The Prince of Motown

If you're a Boomer, you know the silky-smooth voice of Marvin Gaye.

Anyone who checks out the Video Bar on this blog knows my tastes, of late, tend toward a potpourri of indie/alternative/country/folk with some blues thrown in every now and then. So it was pure coincidence when I decided to pull Marvin Gaye out of the Motown vault and only later realized this week marks 17 years since he died.

He was a prolific performer, with a career that spanned 1958 to 1984 and more than a dozen albums, including the amazing "What's Going On" (blows me away to think it was released in 1971).

Gaye was the son of a preacher who was a strict disciplinarian, and was tormented by a number of personal demons when he was shot to death by his father on April 1, 1984. He was just 44.

Listen to him sing the National Anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game like no one's ever sung it before or since...