The song “What’s Going On” was originally thought up and written by Obie Benson, a member of the Four Tops. While in San Francisco in the late ’60s, he saw a lot of kids getting beat up in the streets. After seeing this violence day after day, Benson wondered to himself, “What’s happening? What’s going on?” This sentiment struck a powerful chord within him and inspired the famous chorus.
He eventually brought the idea to life in a song and took it to Motown, where Marvin Gaye had been writing and performing. Gaye had been dealing with some personal troubles in his own life that sparked his desire to write inspiring music fueled by current social issues.
When Gaye heard the powerful message of Benson’s tune, he immediately knew he wanted to get involved. He originally wanted to pitch the song to a vocal quartet that he was producing at the time. But Benson was adamant about Gaye being the one to perform the song and gave him an ultimatum. With that, Benson and Gaye struck a deal for Gaye to record the track.
Benson may have written the song, but he gives Marvin Gaye credit for adding new lyrics and spicing up the melody. He also credits him for changing words and phrases to make it more natural and relevant on the street. With Gaye’s tweaks, the song felt more like a story — something that you could visualize. Gaye gave so much of himself to the song that you could feel the pain in his voice.
The recording process of the song produced many new techniques, some even by accident. The opening saxophone line was a result of Gaye recording the session player during his warm up, and the doubled lead vocal was due to the engineer accidentally playing two cuts together, which Gaye loved and went on to adopt as a trademark for future vocal recordings.
Although the record was met with negative reviews by the Motown inspection board, the release managed to slip through and went on to sell over 100,000 copies the first week and topped at #2 on the Billboard Pop Chart. The power of the song still inspires listeners to this day and remains relevant decades after its release.