The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1961 as The Elgins, known for their string of successful singles and albums with Motown from the 1960s to the mid-1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single "Cloud Nine" in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music. The group members were known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are among the most successful groups in popular music.
Featuring five male vocalists and dancers, the group's founding members came from two rival Detroit vocal groups: Otis Williams, Elbridge "Al" Bryant, and Melvin Franklin of The Distants, and Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of The Primes. In 1964, Bryant was replaced by David Ruffin, who was the lead vocalist on a number of the group's biggest hits, including "My Girl", "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", and "I Wish It Would Rain". Ruffin was replaced in 1968 by Dennis Edwards, with whom the group continued to record hit records such as "Cloud Nine", "I Can't Get Next to You", and "Ball of Confusion ". Kendricks and Paul Williams both left the group in 1971, with subsequent members including Richard Street, Damon Harris, Glenn Leonard, Ron Tyson, and Ali-Ollie Woodson, the last of whom was the lead singer on late-period hit "Treat Her Like a Lady" in 1984 and the theme song for the children's movement program Kids in Motion in 1987.
Over the course of their career, the Temptations released four Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles and fourteen R&B number-one singles. The group was the first Motown act to win a Grammy Award – for "Cloud Nine" in 1969 – and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, received in 2013. They won four Grammy Awards in total. The Temptations – specifically Edwards, Franklin, Kendricks, Ruffin, Otis Williams and Paul Williams – were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Three Temptations songs, "My Girl", "Just My Imagination ", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", are included among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Temptations were ranked No. 68 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2010. In 2023, the group were ranked No. 1 by Billboard magazine on its list of the "100 Greatest R&B/Hip-Hop Artists Of All Time".
, The Temptations continue to perform with Otis Williams in the lineup, who is the group's last surviving original member. Williams owns the rights to "The Temptations" name.
History
Origins: second half of the 1950s
and Paul Williams started singing together in church as children in Birmingham, Alabama. By their teenage years, they formed a doo-wop quartet in 1955 with Kell Osborne and Wiley Waller, naming themselves The Cavaliers.After Waller left the group in 1957, the remaining trio left Birmingham to break into the music business. The group settled in Detroit where they changed their name to The Primes under the direction of Milton Jenkins. The Primes soon became well known around the Detroit area for their meticulous performances. Jenkins later created a sister group, The Primettes, later known as The Supremes. Kendricks was already seen as a "matinee idol" in the Detroit area, while Williams was well received for his baritone vocals.
Meanwhile, concurrently, Texas teenager Otis Williams moved to Detroit as a youngster to be with his mother. By 1958, Williams was the leader of a vocal group named Otis Williams and the Siberians. The group included Elbridge "Al" Bryant, James "Pee-Wee" Crawford, Vernard Plain and Arthur Walton. The band recorded a song, "Pecos Kid" for a label run by radio deejay Senator Bristol Bryant. Shortly after its release, the group changed its name to The El Domingoes. Subsequently, Montgomery native Melvin Franklin replaced Arthur Walton as bass vocalist and Detroit-born Richard Street replaced Vernard Plain as lead singer. Signing with Johnnie Mae Matthews' Northern Records, the group had their name changed again to The Distants.
The group recorded two Northern Records singles including "Come On" and "Alright". Between these releases, "Come On" became a local hit, and the Warwick Records label picked the record up for national distribution. Following the release of "Alright", Matthews appointed Williams the group leader, and the group's name was changed to Otis Williams & The Distants. During this period, both The Primes and The Distants were influenced by other vocal groups including The Miracles. Other inspirations included The Cadillacs, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, The Drifters, and The Isley Brothers. Though "Come On" was a local hit in the Detroit area, The Distants never saw much record sales, and "Alright" was not so successful. After receiving an offer from Berry Gordy to sign with Motown Records, The Distants got out of their contract with Northern Records. However, James "Pee-Wee" Crawford and Richard Street shortly departed from the group and the remaining members lost use of "The Distant" name. Richard Street later formed another 'Distants' band who recorded for the Thelma label in the early 1960s.
Early years: 1961–1963
Members of The Distants were acquainted with The Primes, as both groups participated in the same talent shows and performed at the same public venues. Friendly rivals, The Primes were considered to be the more polished and vocally stronger group of the two. However, this last group disbanded in 1960 after Kell Osborne moved to California. Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams returned to Alabama following the band's dissolution. While visiting relatives in Detroit, Kendricks called Otis Williams, who desperately needed two more members for an audition for Gordy's label and offered Kendricks a lead singer place in this new group, which would also include fellow former Distants members Franklin and Bryant. Kendricks agreed on the condition he bring Paul Williams with him. Otis Williams happily agreed, and Kendricks and Paul Williams moved back to Detroit to join the new group.The original name for the new lineup of Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Elbridge "Al" Bryant, Eddie Kendricks, and Paul Williams was The Elgins. Under that name, the group auditioned for Motown in March 1961. Already impressed with some of the members after hearing session work, Berry Gordy agreed to sign the group to the Motown imprint, Miracle Records. However, before signing, Gordy discovered another group was using the name of "Elgins". The group began tossing about ideas for a new name on the steps of the Hitsville U.S.A. studio. On a suggestion from Miracle Records employee Billy Mitchell, songwriter Mickey Stevenson, and group members Otis Williams and Paul Williams, The Temptations became the group's new moniker. The "Elgins" name re-surfaced at Motown in 1965, when Gordy renamed a quartet called The Downbeats as The Elgins.
The Temptations' first two singles, "Oh Mother of Mine" and "Check Yourself", with Paul Williams on lead, were released on Miracle before Gordy closed the label down and reassigned the band to his latest imprint, Gordy Records. On the Gordy imprint, Eddie Kendricks sang lead on The Temptations' first charted single, " Dream Come True", which peaked at number 22 on the R&B chart in May 1962. Later that year, The Temptations began touring as part of the Motortown Revue. The group issued eight recordings between 1961 and 1963 without much success.
Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks split the leads during this early period, with Al Bryant, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin occasionally singing lead, as they did on a song titled "Isn't She Pretty". For a brief time, the group almost had their name changed to The Pirates, and under that name they recorded the songs "Mind Over Matter" and "I'll Love You Till I Die". Eventually the label and the group decided against it. One hit song, "Do You Love Me", was originally to be recorded by The Temptations. When he couldn't get in contact with the group, Gordy produced a version for The Contours.
In 1963, The Temptations began working with Smokey Robinson as producer and writer. Robinson's first work with the group was the Paul Williams-led "I Want a Love I Can See". While the song failed to chart, it did eventually become a popular live performance spot for the group and particularly for Paul Williams in general. Some called the group "The Hitless Temptations" due to their lack of hits.
During this time, David Ruffin began following the group around as he aspired to join them. During a local Detroit performance, Ruffin joined the group onstage and impressed the group with his vocal talent and dancing skills. Following that same time, Al Bryant had grown frustrated with the group's lack of success and became restless and uncooperative, preferring the mundane routine of his day job as a milkman over the rigors of rehearsal and performing. After a second altercation onstage at a Christmas performance, following an incident where he struck Paul with a beer bottle during a heated quarrel at an earlier gig in the middle of the year, Bryant was summarily fired from the group. As a result, David Ruffin was brought in as his replacement in January 1964. Though Ruffin's brother Jimmy was also considered for the slot, David was selected following his performance with them in 1963.
Bryant continued to perform in a number of other local groups and died at the age of 36 in Flagler County, Florida, of liver cirrhosis on October 26, 1975.
"Classic Five" Era: 1964–1968
The Temptations then consisted of Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, and David Ruffin; the success that followed the group resulted in what would, in later years, be frequently referred to as the "Classic Five" lineup. In January 1964, Smokey Robinson and Miracles bandmate Bobby Rogers co-wrote and produced "The Way You Do the Things You Do" with Eddie Kendricks on lead and the single became The Temptations' first Top 20 hit that April.Shortly afterward, "The Way You Do The Things You Do" and several pre-David Ruffin singles were compiled into the group's first album, Meet the Temptations, released in early 1964. The next two Temptations singles in 1964, "Girl " along with "I'll Be in Trouble" and its B-side "The Girl's Alright with Me", all featured Kendricks on lead. However, producer Smokey Robinson saw potential in the "mellow yet gruff" voice of David Ruffin, and thought that if he could write the perfect song for his lead, then the group could have a Top 10 hit.
While traveling as part of Motown's Motortown Revue later that year, Robinson and fellow Miracles member Ronnie White wrote "My Girl", which The Temptations recorded in the fall of 1964 with Ruffin singing his first lead vocal for the group. Released as a single on December 21, 1964, the song became The Temptations' first number-one pop hit in March 1965. Over 50 years and multiple chart topping songs later, it is still their signature song to this day.
After the success of "My Girl", Ruffin sang lead on the next three singles: "It's Growing", "Since I Lost My Baby", and "My Baby", which all made it to the Top 20 in 1965. The B-side to "My Baby", "Don't Look Back", featured a stirring lead from Paul Williams, and was a sleeper hit on the R&B charts and a standard for vocal group playlists.
Norman Whitfield had requested the opportunity to write for the group and in 1966, Berry Gordy promised him that if Robinson's "Get Ready", with Eddie Kendricks on lead, failed to chart in the Top 20, Whitfield would be allowed to produce the next song. "Get Ready" subsequently missed its mark, so Gordy issued the Whitfield-produced "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", with David Ruffin on lead, as the next single. "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" outperformed "Get Ready" on the Billboard charts, and Whitfield became The Temptations' new main producer. He began pulling the group away from the ballad-based productions espoused by Robinson, toward a harder-edged and brass-heavy soul sound reminiscent of James Brown.
Nearly all singles Whitfield produced prior to 1968 featured David Ruffin on lead, including the R&B number-one/pop Top 10 hits "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep", " I'm Losing You" and the early 1967 hit " It's You That I Need". Other important singles from this period include "All I Need", produced by Frank Wilson, a Whitfield protégé, and the "You're My Everything", on which Kendricks and Ruffin share lead. Studio albums during the "Classic Five" period, apart from Meet the Temptations, include The Temptations Sing Smokey, The Temptin' Temptations, Gettin' Ready, The Temptations with a Lot o' Soul, and The Temptations Wish It Would Rain.
During this period, the various songwriting partners of Norman Whitfield included Roger Penzabene, Edward Holland, Jr., and The Temptations road show manager and guitarist Cornelius Grant. Subsequently, Barrett Strong, who sang the first hit at Motown in 1959, "Money ", began working with Whitfield and Penzabene on The Temptations material after Eddie Holland left Motown with the rest of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting/production team in 1967. Two of the Whitfield-Strong-Penzabene collaborations, "I Wish It Would Rain" and "I Could Never Love Another ", became hits in early 1968 after the suicide of Roger Penzabene in December 1967. Subsequently, Barrett Strong became the sole collaborator of Norman Whitfield.
From early 1964 to mid-1968, The Temptations went from unknown hopefuls to international stars and as a result, appeared frequently on television shows such as American Bandstand, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Hollywood Palace. At the same time, the group began to achieve a crossover popularity, catering to middle America with a pop standards album, the success of which resulted in performances at the famous Copacabana in New York City along with dates at other similar supper clubs.