"Let's Get It On" is a song and hit single by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released June 15, 1973 on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. The song was recorded on March 22, 1973 at Hitsville West in Los Angeles, California. The song features romantic and sexual lyricism and funk instrumentation by The Funk Brothers. The title track of Gaye's landmark 1973 album of the same name; it was written by Marvin Gaye and producer Ed Townsend. "Let's Get It On" became Gaye's most successful single for Motown and one of his most well-known songs. With the help of the song's sexually-explicit content, "Let's Get It On" helped give Gaye a reputation as a sex icon during its initial popularity.

Co-written with doo-wop pioneer Ed Townsend, "Let's Get It On" was Gaye's plea for sexual liberation. When originally conceived by Townsend, who was released from a rehab facility for alcoholism, it was written with a religious theme. Gaye confidante Kenneth Stover changed some of the words around as a political song and Gaye recorded the version as it was written, but Townsend protested that the song wasn't a politically-conscious song but a song dedicated to love and sex. Gaye and Townsend then collaborated on new lyrics and using the original backing tracks as recorded, Gaye transformed the song into an emotional centerpiece. The album version of "Let's Get It On" features soulful and emotional singing by Gaye that is backed by multi-tracked background vocals, also provided by Gaye, along with the song's signature, and most notable, funky guitar arrangements. In an article for Rolling Stonemagazine, music critic Jon Landau wrote of the song:

The song was reprised on the fourth track of Let's Get It Onas "Keep Gettin' It On", which was a sequel and continuation of the original. The recording of the title track also inspired Gaye to revive previous recordings from his earlier 1970 sessions at the Hitsville U.S.A. Studio, which would consist of the rest of the album's material. During the time of the recording of the song and its subsequent album of the same name, Marvin had befriended the family of jazz guitarist Slim Gaillard and had become smitten with Gaillard's seventeen-year-old daughter, Janis Hunter. A widely reported story has been told that Hunter was in the studio when Gaye recorded the song at the recording booth. Gaye and Hunter were said to be smitten with each other and, within months, Gaye and Hunter began dating. Hunter would become Gaye's live-in lover by 1974. Their relationship would produce two children and a 1977 marriage.

"Let's Get It On" became one of Gaye's most successful singles, as it reached #1 on the Pop Singles chart on September 8, 1973. The single remained at #1 for two weeks, while also remaining at the top of the Soul Singles chart for eight weeks.. In its first week at the top of the chart, "Let's Get It On" replaced "Brother Louie" by Stories, and was replaced by "Delta Dawn" by Helen Reddy; it later replaced "Delta Dawn" and was finally knocked off the top of the chart by Grand Funk Railroad's "We're an American Band". The single stayed inside the Billboard Hot 100 top-ten for thirteen weeks (ten weeks inside the top-five). The song became the biggest selling Motown release in the United States at the time, selling over two-million copies within the first six weeks of following its release. "Let's Get It On" also became the second best-selling single of 1973, only surpassed in sales by Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree". At the time, the single was Motown's largest-selling recording ever, selling over three-million copies between 1973 and 1975. The single has gone on to sell over 1 million copies, and, on June 25, 2007, was certified platinum in sales by the RIAA.

A bluegrass version of the song was later recorded by Shannon Lawson on his 2002 album Chase the Sun. "Let's Get It On" was given a remix in 2004, when producers mixed Gaye's vocals with a different musical production labeled as "stepper's music". Released in 2005 as a single, "Let's Get it On (The Producers Mix)" returned the song to the Billboard R&B charts, thirty years after its original release. The re-released version of "Let's Get It On" was certified as a gold single with sales in excess of 500,000 copies in 2005 by the RIAA, making it the best-selling Motown record ever released in North America. In 2004, the song was ranked #167 on Rolling Stonemagazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2008, "Let's Get It On" was ranked #32 on Billboardmagazine's Hot 100 All-Time Top Songslist.

These are the formats and track listings of the major single releases of "Let's Get It On":

Original U.S. vinyl release, T-54234F.

Limited edition U.K. 1973 release, TMGLTD-40.

Collectables 7-inch reissue single from the Back To Back Hit Series, COL-563.

The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye (1961)  · That Stubborn Kinda Fellow (1962)  · When I'm Alone I Cry (1964)  · Hello Broadway (1964)  · How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You (1965)  · A Tribute to the Great Nat "King" Cole (1965)  · Moods of Marvin Gaye (1966)  · In the Groove/I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1968)  · M.P.G. (1969)  · That's the Way Love Is (1970)  · What's Going On (1971)  · Let's Get It On (1973)  · I Want You (1976)  · Here, My Dear (1978)  · In Our Lifetime (1981)  · Midnight Love (1982)  · Dream of a Lifetime (1985)  · Romantically Yours (1986)  · Vulnerable (1997)

Together (1964)  · Take Two (1966)  · United (1967)  · You're All I Need (1968)  · Easy (1969)  · Diana & Marvin (1973)

Marvin Gaye Recorded Live on Stage (1963)  · Trouble Man (1972)  · Marvin Gaye Live! (1974)  · Live at the London Palladium (1977)  · Marvin Gaye at the Copa (2005)

"Pride and Joy"  ·"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)"  ·"I'll Be Doggone"  ·"Ain't That Peculiar"  ·"Your Precious Love"  ·"If I Could Build My Whole World Around You"  ·"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"  ·"You're All I Need to Get By"  ·"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"  ·"Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"  ·"Abraham, Martin & John"  ·"The Onion Song"  ·"That's the Way Love Is"  ·"What's Going On"  ·"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"  ·"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"  · "Trouble Man"  ·" Let's Get It On "  ·"Come Get to This"  ·"You Are Everything"  ·"Got to Give It Up"  ·"Sexual Healing"

Marvin Gay, Sr.  ·Alberta Gay  ·Anna Gordy Gaye  ·Frankie Gaye  ·Janis Hunter Gaye  ·Nona Gaye  ·Gordon Banks

Discography  ·Songs  ·Albums  ·Songs by Marvin Gaye  ·Albums produced by Marvin Gaye  ·Marvin Gaye vocalists  ·Songs in memory  ·Death  ·Harvey Fuqua  ·The Moonglows  ·Tammi Terrell  ·Leon Ware  ·Marvin's Room