Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Monumental Soundbyte - 82


Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
I cannot believe this song was released in 1982. What an amazing enduring song from a true talent. One of the originators of smooth r&b.
This song was number 1 on the billboard r&b charts for 10 weeks making it the longest running number 1 r&b single of the 80s. The entire decade. It also made a huge impact on the pop charts and became a massive hit globally.
This song is monumental because Marvin Gaye had been nominated for the Grammy awards 11 times in his career, but this is the song that won him his first grammys. He won the awards for Best Male R&B artist and Best R&B instrumental. The song was ranked number 231 on billboards greatest songs of all times list and i agree whole heartedly.
Now onto the content of this song. Can you imagine what a stir this song would have caused in 1982? Oooh...and do you remember the ultra smooth video?
Its pretty straightforward. Its about finding sexual healing with that special woman. What is fascinating is the way the song came about. Some guy comes to interview Marvin Gaye for his autobiography (David Ritz) and he notices comic pornography and comments that he needs sexual healing. Marvin then tells him to write a poem and that is how this song came to be.
This song has been covered by a lot of artists including Michael Bolton, Keith Sweat, Michael McDonald, Ben Harper, Kate Bush and even Bone Thugs and Harmony.
A truly ground breaking song.
Enjoy!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i completely agree. its the best rnb song in the world ( i think)!!!

zaiprincesa said...

hmm..many many babies been conceived to this song...hehehe...but its still a classic and i lurve it....

laspapi said...

Never thought of babies being conceived to it but reflecting on that now, the chances of those occurences are very high.

How about his "Let's get it on"? Apparently, every 20 years or so, he set the world on fire. Yeah. Marvin Gaye was v.good. And just as good was the Commordores' tribute to him- "Night Shift"