The Funk Brothers members: Marvin Gaye, Melvin Wah-Wah Watson Ragin, The Funk Brothers, James Jamerson, Dennis Coffey, Uriel Jones, Earl Van Dyke, Bob Babbitt, Joe Messina, Robert White, Benny Benjamin, Jack Ashford, Joe Hunter, Richard Pistol Allen

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 22. Chapters: Marvin Gaye, Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin, The Funk Brothers, James Jamerson, Dennis Coffey, Uriel Jones, Earl Van Dyke, Bob Babbitt, Joe Messina, Robert White, Benny Benjamin, Jack Ashford, Joe Hunter, Richard "Pistol" Allen, Eddie Willis, Henry Cosby, Johnny Griffith, Eddie "Bongo" Brown. Excerpt: Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 ¿ April 1, 1984) was better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, an American singer-songwriter and musician with a four-octave vocal range. He started his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late fifties, then ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with the Tamla Records subsidiary of Motown. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the sixties. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell His work in the early and mid-1970s included the albums What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early eighties, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death. Gaye was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984. He was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2008, the American music magazine Rolling Stone ranked Gaye at number 6 on its list of the Greatest Singers of All Time, and ranked at number 18 on 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He was also ranked at number 20 on VH1's list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. was born on April 2, 1939 at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C.. His father, Marvin Gay, Sr., was a minister at the House of God (the House of God headquarters is located in Lexington, Kentucky), which advocated strict conduct and taught and believed in both the old and new Testament. His mother, Alberta Gay (née Alberta Cooper), was a domestic and schoolteacher. Gaye was the second eldest of four children. His younger brother, Frankie (1941¿2001)