It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Ain’t That Peculiar” by Marvin Gaye

December 1, 1965
“Ain’t That Peculiar” by Marvin Gaye
#1 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart, November 27 – December 3, 1965

It took a little while for Marvin Gaye to assume his crown as the Prince of Motown. Like the Four Tops, he began his career more in a light-jazz mode than in R&B; like the Supremes, a shaky start marked him as one of the label’s least likely candidates for stardom. It was only when he relented, adopting the trademark Motown pop-soul sound, that Gaye began attracting notice. Unlike his labelmates, however, Gaye didn’t have a huge, defining hit early in his career that set a template. Instead, he collaborated with a variety of Motown’s top songwriters, steadily building up a string of hits without being boxed in by a specific style.

After a handful of jazz-pop singles that went nowhere, Gaye relented to Motown founder Berry Gordy’s demands to record more commercial material. “Stubborn Kind of Fellow,” its title inspired by Gaye’s reluctant shift to R&B, became his first hit, climbing into the Top 10 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1962 and just missing the pop Top 40. Gaye’s follow-up singles alternated between gritty R&B dance numbers like “Hitch Hike” and “Can I Get a Witness,” and lighter pop tunes informed by his vocal jazz phrasing, like Top 10 hits “Pride and Joy” and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).” For the rest of his career, Gaye would swap seamlessly between his sleek, Nat King Cole-influenced croon and his throatier, angst-ridden soul attack, often within the same song  — sometimes even within the same line.

After “Stubborn Kind of Fellow,” nearly every single Gaye released made the pop Top 40 (although usually around the middle of the chart), and many grazed the upper reaches of the R&B charts. His first R&B #1, 1965’s “I’ll Be Doggone,” was also Gaye’s first collaboration with Smokey Robinson as songwriter. Robinson had a knack for writing troubled, conflicted love songs — think “You Really Got a Hold on Me” — and the hits he penned for Gaye tapped into those same murky waters. Sure, lines like “I’ll be doggone if you ain’t as warm as a breath of spring” are the stuff of starry-eyed romance, but most of the song takes a more jaded view, with Gaye threatening to leave if his girl ever did something he didn’t like (“then I wouldn’t be doggone / I’d be long gone”).

“I’ll Be Doggone” became Gaye’s biggest hit yet, and his first to sell a million copies. Naturally, he and Robinson (as well as fellow Miracles members Marv Tarplin, Bobby Rogers, and Pete Moore) teamed up for another round. Breaking away from the usual Motown holding pattern, “Ain’t That Peculiar” isn’t a blatant retread of the previous hit (although the line “it’s a doggone shame” nods to its predecessor). Instead of a mid-tempo shuffle, “Ain’t That Peculiar” is a tight, upbeat dance number. And rather than the self-confident, smuggish figure behind “I’ll Be Doggone,” ready to drop his girl at a moment’s notice, the hero of “Ain’t That Peculiar” is the polar opposite, finding himself deeper in love the worse he’s treated. (“I know flowers grow through rain,” he cries, “but how can love grow through pain?”) The bouncy groove and chipper backing vocals by the Miracles and the Andantes accentuate the wounded pride in Gaye’s voice, which grows richer, raspier, and more anxious as the song progresses. Meanwhile, the song’s circular structure, looping around the same chord progression throughout, replicates the cycle of love and hurt he’s trapped himself in, unable and unwilling to escape.

“Ain’t That Peculiar” equaled the success of “I’ll Be Doggone,” topping the R&B chart, cracking the pop Top 10, and going gold, with the benefit of being an even better record. It also marks the end of the first phase of Gaye’s career at Motown. Together, his 1964 duet album with Mary Wells, had given Gaye’s career a much-needed boost, and he returned to the well frequently with partners Kim Weston and (especially) Tammi Terrell.  In the three years after “Ain’t That Peculiar,” nearly all of Gaye’s biggest hits were duets, including “It Takes Two” with Weston, and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Your Precious Love,” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” with Terrell. It wouldn’t be until late 1968 that Gaye would release the song that would spin the spotlight back to his solo career: a remake of a Gladys Knight & the Pips hit that would become one of Motown’s, and pop music’s, definitive records.

It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.

Sally O'Rourke

Sally O’Rourke works in an office and sometimes writes about music. She blogs about every song to ever top the Billboard Hot 100 (in order) at No Hard Chords. She has also contributed to The Singles Jukebox, One Week // One Band, and PopMatters. Special interests include girl groups, soul pop, and over-analyzing chord changes and lyrics as if deciphering a secret code. She was born in Baton Rouge and lives in Manhattan. Her favorite Nugget is “Liar, Liar” by The Castaways.