Let's Get It On (song)

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"Let's Get It On" is a 1973 number-one single recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye for the Tamla (Motown) label. The title song of the album release of the same title, "Let's Get It On" held the number-one position on the Billboard Pop Singles chart for two non-consecutive weeks in September 1973. In its first time at number one, it replaced "Brother Louie" by Stories, and was replaced by "Delta Dawn" by Helen Reddy; it then replaced "Delta Dawn" and was finally replaced by "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad. Written by Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend, and produced by Gaye, it was the most successful single ever released on a Motown label.

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

Co-written with doo-wop pioneer Ed Townsend, "Let's Get It On" was Gaye's plea for sexual liberation. When originally conceived by Townsend, who was released from a rehab facility for alcoholism, it was written with a religious theme. Gaye confidante Kenneth Stover changed some of the words around as a political song and Gaye recorded the version as it was written, but Townsend protested that the song wasn't a politically-conscious song but a song dedicated to love and sex. Gaye and Townsend then collaborated on new lyrics and using the original backing tracks as recorded, Gaye transformed the song into an emotional centerpiece.

During the time of the recording of the song and its subsequent album of the same name, Marvin had befriended the family of jazz guitarist Slim Gaillard and had become smitten with Gaillard's seventeen-year-old daughter, Janis Hunter. A widely reported story has been told that Hunter was in the studio when Gaye recorded the song at the recording booth. Gaye and Hunter were said to be smitten with each other and, within months, Gaye and Hunter began dating. Hunter would become Gaye's live-in lover by 1974. Their relationship would produce two children and a 1977 marriage.

[edit] Release and reaction

"Let's Get It On" became one of Gaye's most successful singles, staying at number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart for two weeks and staying at number-one on the Billboard Black Singles Chart for eight weeks. The single stayed inside the Billboard Hot 100 top-ten for thirteen weeks (ten weeks inside the top-five). The song became the biggest selling Motown release in the U.S. at the time, selling over two-million copies within the first six weeks of its release. "Let's Get It On" would end up selling over four million copies, making it the second biggest hit of 1973, behind Dawn featuring Tony Orlando's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon round The Ole Oak Tree". The single release is different from the album version in that the album version is about a minute longer and contains an extra verse.

The song was given a makeover in late-2004, when producers mixed Gaye's vocals with a different musical production labeled as "stepper's music". Released in 2005 as a single, "Let's Get it On (The Producers Mix)" returned the song to the Billboard R&B charts, thirty years after its original release. The re-released version of "Let's Get It On" was certified as a gold single with sales in excess of 500,000 copies in 2005 by RIAA, making it the best-selling Motown record ever released in North America.

The song is ranked #167 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

[edit] Credits

• Written by Ed Townsend and Marvin Gaye
• Produced by Marvin Gaye
• All vocals by Marvin Gaye

[edit] Covers

A bluegrass cover was recorded by country singer Shannon Lawson on his 2002 album Chase the Sun.