He had two sisters, Jeanne and Zeola, and one brother, Frankie Gaye. Gaye was the second oldest of the couple's four children. Gaye and his friends nicknamed the area "Simple City", owing to its being "half-city, half country".
The alleys were full of one- and two-story shacks, and nearly every dwelling was overcrowded.
Although one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, with many elegant Federal-style homes, most buildings were small, in extensive disrepair, and lacked both electricity and running water. His first home was in a public housing project, the Fairfax Apartments (now demolished) at 1617 1st Street SW in the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood. and domestic worker Alberta Gay (née Cooper). was born on April 2, 1939, at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C., to church minister Marvin Gay Sr.
Gaye also recorded duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross. Gaye's Motown songs include " Ain't That Peculiar", " How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", and " I Heard It Through the Grapevine".
He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul". Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (Ap– April 1, 1984) was an American singer and songwriter.