Hell, there are millions of folks who can just sing a song—or think they can anyway. The Temptations don’t just sing. The Tempts are storytellers. They romanticize, they preach, they plead, they warn us. They make us listen. They make us move. They make us believe.
Just casually listening to one of the countless songs recorded by The Temptations does an injustice to both the listener as well as the artists. The music of The Tempts is to be pondered, contemplated, considered, and listened to with an active ear. Most of the time it is music to step to, dance to, move to, and if no one else is looking, it is even music to pretend to ——-pretend that you are one of the group. (Reader, just like the air guitar, air microphones are also free!).
As you are aware (and shame on you if you are not), The Temptations have been making music out of one ‘personnel iteration’ or another for nearly fifty years. To be honest, I’ve lost count of exact number of men who have been Temptations over the years but the notable members include Otis Williams (their founder and leader), David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, Denis Edwards, Richard Street, Ron Tyson, Ali-Ollie Woodson, and G.C. Cameron. Though The Temptations have had enough members to populate a small town, they have consistently performed, recorded and interpreted rhythm n blues, pop, and other genres almost since the dawn of Motown and Hitsville USA.
Picking out the ten best songs of The Temptations is impossible…better to pick out the ten best plays that Michael Jordan has ever made, ten best punches ever thrown by Ali, or the ten best golf strokes made by Tiger. Picking out the ten best selling songs by The Tempts also does not give the reader/listener/dancer a true appreciation of the range that the group has shown over the past half century. With that in mind, the songs on my top ten list takes all of that into consideration and pays homage to songs in which some of the best R n B singers of the past fifty years have been the lead singer: David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Denis Edwards, Richard Street and Ali-Ollie Woodson.
My Girl -written by Smokey Robinson and fellow Miracle Ron White (1964) , the lead is sung by David Ruffin, the group’s predominant lead singer for four years in the mid 1960’s and perhaps the most imitated soul singer of the era. My Girl, of course, is the song that made us sit up and take notice of David, eddie, Otis, Paul, and Melvin. It STILL sounds good today —a half century later. (A few years ago, I attended a karaoke night sponsored by the local Catholic Church. At one point during the night, the assistant pastor of the parish “took over” the microphone when My Girl was played. The priest did a more than serviceable impression of David Ruffin as he sang “I’ve got so much honey, the bees envy me….. talkin’ bout My Girl.”) While it was a little ‘comically disconcerting’ to hear a priest sing My Girl, the while episode shows that everybody knows the words …and the song.
Since I Lost My Baby – written by Smokey and again, led by the late David Ruffin. It was a lyrical follow up or answer to My Girl. It wasn’t a huge seller at the time of its release but it is one of the prettiest songs to ever come out of Motown. Listen to the refrain “…someone just reminder her, of this he’s left behind her. Next time I’ll be kinder, inclined to find her….. inclined to find my baby. Been lookin’ everywhere…Baby, I really, really care.” (Just listening to Smokey’s word’s, David Ruffin’s plea and the rest of the Temptations active refrain, my bet is that ‘she’ forgave him.
The Impossible Dream – This song only makes my list of ten best Temptations songs. It is the 1968 album, The Temptations in a Mellow Mood. The song comes from the Braodway musical, The Man from LaMancha. It is little heard these days except by long time fans of The Tempts. However, I dn’t think that I’ve evr heard anyone sing the song better than David Ruffin. Bravo!
I Wish It Would Rain and I Could Never Love Another – both songs were
written in late 1967 by Roger Penzabene . Although this song is not as well known or remembered as My Girl, Just My Imagination, or Papa was a Rolling Stone, they both have great lyrics and feature great performances Ruffin. ‘Rain’ is morewell known but the later has unusual melody and a back-story that is tragic, interesting and reminds one of the storyline in the opera, Pagliacci.
Motown writer, Roger Penzabene wrote the song (along with I Wish It Would Rain) as a paen to his wife whom he could not bring himself to leave even though he had recently found out that she had been unfaithful. Just after the song was recorded and released, a despondent Penzabene took his own life. David Ruffin waxes brilliantly on the song but it was his last performance as one of The Temptations. After four years of insufferable, of stage behavior, Ruffin was fired from the group, also not long after the song was released. Besides Ruffin’s performance, one of the highlights of the song is the simulation of horses trotting on cobblestones. You don’t hear it much in their live concerts or on Oldies Stations, but it is one of the group’s definitive performances.
Just My Imagination — written by Barrett Strong and the late Norman Whitfield,
the song was the first platinum record for The Temptations. It was the definitive
career defining performance of Eddie Kendricks as a lead singer and his last as a
member of the group. The song reels you in, thinking that this guy really knows
the girl that he is singing about, that he has found the love of his life then he hits
you with the coup de grace “…but it’s just my imagination, runnin’ away with
me.”
Papa Was a Rolling Stone —-The definitive performance of the Denis Edwards
era. The Temptations won a Grammy for this record and showed that despite all
of the departure of both David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks that had become an
institution in the entertainment industry.
You’re My Everything. Also written by Roger Penzabene, Cornelius Grant, and Norman Whitfield the song features both Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin on lead.
Treat Her Like A Lady was written by Ali-Ollie Woodson and Otis Williams in 1984. Of all of the lead singers that The Temptations have had, Woodson arguably might have been the best pure singer. Woodson really “shows out” on the lead.
Heavenly – It is rumored that DJ’s in the U.S. refused to play this record because Norman Whitfield had forgotten to publicly thank them for helping to make another Temptations songs a best seller. The song, written and produced by Whitfield features great melody and both Richard Street and Ron Tyson sharing the lead. Despite getting little or no airplay when it was released, this song is one of their best over the years.
2009 marks the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Motown in 1959. While it would take several more years for The Temptations to join Motown and a few years longer for the rest of us to hear them for the first time, it seems like they’ve been around forever. Thank goodness.
