"The World Is Rated X" is a socially conscious song recorded by

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 ...

culled from sessions of the shelved ''

You're the Man "You're the Man" is a song composed by singer Marvin Gaye and songwriter Kenneth Stover and released on the Motown subsidiary, Tamla, in the summer of 1972. Composed primarily on the basis of the 1972 presidential election, the song was suppose ...

'' project from 1972, later issued on the Motown compilation album, '' Motown Remembers Marvin Gaye: Never Before Released Masters'' and released as a promotional single in 1986.

Overview

Gaye originally recorded the song in 1972 as he was working on a wide variety of projects. The song had two distinct versions. The initial recording was later issued as a single to promote a compilation album in 1986, while an alternate vocal version would later be included in the Deluxe Edition reissue of ''

Let's Get It On ''Let's Get It On'' is the thirteenth studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP. Recording sessions for the album took pla ...

'' in 2001. Gaye had originally planned to release the song on the album ''You're the Man'', but due to Motown's mild response to that album's title track, it was never released, and Gaye later released ''Let's Get It On'' instead. In 1986, Motown, having helped Columbia Records feature songs on two posthumous studio albums, decided to release more Gaye recordings from the singer's Motown archives. This song was included along with other songs, including Gaye's original recording of the

Ashford & Simpson Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting-production team and recording duo of Nickolas Ashford (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946). Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, ...

composition, "Dark Side of the World", later recorded by

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

on her self titled debut solo album. While Gaye's 1960s recordings were overdubbed with 1980s production, the singer's 1970s recordings, including this song, were left in their original versions. The song was produced by longtime Motown producer Hal Davis, who was to be the second producer on ''You're the Man'', as he had helped produce other Gaye songs from the sessions, including "Piece of Clay" and "Where Are We Going?" Recorded in a

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

style, it was a biting diatribe of the

inner city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...

, much like a previous Gaye track, "

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", often shortened to "Inner City Blues", is a song by Marvin Gaye, released as the third and final single, and the climactic song from his 1971 landmark album, '' What's Going On''. Written by Gaye and Ja ...

". in which Gaye delivered in a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

sermon-inspired vocal, with backup from strings, horns, a solo saxophone riff, and a rhythm section. To promote the compilation, Motown issued "The World Is Rated X" as a promotional single. It failed to make any chart. It was then issued on Gaye's ''

Anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

'' set in 1995. The alternate vocal version of the song was released on the Deluxe Edition reissue of ''Let's Get It On'' six years later.

Chart performance

The song peaked at number 95 on the UK singles chart.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Is Rated X 1972 songs 1986 singles Marvin Gaye songs Songs written by Marilyn McLeod