The Temptations

The classic lineup - Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin - set the standard for romantic soul singing. They each were tall and handsome. "Did you get them from central casting?" longtime manager Shelly Berger teased Motown founder Berry Gordy upon meeting the Temps for the first time. The Temps are often regarded the ultimate Motown act, keepers of the ultimate Motown song, 'My Girl', whose hills-and-valleys career has paralleled the changing fortunes of Motown itself.

In the early 1960s, the Temptations grew as Motown grew, moulding doo-wop with the house band’s blues and the pop/R&B inventions of Gordy’s stable of producers. With Paul Williams as their first lead singer, the Temps were earthy and compelling showmen, but there was no lightning until Smokey Robinson took over as the group’s chief writer/producer in the mid sixties. Building on their five matched voices, Smokey made a marriage of art and commerce.

Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin transformed Smokey’s rhymes into emotional drama: no one could beg like David; no one could make the girls melt like Eddie, and no one could get so low and so lovingly as Melvin Franklin. The Motown staff gave these songs subtly layered arrangements that stretched their teen appeal. On top of it all, the Temp’s sharp outfits and smooth demeanor epitomised high-class soul.

They personalised every song they sang. "'My Girl' was a message from Smokey to his wife Claudette," David Ruffin told writer Sue Cassidy Clark, and he put that feeling into every word. In 'Since I Lost My Baby', Ruffin enunciates the song’s pain wistfully; he sees beauty surrounding the gloom. He promises to change as the other Temps accent his hope. When the singer pledges to find his lover, Motown’s Funk Brothers band hammers home his determination with 15 solid rhythmic hits. But as the story comes to a melancholic conclusion, Ruffin is left to wonder, "What’s going to happen to me?".

The hits became more driving, though no less poetic or personal, when Gordy protégé Norman Whitfield took over production in 1966. 'Ain’t Too Proud to Beg' followed by 'Beauty Is Only Skin Deep' which went to number three and 'I know I'm Losing You' which hit number eight were a literal statement of Ruffin’s song character. 'You’re My Everything', custom built for Eddie Kendricks, was the first of a tragic romantic trilogy from the late writer Roger Penzabene. The second was 'I Wish It Would Rain', the emotional flip side of their biggest hit; a portrait of a man drenched with despair. Penzabene then wrote for the Temps 'I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)' and soon after took his own words to heart by committing suicide.

Tension was building between the lines of these songs. Paul Williams was losing himself in alcohol, David Ruffin sometimes in something worse. He was dismissed in the summer of 1968, leaving him with the solo career he'd originally abandoned to join the Temptations. Dennis Edwards, an old friend from the Contours, stepped in to replace Ruffin.

Dennis Edwards was a gospel singer like Ruffin, only with a rougher edge. Direct and powerful, he was more a 'man’s man' than the 'woman’s man' the individual Temps portrayed in the mid sixties. With Whitfield producing and composing, the Temps' material embraced a broader range of topics and a more contemporary sound.

'Cloud Nine' and 'Ball of Confusion' were angry songs, inspired by Sly Stone’s psychedelic soul innovations. Yet the era’s biggest success was with love songs: the intensely soulful 'I Can’t Get Next You' and the beautifully dreamy Eddie Kendricks vehicle, 'Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)'.

In 1971 Paul Williams was afflicted with a liver disorder. He was hospitalised but was able to return to record 'Just My Imagination'. Williams always said he'd never miss a smash. When it came time to do 'Just My Imagination' on tour, Williams was too ill to make the trip and was replaced by Richard Street. The leaving of Paul Williams lead to Eddie's decision to leave, meaning 'Just My Imagination' was Kendricks’ last to-do with the Temptations in May of 1971. He went solo like Ruffin, with somewhat more success. Damon Harris was his successor. In 1972 the Temptations hit number one again with 'Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone', which earned them another Grammy.

On August 17, 1973 the Temptations faced the great loss of Paul Williams who committed suicide. The Temps continued, held together by founder Otis Williams’ resolve. The super-funky 'Shakey-Ground' turned out to be Dennis Edwards' last great Temptations hit, although he would be their lead singer until 1983 (and return briefly in 1987). The group fell on hard times and left Motown in 1977, then came back with some new voices for the 1980s: the underrated Ali-Ollie Woodson, taking the lead and the sweetly expressive Ron Tyson in the Kendricks role. Woodson co-wrote 'Treat Her Like a Lady', the kind of lovely mid-tempo ballad that served the Temptations well throughout the decade.

The Temptations were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on January 18, 1989. 

In the 1990s, the Temps family tree was devastated by the deaths of David Ruffin (June 1, 1991, aged 50), Eddie Kendricks (October 5, 1992, aged 52) and Maurice King, their first vocal coach, all within a couple of weeks of each other. On February 25, 1995, Melvin Franklin passed away.

The Temptations were a group Berry Gordy always believed in. They were Southern men: Otis from Texarkana, Texas; Melvin from Alabama; Paul and Eddie, best friends from Alabama and David Ruffin from Mississippi; but Detroit was their home.