Can I Get a Witness

Recorded on July 17, 1963, at Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. studios in Detroit. Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier produced the session, with Eddie Holland, the Supremes, and the Funk Brothers backing Marvin Gaye. Issued in September 1963 on Tamla, it became one of Gaye's early signature singles and reached No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also drew notice for its gospel-inflected performance and later ranked among Rolling Stone's greatest Motown songs. The song endured through widely known covers by the Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, Stevie Wonder, and the Supremes, and Gaye's original remained one of his longest-running Hot 100 entries of the 1960s. Its refrain became a familiar part of Motown's wider cultural memory.