MARVIN GAYE

■ AS the 40th anniversary of the killing of soul singer Marvin Gaye approaches, I look at everything you need to know about the icon…

❑ Marvin Pentz Gay Junior was born on April 2, 1939 in Washington DC.

❑ He did not get on with his father and the family (Marvin Sr, his wife Alberta, known as Babe, sisters Jeanne and Zeola, and brother Frankie) lived in a slum area of the city.

❑ Despite publicly praising his son, Mrs Gay said: “My husband never wanted Marvin and he never liked him.”

❑ Marvin Sr was a respected Pentecostal minister and also a transvestite who regularly beat his young son when he felt the need.

❑ Marvin Jr began singing in church when he was four.

❑ In 1956 Gay enlisted in the US Air Force and during his service lost his virginity to a local prostitute. He later pretended to be mentally unstable and was demobbed.

❑ In May 1961 Gaye signed a record deal with Tamla and changed the spelling of his surname, adding an “e”, as did Sam Cooke.

❑ In June 1963 he married Motown founder Berry Gordy’s older sister Anna (1922-2014).

❑ Like his relationship with his father, the one with his wife was tempestuous and they separated in 1973.

❑ Gaye had hits with a trio of women – Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. The latter died of a brain tumour in 1970 when she was 24. Due to her illness she was unable to perform.

❑ After Terrell died, Gaye announced he would not perform with another female singer but broke that vow in November 1973 when he released an album with Diana Ross. ❑ Gaye liked to wear a woolly hat on stage which later helped hide his balding head. ❑ In the late 1970s Gaye was beset by misfortune – he became addicted to hard drugs and was chased by the IRS for unpaid taxes. Three weeks before his death he threatened, not for the first time, to commit suicide.

❑ On April Fool’s Day 1984, Marvin and Alberta Gay had a fight in their home in Crenshaw, LA, over some missing insurance documents. Their son interrupted the argument and a fight ensued.

❑ At 12.38pm Marvin Sr shot his son twice, killing him with the first bullet.

❑ Marvin was charged with first-degree murder but that was reduced to voluntary manslaughter. He was given a suspended six-year sentence. He died, aged 84, at a nursing home on October 10, 1998.