upnorthtrips:

30 YEARS AGO TODAY |2/13/83| Marvin Gaye sings the National Anthem at the 1983 NBA All Star Game.

Don Cornelius and Marvin Gaye (with Smokey Robinson refereeing) play a game of 1-on-1 basketball on Soul Train. R.I.P. these two legends.

julieklausner:

In regards to MIchelle Collins’s list of best & worst celebrity renditions of the National Anthem on this week’s HWYW podcast, listener Jon Solomon has pointed out this egregious oversight. Above is a clip of Marvin Gaye singing The Star Spangled Banner at an 1983 NBA All-Star Game. It is extraordinary.

Solomon quotes Alexander Wolf on Gaye’s performance:

He took his sweet, sweet time with it…Out on the floor the players tried to be stoic, but Marvin soon had them bobbing to the rhythms he had unlocked in that old warhorse.

Watching this clip got me pregnant. And you know who the father is? America.