Without A Net

American Idol & the butchering of Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On'

By Mike Roe | March 3, 2010 | 3 comments

Brief thoughts on last night's butchering of "What's Going On" by Mr. Jermaine Sellers:

Attention singers of Earth! Please, please, please, do not try to do Marvin Gaye. I once heard it said that you should never do Marvin Gaye at karaoke because, as good as you are, you ain't Marvin, and those words have never been truer than they were on last night's American Idol as Jermaine Sellers murdered Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On."

Jermaine's failure:

The judges' comments:

As Simon notes, this is one of the all time great songs, and you don't need to screw around so much with the arrangement. (Leave Marvin alone!)

Check out the greatness of the original:

Related story: 'Idol' judges give male semifinalists praise