1985 · Behind the Songs
Remembering Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson.
“Nightshift” was the Commodores’ answer to an impossible question: how do you carry on after losing your lead singer and two of soul music’s giants in the same breath? Released in 1985, the song is a tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson, both gone too soon — and the band sings it like a shift of workers clocking in to keep the music playing through the night.
The groove is pure mid-80s soul, all shimmer and pulse, but the sentiment is timeless: the show goes on because it has to. The record won a Grammy and gave the band its biggest hit of the decade — proof that a group built on musicianship could survive anything, even goodbye.