And then he made a decision that would shape the rest of his life.
At 17 years old, in 1956, Marvin Gay Jr. dropped out of Cardozo High School and enlisted in the United States Air Force.
It wasn’t a patriotic decision. It was an escape.
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His discharge papers tell the story. His sergeant wrote that Private Gay “cannot adjust to regimentation nor authority.” Marvin later admitted he had deliberately feigned mental illness to secure a general discharge rather than an honorable one. He was willing to accept the stigma of a general discharge if it meant getting out.
He had spent his life under the authority of his father. He had replaced one rigid authority structure with another, and found it equally intolerable.
He was out in approximately a year. He returned to Washington, D.C., and reformed the Marquees with his friend Reese Palmer.
The Marquees were not yet what Marvin wanted them to be, but they were a start. They caught the attention of Bo Diddley, the rock and roll pioneer, who co-wrote and produced their only single for OKeh Records—”Wyatt Earp,” based on the television Western character. The single failed to chart. OKeh dropped the group.
It was a setback, but not a permanent one.
Harvey Fuqua was watching.
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Harvey Fuqua was one of the founding members of the Moonglows, a vocal group from Cleveland whose smooth harmonies and sophisticated style had made them one of the most respected groups in early R&B. By 1957–1958, the original Moonglows were disbanding, and Fuqua was looking to rebuild.