News & Updates — Marvin Gaye

Singer and songwriter Tammi Terrell's star burned bright in her short career, one marked by abuse and tragedy yet she remains a popular artist 45 years after her death. From Philadelphia, two things happened that would positively and negatively affect her life: she was found to have immense talent and was also often subdued by intense migraine headaches (the latter of which started happening after she was raped by neighborhood boys, later convicted, at 11). She hit the road as a teenager with Patti LaBelle and Gary US Bonds and recorded for Wand and Chess Records subsidiary Checker. She sang...

The original hippy, the mystical eden ahbez wrote a tune called "Nature Boy" and by chance was able to hand it to Nat King Cole who turned it into a mega-hit in 1948. He looked like a hippy long before it was a thing and lived outdoors in Los Angeles. He lived under the "L" of the Hollywood sign and held a job as a piano player in a raw foods store. He was a vegetarian, straight edge and an anti-vaxer and wore a white robe. This lifestyle inspired "Nature Boy", and after the hit by Cole, ahbez became an...

Born today, one of the kings of soul music, Marvin Gaye. Is there anyone in the world who doesn't like his music?

James Jamerson was a key player in the Motown sound and their Funk Brothers backing band, playing bass on nearly every record from 1959 into the 70s. Like the other Funk Brothers, he was never credited on the sessions (until 1971) and was severely underpaid for a lot of his time at the company. His playing contributed melodic advancements, as a jazz player would. Perhaps you could say he was more of a jazz bassist than a pop one. A Gullah from the Georgia Sea Islands, he appeared on more #1 records than anyone (and most of them are great...