ROCK AND RDLL HALL DF FAME The Temptations By Michael Hill T h e TEMPTATIONS are the quintessential M otown vocal group. W ith tended w ith Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. W illiams recounts run­ style to spare, drop-dead dance moves and voices that had been nurtured ning into Gordy in the men’s room directly afterward. “I like what you in the deep South and seasoned in the cities of the North, the Tempta- guys do onstage, and I like your record,” Gordy told him. “If you ever tions captured in their work the pleasures o f the street-comer serenade as leave where you are, come see me, because I’m starting my own label.” w ell as the flash o f the Sixties soul revue. W hether rendering Smokey He handed W illiams a card that simply read, TAMLA-MOTOWN. Robinson’s silky meditations on romance or executing the intricate vocal By the time Gordy again took interest in Otis W illiams and Melvin paces o f Norman W hitfield’s gritty funk, their voices suggested the story Franklin, the career o f the Distants had run its course. It was 1961, and o f the singers’ lives. the future o f the Primes was equally uncertain, prompting Eddie Ken­ Perhaps it all began in 1956, when Eddie Kendricks, possessed o f a dricks and Paul W illiam s to get in touch with their former challengers. heartbreaker’s falsetto, and Paul W illiam s, a rich baritone, decided to W illiams, Kendricks, Franklin and W illiams formed the Elgins, a combo leave their Birmingham, Alabama, home to seek their fortune up North that took its name from a brand o f wristwatch. Rounding out the group as rhythm 6? blues singers. The tw o ambitious seventeen-year-olds ar­ was Eldridge Bryant, formerly the Distants’ tenor. Gordy signed the El­ rived in Detroit via Cleveland, where they had been spotted by a slick gins to the Miracle label, a M otown affiliate, whose rather ill-conceived Detroit manager named M ilton Jenkins. He convinced the pair that suc­ slogan was “If it’s a hit, it’s a Miracle.” cess awaited them in the M otor City, among the doo-wop groups scuf­ The group soon discovered that another band had already laid claim to fling around a lively, low-rent music scene. its moniker, so the band members settled on the Temptations, a name red­ Jenkins was right, although their breakthrough was several years and a olent, they felt, o f the sex appeal they projected onstage. There were no couple o f managers away. In fact, Kendricks almost didn’t stick it out. He miracles for the Temptations on Miracle, however. The band’s tw o sin­ retreated to Birmingham during the leanest times, but W illiams finally gles, “Oh M other o f M ine” and “Check Yourself,” both released in 1961, persuaded him to return and rejoin the Primes, a trio they’d formed with fell short o f the charts. By 1962 the Temps had been moved to Gordy fellow Alabamian Kell Osborne. The Primes enjoyed a modicum o f star­ Records and had become a part o f the hard-working M otown family. dom; they became well known enough to warrant a sister group, the Like their fellow groups, the early Temptations put in time as back­ Primettes (which included Diane Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary W il­ ground singers for other artists’ sessions. They backed Eddie Holland (lat­ son), as an opening act at their low-pay, sometimes no-pay, gigs. er part o f the Eddie Holland-Lamont Dozier-Brian Holland hitmaking The Primes were the toughest combo to beat in the vocal duels that team) on tour when he had his own successful single, and they made enlivened house parties and dances, something that Otis W illiams, an­ their Apollo Theater debut backing Mary W ells. But a hit single eluded other baritone and future Temptation (but no relation to Paul W illiams), the Temptations, even as their reputations as live performers grew. learned the first time he set eyes - and ears - upon them. By 1963 the band’s rigorous schedule had taken its toll on Bryant, who Otis W illiams, who had come to Detroit from Texas with his family, often found himself at odds with his fellow singers. Before he could de­ was also an up-and-coming singer, first w ith a group called the Siberians, part or be dismissed, though, an obvious successor made his presence then w ith the Distants. In his recent memoirs, Temptations, W illiams re­ known in a rather unforgettable way. According to Otis W illiams, a gal­ called his initial encounter w ith the Primes: “Being proud and somewhat vanic local singer named David Ruffin, a former Mississippian w ith a gos­ competitive, my group would go up against anyone in these little group pel shouter’s intensity, “ leapt onstage” w ith the Temps during one gig. shoot-outs, but once w e heard the Primes, w e had to admit there was no “The minute Ruffin got up and did his thing,” W illiams remembers, contest. W e thought we were so hot doing our little doo-wop tunes . .. “with throwing his microphone up in the air, catching it and doing full but .it was kid stuff compared to what the Primes were doing. They were splits, plus singing like a man possessed, that was it” Ruffin had previous­ just a couple o f years older than w e were, but their three-part harmonies ly recorded for Anna Records, alone and with the Voice Masters; by the were heavenly.” time he joined the Temptations, he had already created a buzz around M elvin Franklin, the future bass voice o f the Temptations, had first Detroit with a pair of songs, “M r. Bus Driver Hurry” and “Action impressed Otis W illiams as a member o f the Voice Masters, a group that Speaks Louder Than W ords.” had included David Ruffin and had recorded for Gwen Gordy’s label The Temptations finally became a priority after M otown’s annual De­ Anna. W hen the Distants were finally offered a chance to record, they troit Christmas show in 1963. According to Nelson George in W h er e found themselves w ithout a bass singer, so W illiam s hustled to find Did Our Love Go?, Berry Gordy polled members o f the audience in the Franklin. W illiams proceeded to the Franklin household for a conference Fox Theater lobby after the show, asking which performers they enjoyed with M elvin’s mother. He tried to convince her that Franklin’s joining the most; by-far, the Temptations were audience favorites, beating out the group wouldn’t interfere with his studies. (Otis neglected to mention some o f the label’s best sellers. A month later, the Temptations had their that he had already dropped out to pursue music full time.) W ith his fam­ first Top Twenty hit with Smokey Robinson’s slyly sexy song “The W ay ily’s blessing and the offer o f a record deal to come, Franklin joined the You D o the Things You Do,” on which Kendricks sang lead. Distants. The group’s signature song, “Come On,” was released locally Although a Norman Whitfield-Eddie Holland follow-up, “Girl (W hy on Northern Records and nationally on the N ew York-based W arwick You W anna Make M e Blue),” put the Temps in the Top Thirty, they label; it wasn’t a success on vinyl, but it became a crowd pleaser at shows. didn’t surpass their initial hit until a year later, when Robinson tailored a According to Otis, Berry Gordy even caught the Distants perform­ song for the unique talents o f David Ruffin. “M y Girl” represented ing a spirited rendition o f the song at a community-center dance he at­ 17 Robinson at his most effortlessly lyrical and became a signature for the ROCK AND RDLL HALL DF FAME The Temptations Temptations. It also became their first Number One pop hit. hit with “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” a song that was part o f an al­ “M y Girl” established Ruffin as a vocalist o f extraordinary charac­ bum the tw o groups were working on together. A tandem appearance on ter. Ruffin testifies w ith religious fervor about the many wonders his The Ed Sullivan Show prompted NBC to offer the tw o groups their own romance brings; his fellow Temptations harmonize grandiloquently be­ variety special, TCB (“taking care o f business”), a coup for these black hind him, echoing the song title hauntingly on the chorus. On the artists in the conservative climate o f television. It was a popular success strength o f “M y Girl,” the Temptations traveled to England with the and a memorable artistic achievement M otown Revue, which, predictably, caused a sensation there. They Dennis Edwards continued to be featured on the tunes that W hitfield were a featured act during one o f M urray the K’s summer spectaculars was then writing with Barrett Strong, which constituted, in Otis W il­ at Brooklyn’s Fox Theater, and toward the end of 1965 they made liams’s words, the group’s “psychedelic phase”: “Runaway Child, Run­ their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Temptations re­ ning W ild,” “Don’t Let the Joneses Get You Down,” “I Can’t Get Next lied on Smokey Robinson’s material until the next year, when they re­ to You” (which showcased all five vocalists in rapid-fire, round-robin corded “Get Ready,” an atypically aggressive and very funky number fashion), “Psychedelic Shack” and “Ball of Confusion (That’s W hat the from Robinson, highlighted by Kendricks’s teasing falsetto.