By all rights, Marvin Gaye should still be alive and making the world a happier place with his music. Think about it: If he were still here, we could still be showered with his soul classics, ones on par with essentials like "Mercy Mercy Me" and "What's Going On."
And the below video, which captures the two-time GRAMMY-winning R&B titan singing "Sexual Healing" in his debut GRAMMY performance, drives that point home.
Over a piped-in backing track, Gaye fully inhabits his high-thread-count hit, showing how it influenced decades of quiet storm and neo-soul jams in its wake. It reminds music lovers of what a voice we lost just a year later — and how he powerfully enriched the music community forever.
In a special episode of GRAMMY Rewind presented by Bulova, the Official Timepiece Partner of the Recording Academy, watch Marvin Gaye perform a poignant rendition of "Sexual Healing" at the 25th GRAMMY Awards in 1983.
Check out the moving clip above and watch more episodes of the GRAMMY Rewind special edition series presented by Bulova ahead of the 2022 GRAMMYs show.
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