Gaye entered the recording studio,
Hitsville USA, on June 1, 1970, to record "What's Going On". Instead of relying on other producers to help him with the song, Gaye, inspired by recent successes of his productions for the vocal act,
the Originals, decided to produce the song himself, mixing up original Motown in-house studio musicians such as
James Jamerson and
Eddie Brown with musicians he recruited himself. The opening
alto saxophone line, provided by musician Eli Fontaine, was not originally intended. Once Gaye heard Fontaine's riff, he told Fontaine to go home. When Fontaine protested that he was just "goofing around", Gaye replied "you goof off exquisitely, thank you." The laid-back atmosphere in the studio was brought on by constant smoking of
marijuana by Gaye and other musicians. Jamerson was pulled into the session after Gaye located him playing with a band at a local bar. Respected Motown
arranger and
conductor David Van De Pitte said later to Ben Edmonds that Jamerson "always kept a bottle of [the Greek spirit]
Metaxa in his bass case. He could really put that stuff away, and then sit down and still be able to play. His tolerance was incredible. It took a hell a lot to get him smashed." The night Jamerson entered the studio to record the bass lines to the song, Jamerson could not sit properly in his seat and, according to one of the members of the Funk Brothers, lay on the floor playing his bass riffs. Gaye also added his own instrumentation, playing piano and keyboards while also playing a
box drum to help accentuate Chet Forest's drumming. Later Gaye brought Lem Barney and Mel Farr as well as
Bobby Rogers of
the Miracles to record the song's
background vocal track. The rhythm tracks and the song's overdubs were done at Hitsville, while strings, horns, lead and background vocals were recorded at Studio B. The song was mixed in stereo at Motown Center studio on Woodward Avenue. Upon hearing a playback of the song, Gaye asked his engineer Kenneth Sands to give him his two vocal leads to compare what he wanted to use for the song's release. Sands ended up mixing the leads together by accident. However, when he heard it, Gaye was so impressed with the double-lead feel that he kept it, influencing his later recordings in which he mastered vocal multi-layering, adding in three different vocal parts. Before presenting the song to Gordy, he produced a
false fade to the song, bringing the song back for a few seconds after it was initially to have ended. The song was also notable for its use of
major seventh and
minor seventh chords, which was uncommon at the time. Gaye recorded the song's B-side, "
God Is Love", on the same day. After Gordy heard the song when Gaye presented it to him in California, he turned down Gaye's request to release it, telling Gaye that he felt it was "the worst thing I ever heard in my life." When
Harry Balk requested the song be released, Gordy told him the song featured "that
Dizzy Gillespie stuff in the middle, that
scatting, it's old." Gaye responded to this rejection by refusing to record further unless the song was released, going on
strike until, he felt, Gordy saw sense in releasing it. ==Commercial performance==