Songoftheday 9/20/12 - baby, I'm hot just like an oven, I need your lovin'...

Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing"
from the album Midnight Love (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (three weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day was the comeback hit "Sexual Healing", which brought Marvin a new career hope after a five-year nadir. Gaye, the son of a minister, sung in church all through his childhood, and was discovered by Harvey Fuqua, who recruited Gaye into his revamped Moonglows vocal group at the end of the 50s. After the Moonglows disbanded yet again, Gaye was won over by Berry Gordy, and was assigned to the Tamla label (like Stevie Wonder would be). Marvin's first album was released in 1961, but it wouldn't be until the next year that he would get his big break as "Stubborn Kind Of Fellow" became his first top-10 R&B hit, and first minor pop single. His next single, "Hitch Hike" got Marvin into the pop top-40 for the first time, and the followup to that song, "Pride And Joy", did even better, going to the pop top-10 and #2 on the R&B chart. All three were from his That Stubborn Kind Of Fellow album, and set up his presence on radio quite nicely.

Gaye's singles were consistent hitters on radio and in record stores, and in 1965 "I'll Be Doggone" became his first #1 R&B hit (he would go on to have an unlucky 13 of these), and in 1968 his classic "Heard It Through The Grapevine" reached the top on the pop, R&B, and the British charts. He also had a successful run simultaneously with a series of duet partners including Mary Wells (like "Once Upon A Time", his first British hit), Kim Weston (like "It Takes Two", his first UK top-20 hit), and most personally to Marvin, Tammi Terrell (their "Your Precious Love" was his first pop top-5 hit). In fact, Terrell untimely death from cancer sunk Gaye into a deep depression over the loss of his friend, and almost stalled his music career altogether.

However, after inspiration from current unrest in the news and encouragement from fellow musician friends like Obie Benson of the Four Tops, Marvin began recording again, completing an album originally scoffed at by Gordy, but would be the most important record in his career, What's Going On in 1971. The album not only gave him three #1 R&B hits, including the title track, but expanded the scope and depth of soul music like a new "big bang", and solidified the album as much a R&B idiom as it was for rock music, which Stevie Wonder would later go on to prove.

Gaye veered for the first time from the topical to the sensual in 1973 with his #1 single and album "Let's Get It On", which would set the stage for what he would be doing in the next decade. Four years later, his "Got To Give It Up" would score Gaye another #1 pop hit, but after that, both his career and personal life began to fall apart, as a split from his wife Anna and increasing drug abuse would derail all the success Marvin had built.

Which brings us to the beginning of the 80s, where after being basically shelved by Motown, was aided by Belgian concert promoter Freddy Couseart, who took Gaye under his wing and let him stay in his house, where Gaye got sober (for then) and after doing some concert work, started work on a new album for CBS records, Midnight Love.

The first single written for the set, "Sexual Healing", has a curious history. Supposed Rolling Stone writer David Ritz inspired the title for the song, though account to whether he suggested the title implicitly or whether he was generally referring to Marvin were up for debate, or rather lawsuit, where Ritz eventually won a songwriting credit (after Marvin had passed already). But the bulk of the song undisputedly was penned by Gaye and backing musician Odell Brown, and produced by Gaye. The song was written as a reggae-tinged tune, but transformed into a sultry synth-driven soul number by the time it was finished, with a beat handed from the gods for booty-call time...

The song returned Gaye not only to the top of the R&B chart, but to the top-3 on the pop chart (spending 10 weeks in the top-10), and top-10 on the dance chart. He also made the top-5 in England, and topped the charts in Canada and New Zealand. The album was a huge success as well (even though it didn't produce another big hit), going to #7 and selling over three million copies in America. He also grabbed two Grammys for the song the following year.

Sadly, though, after a concert tour that saw Gaye fall off the wagon, he was shot and killed by his father at his home in a domestic dispute in early 1984. It's so sad considering the potential Gaye had to continue his comeback success into yet again expanding R&B music.

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Since its release, the song has been sampled and covered many many times. In 1983, singer Jimmy Riley interpreted "Sexual Healing" with its original reggae beat and had a big siingle in the UK with it.

Iconic beatboxer Doug E Fresh sampled the track on his "Cut That Zero"...

Big Daddy Kane's biggest rap hit, "Smooth Operator", had Gaye's "operate" tagline sampled..

British neo-R&B group Soul II Soul sampled the song on their top-40 R&B hit "Missing You"...

Eurodance duo Culture Beat cribbed the underlying beat on their "Tell Me That You Wait"..

Post-grunge rockers Soul Asylum went to #10 on the Alternative Rock chart with their cover of "Sexual Healiug"...

The following year, R&B girlgroup SWV incorporated the song into their remix of "Anything"...

American dance act Max-a-Million had a huge hit Down Under (and a minor one in the States) with their update...

Jazz supergroup Fourplay recruited singer El Debarge to record a new slow jam for the song..

Singer/songwriter Ben Harper took the song to an acoustic folk place with his concert staple version..

 
Kate Bush even tried on the song in 2005...

Electronic-indie group Hot Chip B-sided "Sexual Healing" a year later...

I can go on forever, but I'll stop with this minor European hit version by German singer Sarah Connor and Ne-Yo form 2007..

Up tomorrow: the third continent I'll be covering so far...