(1939 – 1984) Marvin Gaye helped to shape the “Motown sound” that moved soul music into mainstream American popular culture. He became Hitsville’s leading man when matched with Mary Wells in duets in 1964. After numerous hits, Gaye’s greatest moment came with the What’s Going On album (1971), when he turned from soul ballads to problems of the inner-city and Vietnam; this became the first soul-concept album. Gaye made a comeback with “Sexual Healing” (1981), which featured the return of his sweet, plaintive tones in one of pop music’s most sensual songs, rivaling his previous “Let’s Get it On” (1981). His personal life, however, had become increasingly difficult; his father shot him in an argument in 1984.