The Temptations Artistfacts

1961-
Otis Williams1961-
Melvin Franklin1961-1995
Eddie Kendricks1961-1971
Paul Williams1961-1971
Elbridge "Al" Bryant1961-1963
David Ruffin1964-1968
Dennis Edwards1968–1977, 1980–1983, 1987–1988
Damon Harris1971-1975
Richard Street1971-1993
Ron Tyson1983-
Terry Weeks1997-
Tony Grant2021-
Jawan M. Jackson2022-
The most successful male group in the history of Motown Records (The Supremes had more hits), The Temptations were born out of two rival Detroit vocal groups - the Primes and the Distants - who merged in 1961. The Primes contributed Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, both originally from Birmingham, Alabama, while the Distants brought in Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, and Elbridge "Al" Bryant. "We all ended up in Detroit, but we were southern boys, raised in the church," Otis Williams told Uncut magazine. "You can hear all that in our first album - doo-wop, gospel, even a touch of jazz."
The group's name was chosen on the steps of Hitsville USA (Motown Records' studios) after label boss Berry Gordy discovered that another act was already using their original name, The Elgins. The name "The Temptations" came from a suggestion by Miracle Records employee Billy Mitchell, songwriter Mickey Stevenson, and group members Otis Williams and Paul Williams. For a brief period, the group also recorded under the name The Pirates, cutting the songs "Mind Over Matter" and "I'll Love You Till I Die" before the label decided against the name change.
They were produced by Norman Whitfield, whose entry into The Temptations' world was a slow burn. He had been a familiar face to Otis Williams since the late 1950s Detroit music scene. "I went back a long way with Norman," Williams told Uncut. "I remember him as the tambourine player with various acts for the Northern Recording Company, which was run by a great lady called Johnnie Mae Matthews. Norman produced groups around the Detroit area before he came to Motown."

Whitfield got his breakthrough with the group on their fifth album, Gettin' Ready (1966), when Berry Gordy promised him the next single slot after Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready" failed to crack the Top 20. Whitfield's "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" proved the point, and he became their primary producer from that point on.
The classic "Big Five" lineup - Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, and David Ruffin - divided responsibilities among themselves with military precision. Paul Williams created the choreography and stage routines, while Eddie Kendricks was in charge of the stage uniforms and wardrobe.

"Eddie had us dressed real nice," Otis Williams told Uncut. "We loved the suits we picked up on tour in London. That's where we got a lot of our designs from. We looked great in jackets with that cut that British tailors call the suppressed waist, tight around the middle. It was in London where I first saw peak lapels, where the lower lapel points up higher and wider than the top one. Pretty purple, white shirts, five guys, all the same height, tall and slim - we looked fine."
David Ruffin's dismissal from the group in 1968 was one of Motown's most dramatic personnel stories. After Ruffin began missing shows to attend concerts with his then-girlfriend Barbara Gail Martin - daughter of Dean Martin - and continued demanding to have the group renamed "David Ruffin & The Temptations," the other four members drew up legal documentation and officially fired him on June 27, 1968. Ruffin did not take it quietly; he repeatedly crashed the group's concerts, jumping onstage and grabbing the microphone mid-song, often to the crowd's delight, before security would escort him out.
"Cloud Nine" (1968), the debut single with new lead vocalist Dennis Edwards, made history by winning Motown its very first Grammy Award - for Best R&B Vocal Group Performance of 1969. The song also marked the birth of psychedelic soul, a new subgenre that fused the Motown sound with the influence of Sly & the Family Stone and Funkadelic. Norman Whitfield carried the formula further with the likes of "Psychedelic Shack," and " Ball Of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)."
Paul Williams, who co-founded the group and created their legendary stage choreography, suffered in his later years from sickle-cell disease and severe alcoholism. By the late 1960s he was traveling with oxygen tanks, and his fellow Temptations regularly raided and drained his alcohol stashes to help him get through performances. A backup singer, Richard Street - himself a former Distant - was hired to stand offstage behind a curtain and sing Williams' parts live into a microphone while Williams danced and mimed onstage. Williams retired from the group in May 1971, and died in Detroit on August 17, 1973, aged 34.
In 2023, Billboard magazine ranked The Temptations #1 on its list of the "100 Greatest R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of All Time," a fitting capstone to a career that produced four Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles, 14 R&B #1 singles, and four Grammy Awards. Three of their songs - "My Girl," "Just My Imagination," and "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" - are included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

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