[2] He wrote "Marvin Gaye" with Julie Frost, Jacob Luttrell and Nick Seeley, and came up with its drum beat by "tapping [his] foot and clapping along" while sitting at a cafe in Cahuenga Boulevard.

[6] Artist Partner Group released "Marvin Gaye" as the lead single from Puth's third EP, Some Type of Love (2015), on February 10, 2015.

[10] Atlantic Records released a CD single for "Marvin Gaye" on September 18, 2015, with an alternate version of it by Puth featuring Wale as its B-side.

[11] The song was also included on Puth's debut studio album, Nine Track Mind (2016), and the Wale version and Boehm remix appeared on a Japanese edition of it.

[12] "Marvin Gaye" draws inspiration from Motown and has a retro sound reminiscent of Trainor's debut major-label studio album, Title (2015).

[4] Pitchfork's Jia Tolentino commented that "Marvin Gaye" proves that Puth "lives for retro flourishes: doo-wop rhythms, sock-hop melodies, finger snaps [and] arpeggiated singalong piano".

Puth described "Marvin Gaye" as "a musical icebreaker" that he wrote to help "any guy who wants to go up to a girl at a bar", noting that it would be hard to "not have a conversation" about the song if it came on the radio.

[18] He named Gaye as an influence on the song's lyrics which he wrote to evoke a "feeling that would reach everybody", and further elaborated that: Since I'm kind of a shy person, I can't just walk up to girls and be like, "Yo, let me get your number!"

[19] The same website's Mike Wass described the song as a "smooth anthem tune" with a "catchy" chorus, and called it a "natural fit" for Trainor.

[13] Elias Leight of Billboard gave it a rating of two out of five stars, and wrote that though Trainor "lends Puth some of her doo-wop swagger", it "seems more academic exercise than an attempt at seduction".

[20] Michael Cragg of The Observer referred to "Marvin Gaye" as "inordinately embarrassing", stating that it sees Puth cast himself as Trainor's male version.

[22] Spin's Jason Gubbels stated that it is "a low-heat ode to high-heat passion, about as edgy as a Broadway revival cast recording and featuring one of the more dubious name-verbing exercises in contemporary pop" since Beyoncé's "Partition" (2013).

[24] It also appeared on Jezebel's list, with Tolentino calling it "transposed to the ninth circle of hell" and comparing it to Christian musicals she used to attend as a child.

[28] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it 3× Platinum, which denotes three million units based on sales and track-equivalent on-demand streams.

[67] On the other hand, Rolling Stone dubbed it one of the worst moments of the show, stating that the background dancers looked like "middle-school students allowed to stage a production of Grease without adult supervision" and calling the kiss a "forced 'moment'".

[68] Puth described the kiss as "a visual representation" of "Marvin Gaye", and stated that he wanted both to represent "a record people could put on and fall in love with each other the minute they hear it".