What's Going On: Obie Benson's Berkeley Bus Ride and a Smuggled 1971 Single

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What's Going On began in May 1969, when the Four Tops' Renaldo "Obie" Benson watched the Bloody Thursday clash at People's Park in Berkeley, California, from the group's tour bus. Troubled that the country sent young people to war while armed authorities attacked them at home, he wrote the song with Al Cleveland. The Four Tops rejected it as too controversial, and Marvin Gaye at first thought it suited the Originals before taking it on and adding his own lyrics. Gaye was carrying guilt about singing romantic pop after the 1965 Watts riots, his brother Frankie's three years in Vietnam, and the death of a cousin in the military.

Berry Gordy dismissed the idea, so Gaye produced the track himself at Hitsville USA in June 1970, using the Funk Brothers and outside players in a loose, smoke-filled session. Gordy hated the finished record's jazz feel and scat singing and refused to release it, and Gaye went on strike. In January 1971 executives Harry Balk and Barney Ales pressed 100,000 copies without Gordy's knowledge and sent them to radio. The run sold out within days and became Motown's fastest-selling single to that point, and Gordy then demanded a full album by the end of March.

• Eli Fontaine's opening alto sax line was a warm-up that Gaye kept as the take.
• James Jamerson, drunk on Metaxa, played the bass part lying flat on his back on the studio floor.
• Engineer Ken Sands accidentally played two vocal takes at once, and Gaye kept the layered effect.
• Detroit Lions players were brought in to chat in the background, giving the track its party atmosphere.
• Later versions included Cyndi Lauper's 1987 cover, charity records for the 1989 Armenian earthquake and Rwanda in 1994, and a 2001 all-star version that aided 9/11 relief.