"You're the Man" is a song composed by singer Marvin Gaye and songwriter Kenneth Stover and released on the Motown subsidiary, Tamla, in the summer of 1972. Composed primarily on the basis of the 1972 presidential election, the song was supposedly the first release from Gaye's next album, You're the Man, but the song's modest success forced Gaye to shelve the album in protest.

In 1972, Gaye's success with the socially conscious album, What's Going On, helped in pressuring Motown to give the musician more creative autonomous control of his music, leading to a $1 million deal being offered by Motown, which made him for a time, the most lucrative R&B artist ever. Gaye responded by putting himself constantly in the studio working on a multitude of projects. One of the projects was another album focusing on social matters and further into politics, which was only hinted at in What's Going On.

Gaye and his band, which consisted of members of Hamilton Bohannon's group, went into the studio in the spring of 1972 to record a song inspired by the political election of the year. Gaye, who was being hounded by the government for failure to pay back taxes, felt that the government wasn't looking out for people's best interests and upon the election, also felt that no politician would help to ease any difficulty concerning US citizens.

"You're the Man" was basically a demanding song in which Gaye was calling out to potential candidates, much prominently George McGovern, asking them if they really have a plan to "right all the wrongs" of the past administration and bring about change. At the same breath, however, Gaye berates the political system with the line, "politics and hypocrites is turning us all into lunatics".

Gaye then mockingly shouts the potential candidate out as they're the person to run for, saying to them constantly, "you're the man". Gaye himself years later would admit that he didn't trust the government or the political system. The song was composed under the direction of funk music, a genre Gaye started to flirt with on What's Going On, particularly with the song, "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", basing off the melody and harmony off that song on "You're the Man", producing two versions of the same style.

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