Once Gaye heard Fontaine's riff, he told Fontaine to go home. The opening soprano saxophone line, provided by musician Eli Fontaine, was not originally intended. Instead of relying on other producers to help him with the song, Gaye, inspired by recent successes of his productions for the vocal act, the Originals, decided to produce the song himself, mixing up original Motown in-house studio musicians such as James Jamerson and Eddie Brown with musicians he recruited himself. Gaye entered the recording studio, Hitsville USA, on June 1, 1970, to record "What's Going On". That's taking things too far." Recording During phone conversations with Berry Gordy, who was vacationing in the Bahamas at the time, Gaye had told Gordy that he wanted to record a protest record, to which Gordy said in response, "Marvin, don't be ridiculous. Gaye, himself, had been inspired by social ills committed in the United States, citing the 1965 Watts Riot as a turning point in his life in which he asked himself, "'With the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?'" Gaye was also influenced by emotional conversations shared between him and his brother Frankie, who had returned from three years of service at the Vietnam War and his namesake cousin's death while serving troops. When Gaye initially thought the song's moody feel would be appropriate to be recorded by The Originals, Benson convinced Gaye to record it as his own song. we measured him for the suit and he tailored the hell out of it." Gaye titled it "What's Going On". Benson later said Gaye tweaked and enriched the song, "added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem like a story than a song. I'm not protesting, I want to know what's going on.'" In 1970, Benson presented the untitled song to Marvin Gaye, who added a new melody and revised the song to his liking, adding in his own lyrics. "My partners told me it was a protest song", Benson said later, "I said 'no man, it's a love song, about love and understanding. Benson wanted to give the song to his group but the other Four Tops turned down the request. Upset, he discussed what he witnessed with friend and songwriter Al Cleveland, who in turn wrote and composed a song to reflect Benson's concerns. Why are they sending kids so far away from their families overseas? Why are they attacking their own children in the streets?" Upset by the situation, Benson said to author Ben Edmonds that as he saw this, he asked, "'What is happening here?' One question led to another. While there, Benson witnessed police brutality and violence in the city's People's Park during a protest held by anti-war activists in what was hailed later as "Bloody Thursday". The song's inspiration came from Renaldo "Obie" Benson, a member of the Motown vocal group the Four Tops, after he and the group's tour bus arrived at Berkeley on May 15, 1969. 9.4 Artists Against AIDS Worldwide cover.Can you believe it? Lost all of my inhibitions. And you’ll not believe it, but I’m dancing in it. Adele told the crowd at a concert in Stockholm, in April, “ we’ve got a really cool video, we did it on Monday. Yes, this is the 27-year-old as we have not quite seen her before. Way back when Adele’s third album, 25, was released in November, we noted one song in particular that we predicted would become the “breakout track”: the Max Martin collaboration “Send My Love (To Your New Lover).” Now, about half a year later, it is finally time to see if we were right, as the song is getting its due, with a proper single release, following lead single “Hello” and second single “When We Were Young” (the latter never received a music video, as Adele said during a concert that she wasn’t able to come up with a clip that felt quite right).īut tonight, during the Billboard Music Awards, we’ve been gifted with a video for “Send My Love,” in which Adele, uncharacteristically, busts a move. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.