Marvin Pentz Gaye, Jr. from Washington, D.C. had a number one song on this day. Marvin started out singing in his father’s church. He later joined Harvey Fuqua’s reformed Moonglows. Later, he moved to Detroit and did session work as a drummer for Motown Records. He first recorded as a solo artist for Tamia Records in 1961. With the backing of Martha Reeves and the Vandella,s he had his first big hit with “Stubborn Kind of Fellow”. He later sang with different female singers like Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell and Diana Ross. After the death of Tammi Terrell, as well as problems with drugs and the IRS he went into seclusion for several years. He came back with an album called “What’s Going On”. He had three number one songs from this album. One was the title track “Mercy Mercy Me” and the number one Black charted single for this day that dealt with crime, drugs, civil rights, and poverty, “Inner City Blues”.
That's this day in R&B Music History on 107.5 WBLS.
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