Tag Archives: what's going on

Iron­i­cally, the results of mis­takes often end up to be far more inter­est­ing than those of hard work. Mar­vin Gaye’s 1970 hit “What’s Going On” serves as one of those mirac­u­lous exam­ples of serendip­ity. Dur­ing the record­ing ses­sions a rather for­tu­nate acci­dent occurred. The singer had recorded two alter­nate takes of the lead-​vocals that were one octave apart. When the artist asked the sound engi­neer on duty, Ken Sands, to play these two tracks for him, the tech­ni­cian unwit­tingly played them simul­ta­ne­ously in mono. The unin­tended result was a duet between the singer and himself