"Let's Get It On" is an argument for physical love as a form of spiritual connection. Marvin Gaye recorded it in 1973 as the ultimate seduction song, the seduction runs on honesty, not strategy. Gaye is not using lines. He is stating a need. The song strips away pretense and asks for what it wants directly. The genius is that the directness does not feel crude. It feels reverent. Physical desire, in Gaye's hands, becomes a kind of worship.

Boyz II Men covered it in 2004 and turned the request into a harmony. Gaye sang it as a solo plea. Boyz II Men sang it as a chorus of voices, the request amplified by four men who all feel the same way. The vulnerability of asking distributes across the group. The directness softens into something safer. Both versions ask for the same thing. One man alone takes a risk. A group asking together shares the courage.