"Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide" is the debuting single for singer

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

, released as Tamla 54041, in May 1961. It was also the first release off Gaye's debut album, ''

The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye ''The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye'' is the debut studio album by Marvin Gaye, released in 1961, and the second long-playing album (TM-221) released by Motown. The first was '' Hi... We're the Miracles'' (TM-220). It is most notable as the alb ...

'', in which most of the material was the singer's failed attempt at making an 'adult' record compared to Motown's younger R&B sound.Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Overview

Background

In 1960,

moved to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

with his mentor

Harvey Fuqua Harvey Fuqua (July 27, 1929 – July 6, 2010) was an American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive. Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s. He is notable as one of th ...

, who had first booked him as a co-lead singer of " Harvey & the Moonglows", a splinter version of the popular fifties doo-wop group, the Moonglows. Fuqua and Gaye met up with several members of the Gordy family, and before long both of them were dating the female Gordy members Gwen and Anna respectively. Around that fall, Marvin was introduced to Motown Records CEO

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record la ...

after Gaye walked in during a party at the local Hitsville studios and played around on the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. Gordy later signed Gaye first as a session drummer for Anna Records and eventually signed him into Motown's Tamla label as an artist. After several arguments over the direction of the album - the headstrong Marvin wanted to record a "

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

-styled pop album" while Gordy wanted him to record R&B, the two came to a compromise, while most of ''Soulful Moods'' featured covers of jazz songs and Broadway tunes, three of the final songs on the album were produced in a

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

mode.

Song style

This song was inspired by a

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

ballad and featured background vocals by

The Andantes The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Mar ...

. During the song Marvin mixes a smooth

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

with a few

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

whoops.

Release

Gordy released it with the b-side being the Anna Gordy and Harvey Fuqua-penned "Never Let You Go (Sha-Lu Bop)" in May 1961, a month after Marvin's 22nd birthday. Before its release, however, Marvin sought to begin his solo career with a new name. Inspired by

Sam Cooke Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred ...

, Marvin added an "e" to his last name therefore becoming forever known as Marvin Gaye. Despite regional success in Detroit, the song failed to enter either the pop or R&B chart on the national ''Billboard'' magazine.

Mary Wells Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the F ...

later covered the song for her own debut Motown release, '' Bye Bye Baby I Don't Want to Take a Chance''.

Credits

*Lead vocals by

*Background vocals by

*Instrumentation by

The Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...

*Written and produced by

References

{{authority control 1961 debut singles Marvin Gaye songs Songs written by Berry Gordy 1961 songs Tamla Records singles