“Let’s Get It On” is a deceptively simple declaration of sex-positivity, released at a time when such statements were revolutionary. It is even more impressive when one considers that it was created by a man awakening from the trauma of growing up constantly physically and emotionally abused by a preacher father who conditioned his children to regard sex as shameful. That father, Marvin Gaye Sr., would infamously murder his son in 1984.

The song celebrates a turning point for the younger Marvin, who first learned to play music in the church and at one point endeavored to follow in his father’s footsteps as a minister.

In “Let’s Get It On,” Marvin is still making spiritual music, but this time to elevate the act of physical love and exalt it as an expression of a living person’s potential on Earth.

It topped both the US Pop and R&B charts in the summer of 1973 and was also successful in Canada and the UK.