The story behind the recording

Let’s Get It On belongs to Gaye’s 1970s Motown catalogue. Classic Motown places it after the public concerns of What’s Going On and the film work of Trouble Man, within a period of increased creative freedom. The change of subject is striking, but the attention to the voice remains central.

What to listen for

Intimacy in a recording is not simply a matter of singing quietly. It can be made through an entrance that feels unhurried, a sustained vowel or the sense of one phrase responding to another. Gaye’s delivery encourages that close attention while the accompaniment provides a recognisable framework. The vocal can seem to lean against the pulse rather than merely obey it. As a result, the recording holds a tension between ease and insistence. Its emotional immediacy comes from choices that are also carefully musical: placement, repetition, changes of intensity and the shape of a melodic approach.

Give it another listen

Listen once without concentrating on the best-known refrain. Follow the beginning and ending of each phrase, noticing how the singer manages breath and time. Then return to the chorus. It should feel less like a self-contained hook and more like the arrival of an expressive movement prepared by everything around it.