Marvin Gaye - Prince Of Soul

A cover with a first day postmark from USA 

Marvin Gaye - Music icons series

Date of issue : 02- April - 2019

Postmark : First day postmark 

Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. 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 hits, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".

The stamp is part of the Postal Service’s Music Icons series. Its design features a portrait of Gaye inspired by historic photographs. The stamp pane is designed to resemble a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. One side of the pane includes the stamps, brief text about Gaye’s legacy, and the image of a sliver of a record seeming to peek out the top of the sleeve. 

Because of solo hits such as “How Sweet It Is,” “Ain’t That Peculiar,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and his duet singles with such singers as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell, Gaye was dubbed “The Prince of Motown” and “The Prince of Soul.”

Gaye won Grammys in 1983 for best male rhythm and blues vocal performance and best rhythm and blues instrumental performance for “Sexual Healing.”

Gaye was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

“His music was cathartic,” biographer David Ritz said. “His songs were prayers, meditations, strategies for survival.”

A bill naming the post office at 3585 S. Vermont Ave. in South Los Angeles the Marvin Gaye Post Office was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 24.

Gaye was shot and killed by his father following an altercation with his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents at their house in the West Adams district on April 1, 1984, one day before what would have been his 45th birthday.