‘Inner City Blues’: Marvin Gaye Completes A Social Commentary Trinity
On October 9, 1971, ‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),’ the latest 45 from Marvin’s immortal ‘What’s Going On’ album, bowed on the US pop and R&B charts.
Marvin Gaye was in full cry in 1971. Seized with a new passion to create music of deep lyrical meaning, and to sing about the issues affecting a troubled world, he perfected the art of doing that in the context of a huge-selling album and singles from it.
The album, of course, was What’s Going On, and on October 9, the latest 45 from it, Marvin’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),” took its bow on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Best Selling Soul Singles chart.
The What’s Going On album had been released in May, four months after the title track had signalled Gaye’s dramatic new change of direction. That single was an R&B No.1 for five weeks that spent three weeks at No.2 on the pop survey. Then early July brought the second single, “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” a two-week R&B champion and pop No.4.
“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” completed a remarkable trinity. It climbed to the R&B summit for a two-week run that meant Gaye had spent nine weeks atop the soul chart with three singles from What’s Going On. As it climbed to No.9 on the pop side, it also gave him three Top 10 crossover singles. The album itself reached No.6 pop and ruled the R&B waves for no fewer than nine weeks, in a 53-week chart shelf life.
Overcoming the company doubts
Strange to think, then, that Motown boss Berry Gordy didn’t exactly embrace Gaye’s new direction, and was distinctly wary of the “What’s Going On” single in particular. Until Gaye’s audience showed that they were with him all the way, that is, and that they loved his new role as a soulful social commentator.
As writer Ben Edmonds observed in the 30th anniversary edition of the album in 2001, the subjects on Gaye’s agenda remained all too relevant then, and all the more so now. “The music alone would assure What’s Going On of immortality,” he noted, “but its messages still bristle with urgency. Told from the point of view of a returning Vietnam soldier, its portraits of disconnected Vets, drug addiction, ecological disaster and economic desperation are so much our own that this 1971 recording now sounds like prophesy.”
Listen to the Motown: What’s Going On playlist on Apple Music and Spotify.
“Inner City Blues” went on to attract covers by Grover Washington Jr., Sarah Vaughan, vocal stylists like the Impressions and the Chi-Lites, rock singers such as Joe Cocker and John Mayer, and even a James Last makeover.
Buy or stream “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” on What’s Going On.
diddy desire k
October 10, 2014 at 1:30 pm
Am marvin’s greast fun
lekita
November 21, 2014 at 12:18 am
Could pull up the songs
Cat
October 11, 2016 at 11:59 pm
Don’t need spotify. Got it all on vinyl…
Siim Kuusik
October 9, 2017 at 8:04 pm
Inner City Blues is in my all time top 10 songs!
https://open.spotify.com/user/1176492883/playlist/17oVzhE54yeGHesUFDN6gt
Debbie
October 10, 2017 at 3:08 am
My favorite male artist. Nobody will ever match that voice. What a wonderful story Marvin could sing!
Gwen Dailey
October 10, 2017 at 5:44 pm
Let’s sign the petition to get the Marvin Gaye Forever stamp approved.
Leo Hyden
July 22, 2023 at 5:51 pm
It’s too bad that in the era of absolute political abuse, artists like Marvin Gaye weren’t allowed to come out and say EXACTLY what was ‘going on’. Inner cities in the 70’s were at their worst, with state governments just throwing money into a system that was broken even then (government gets their money from taxpayers) AND they were taking young men who weren’t in college off to war. It was the beginning of the end political he77 for wealthy democrats but just more and more of the same garbage for poor people being supported by state governments that didn’t want to address the REAL problems of the ghettos but taxed EVERY working person – even those in the ghettos trying to work – making it impossible to move forward. What I think is crazy is that it’s been 50+ years since this song was released and NOTHING has changed for our poor people. Yet the same political party that was in charge back then and ever since haven’t really made a lot of change. I think old Marvin would have A LOT more to say today than he did back then. Let’s all talk about what’s REALLY broken and start electing state governments that will truly start fixing these very broken poverty policies.