created and composed an instrumental track that featured reggae overtones, recorded in October 1981. Gaye used a Roland TR-808 drum machine to create the percussion; he was drawn to the instrument because he could use it to create music without other musicians or producers. Gaye was still working on the track when David Ritz, then a reviewer for Rolling Stone, arrived at Ostend to locate Gaye, despite Gaye's and Couseart's rules that no music critic would be allowed to talk to the singer. The story has been disputed on how the lyrics to "Sexual Healing" were devised. Ritz claims that Gaye had been viewing sadomasochism comic books and advised Gaye he needed "sexual healing". When Ritz explained to Gaye what that meant, Gaye told him to "write a poem" while Gaye came up with the melody. However, Gaye's closest friends dispute this. In an interview with HUMO in 1994, Cousaert claimed the only songwriters were Gaye and Brown and stated Ritz's contribution was the title. In Frankie Gaye's memoirs, My Brother, Marvin, the singer's brother claimed Ritz had told him, "not only are you sexy, your music is healing," inspiring Gaye to write the lyrics himself. Gordon Banks told The Atlantic in 2012 that the conversation between Gaye and Ritz had nothing to do with Marvin's S&M collection but because Gaye had been intrigued by Amsterdam's red light district, to which Ritz replied that Gaye needed sexual healing but said he had nothing to do with the creation of the song. Odell Brown stated he never met Ritz and assumed Ritz was just there for an interview for Rolling Stone. Though Gaye himself acknowledged Ritz for coming up with the song title, Ritz sued Gaye for $15 million for partial credit. Though Ritz was eventually credited after settling with Gaye's estate following his death, his case was dropped due to insufficient evidence in 1983. Composition "Sexual Healing" has been described as a post-disco, soul and funk song. It begins with a deep bass drum followed by "tinny" handclaps, "ticky" snare, and "tishy" hi-hats generated by a Roland TR-808 drum machine. The first vocal sounds are of whispers, recorded by singer Harvey Fuqua, an early mentor of Gaye who assisted him in production of the song and its parent album, Midnight Love. Fuqua whispers, "Get up" and "Wake up" four times respectively before the sounds of a rhythmic keyboard. Afterwards, Gaye