Who Did It Better

Marvin OR Chaka?

Marvin Gaye 1971

What's Going On

Written by Marvin Gaye, Renaldo Benson, Al Cleveland

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying

What's this song about ↓

A question posed to a nation, a cry of confusion and pain from a man watching the world fall apart around him. Marvin Gaye recorded it as the centerpiece of his landmark album, a song that asked the hardest questions without pretending to have easy answers. What's going on? The question is genuine, bewildered, the sound of a man who cannot understand why the world refuses to learn from its mistakes.

That same question gets a funk-infused reading from

Chaka Khan 2002

Variation A — side column

1971

2002

I already know

Play me a sample

Marvin Chaka

I need to be convinced

Variation B — left & right edges

1971

I already know

Play me a sample

Marvin Chaka

I need to be convinced

2002

Variation C — filled color-coded buttons

1971

2002

I already know

Play me a sample

Marvin Chaka

I need to be convinced

Image Credits

1,414 artist portraits across 5 genres (Rock, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Folk). 1,363 sourced from Wikipedia (Creative Commons / Public Domain), 50 from Deezer (promotional artwork).

Full attribution breakdown →

Who Did It Better

Marvin OR Chaka?

Marvin Gaye 1971

Chaka Khan 2002

What's Going On

Written by Marvin Gaye, Renaldo Benson, Al Cleveland

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying

What's this song about ↓

That same question gets a funk-infused reading from

Variation A — side column

1971

2002

I already know

Play me a sample

Marvin Chaka

I need to be convinced

Variation B — left & right edges

1971

I already know

Play me a sample

Marvin Chaka

I need to be convinced

2002

Variation C — filled color-coded buttons

1971

2002

I already know

Play me a sample

Marvin Chaka

I need to be convinced