Retro Respect: It All Comes Back to Marvin Gaye

The R & B legend, Marvin Gaye certainly made his mark in the ‘60s, ‘70s and early ‘80s. There’s no denying his contribution to Pop-Soul music: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough; I Heard It Through the Grapevine; Let’s Get It On; What’s Going On; Sexual Healing. Yet there’s another song, 1977’s Soul-Disco groove, Got To Give It Up that has set itself firmly in place as an inspirational track for producers and singers.

Produced by Art Stewart, Got To Give It Up could be described as smooth funk-n-soul: the communal dance-party chatter; the cowbell percussion; the synthesizer bass line, with distinct notes especially at 0:12 and 0:18; and Gaye’s falsetto vocal. Got To Give It Up has easily stood the test of time, making it a Disco classic too good to not be referenced by other artists.

But first, the inspiration:



I first noticed the continuing influence of Got To Give It Up in 2008 while listening to Madonna’s Give It 2 Me. Co-produced by Pharrell Williams & The Neptunes, Give It 2 Me starts out immediately with cowbell percussion and a deep synthesizer bass line. It’s similar to Gaye’s version but sped up: Gaye’s version a whiskey neat; Madonna’s a strong espresso. Also, take a listen to the bass notes at 0:17 and 0:47. They sound similar to the ones in Got To Give It Up at 0:12 and 0:18, as referenced earlier.



And then there’s this summer’s infectious Blurred Lines from Robin Thicke, yes Alan’s son, featuring the rapper, T.I., and Pharrell, yes the same Pharrell, who also serves as producer. The aptly named Blurred Lines is the in-vitro-fertilized offspring of Gaye’s Got To Give It Up and Madonna’s Give it 2 Me, engineered and delivered by Dr. Pharrell Williams. This new bouncing baby works, yet it can’t be denied that it works due to the fact that its gene pool is so fertile, especially on the father’s side. Confirming, once again, that it all comes back to Marvin Gaye. BSo