“What’s Going On” was written by three friends who played golf together and also happened to be a hitmaking engine inside Motown: songwriter Al Cleveland, Four Tops member Renaldo “Obie” Benson, and Marvin Gaye, who added lyrics and worked the arrangement. Gaye initially wanted the Originals to record it, but Benson and Cleveland pushed him to sing it himself, to sign it with his own voice.