What to Know
- The stamp is issued by the U.S. Postal Service.
- The stamp will be released in 2019.
- The stamp design features a portrait of Gaye inspired by historic photographs.
A commemorative stamp honoring the late soul singer Marvin Gaye will be issued in 2019, the U.S. Postal Service announced.
The stamp is part of the Postal Service's Music Icons series. The release date was not announced.
The stamp design features a portrait of Gaye inspired by historic photographs. The stamp pane is designed to resemble a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. One side of the pane includes the stamps, brief text about Gaye's legacy, and the image of a sliver of a record seeming to peek out the top of the sleeve.
Another portrait of Gaye, also inspired by historic photographs, appears on the reverse along with the Music Icons series logo.
A pane is the unit into which a full press sheet is divided before sale at post offices.
Because of solo hits such as “How Sweet It Is,” “Ain't That Peculiar,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and his duet singles with such singers as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell, Gaye was dubbed “The Prince of Motown” and “The Prince of Soul.”
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Gaye won Grammys in 1983 for best male rhythm and blues vocal performance and best rhythm and blues instrumental performance for “Sexual Healing.”
Gaye was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
Gaye was shot and killed by his father in the West Adams district on April 1, 1984, one day before what would have been his 45th birthday.
“His music was cathartic,” biographer David Ritz said. “His songs were prayers, meditations, strategies for survival.”
A bill naming the post office at 3585 S. Vermont Ave. in South Los Angeles the Marvin Gaye Post Office was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 24.
