Marvin Gaye and his Girls
The Women who Influenced Marvin’s Life and Works
Left to right: Marvin; Janis; Alberta; Marvin Sr; in front Marvin III.
The biggest,
and warmest, influence on Marvin Gaye was his mother, Alberta. She gave him
love that was missing from Marvin’s tempestuous relationship with his father,
Marvin Pentz Gay Sr; a loveless father – son relationship that would tragically
result in Marvin’s untimely death.
Marvin’s
first wife, Anna Ruby Gordy was seventeen years older than Marvin; being his
boss's sister had obvious advantages, but later as their marriage began
to fall apart, Marvin felt, unjustifiably as it happened, that Berry Gordy would be
influenced by his sister and try to end Marvin’s Motown career. Although they
were unable to have children of their own, Marvin and Anna adopted their son,
Marvin III in 1965.
Anna was the
prime mover in getting Marvin to record and perform during his formative years
as an entertainer. Marvin’s earlier hits, such as, “Pride and Joy” were purely
him singing to his wife. “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” was based on Anna citing his
stubbornness.
While
recording the “Let’s Get It On” album, Marvin was introduced to family friends
of Ed Townsend, co-writer and co-producer, who brought their seventeen year old
daughter, Janis Hunter to the studio. It was love at first sight; ironically a
seventeen year age difference in the opposite direction to Marvin and Anna, did
not stop a relationship flourishing. Marvin later dedicated his “I Want You”
album to Janis.
Janis moved in with Marvin and the couple had
two children: daughter Nona (born September 4, 1974) and son Frankie
(born November 16, 1975). After a long and painful divorce with Anna; Marvin
dedicated his album, “Here My Dear”, along with his advance and royalties, as
alimony to Anna, Marvin and Janis married in 1977. The couple divorced in 1981.
Marvin’s
younger sister Zeola has upset Janis, along with Marvin’s children, including
Anna and Marvin’s adopted son, Marvin III, by producing a play entitled “My
Brother Marvin”, claiming it to be based on newly revealed journals kept by
Marvin’s parents in the 1980s.
Janis has
labelled the play, which opens to the sound of a gunshot, exploitative and ghoulish.
The play features none of Marvin’s music; something that prospective theatre
goers might reasonably expect to hear during a play claiming to be about the
man.
It seems controversy
continues to surround Marvin Pentz Gay II nearly thirty years after the singer’s
death. Marvin himself added the ‘e’ at the end of his surname in an attempt to
distance himself from his father, who administered the fatal wound on April 1st
1984.
Paul Forrest will be featuring tracks from Marvin Gaye in his radio show, "Soul Galore" on Wolfman Radio Saturday 5th April 4 pm UK time (11 am Eastern, 10 am Central, 8 am Pacific).
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