With music written with his wife Anna, Marvin wrote the lyrics to a song called "The Bells I Hear" by Bobby Taylor with The Originals taking the place of The Vancouvers as background vocalists.
Shelving the song and rewriting it as "Baby I'm For Real" and its follow-up "The Bells", Gaye had each member of the band provide a lead vocal on each of the verses while also singing along in the background.
Gaye had protested to Motown CEO Berry Gordy that he wanted to produce his own material and he used the Originals to help get his point across that he can provide a hit as he eventually did for the Originals as "Baby I'm For Real" reached number one on the Billboard Top Black Singles chart and reached number fourteen on the Pop Singles chart,.
In 1980, percussionist Hamilton Bohannon recorded it as a duet with Caroline Crawford and the tune appeared on his Music In The Air LP.
The song was released as "Baby, I'm for Real - '82", and was credited to The Originals featuring group member Hank Dixon.