Songfacts®:

• Originally written by 1950s one-hit-wonder Ed Townsend ("For Your Love" in 1958), the first version of "Let's Get It On" addressed Townsend's desire to get on with life after beating alcoholism. Townsend brought the song to Marvin Gaye when the two were working together on Marvin's Let's Get It On album. Gaye completely changed the lyrics (and meaning) to the song after meeting Janis Hunter, the woman who would become his second wife. The song helped cement Gaye's reputation as one of the greatest singers of baby-making music. Songwriting credits went to both Gaye and Townsend.
• "Let's Get It On" is the title track of Marvin Gaye's 1973 album. The song topped the Billboard Pop Singles chart for two weeks and the Billboard Soul Singles chart for eight weeks. It also made history as Motown's most successful release in the United States to that date, and the second most successful song of 1973 behind Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree."
• This song's co-writer Ed Townsend also produced the album with Marvin and co-wrote the three other songs on the first side of the disc, including "Keep Gettin' It On." He wrote with Gaye again on songs for Marvin's 1978 album Here, My Dear.
• This song has appeared in a variety of TV shows, movies and commercials, often for comic effect to imply an imminent romantic encounter. Some of the media uses include the TV shows The Simpsons, The Sopranos, Scrubs, House, Ugly Betty, Charmed, Spin City and The King of Queens.
  
  Movie uses include Into the Night (1985), Queens Logic (1991), The Inkwell (1994), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), High Fidelity (2000), Crossroads (2002), Something's Gotta Give (2003), Mr. 3000 (2004), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), The Change-Up (2011), and The Dictator (2012).
• Ed Townsend originally wrote "Let's Get It On" in a rehab facility for alcoholism. "It was about getting on with life and living it," he said. "Marvin listened to it, connected with it and sang his butt off on it, and gave it this whole other sexual meaning."
• Arranger René Hall recognized the need for a distinctive opening. According to guitarist Don Peake in Mojo magazine, Hall stopped the session and challenged him to "make up something at the beginning." Peake, fresh off acquiring a wah-wah pedal, seized the opportunity.
  
  "I went, 'OK, here we go, and I go wah wah-wah wah, and that's the intro, straight off, no overdubs," he recalled.
  
  "I'd played on The Righteous Brothers' 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'' and I knew that was going to be a hit," Peake added. "I'd played on Ike and Tina Turner's 'River Deep - Mountain High' and knew that was going to be a hit, and while I was playing on Let's Get It On, I knew that was going to be a hit too. It was really special."
• In 2016, a copyright infringement lawsuit arose concerning Ed Sheeran's hit single "Thinking Out Loud." The estate of Ed Townsend alleged that Sheeran's song bore significant melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic similarities to the drum part of "Let's Get It On." Two years later, Structured Asset Sales, which owns a partial copyright interest in "Let's Get It On," filed a separate lawsuit against Sheeran seeking $100 million in damages for similar claims. A jury ultimately dismissed the Townsend family's lawsuit in May 2023.